This Business and Moment...

The Funktopus said:
The only reason I’ve kept my peace so far is that I may potentially get to comeback on ad-hoc work or to replace anybody else that leaves, but I’ll be honest, the injustice of this is just eating at me.

The oil major this company has a contract with has a compliance department, and their’s an email address to raise ethical concerns. I’m so tempted to report this.
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Nobody likes a grass, you can go down that route and it might change things in the medium term for the org as a whole, but on a personal level it also puts you on the blacklist for that ad-hoc work, "anonymous" or not.
 
I'm going to launch my toys out of the pram next week.

For the last 7 months I've been recruiting for a role in my team, its been a nightmare to fill as it requires a niche skillset that you don't usually see (crossover with actuarial and finance)

In the end we had an internal applicant, taking a step down from her current role to learn something new, easily one of the Top 5 performers in a finance team close to 80 strong. I was extremely happy.

We have a big project coming up next year, can't go into specifics but anybody involved in the project will be highly incentivised to ensure its sucess. I've known for a long time that I will be involved in the project, but have been planning my resource around this, including the hire of the new addition to my team. I was told this week that my new addition will also need to be involved in the project full-time, covering the project aspects related to the role she is leaving on the 1st of January.

So next year looks like this:

01/01/2024 - New hire starts
01/01/2024 - New hire seconded onto project
01/01/2024 - I'm seconded onto project

So that means that 50% of my team is going to be "full time" on the project activity, leaving just two bodies (one mid level, one extremely junior) to complete BAU activity. BAU activity that has taken 3 bodies to barely survive this year, including me working 60 hours a week pretty much non-stop. I won't get a free pass for BAU activity falling over, which it will, because its a regulatory requirement that simply cannot be missed.

If I refuse to do the project, which at a push I could, I cost myself six-figures in take home pay so that isn't an option. Backfilling my role with outside consultancy is a potential option, but based on the historic quality of outside consultancy that'll be a fantastic failure at a cost to the business of 2 grand a day. The only viable option seems to be that I work myself into a nervous breakdown for 9 months, I'm less than pleased.
 
Rids said:
I'm going to launch my toys out of the pram next week.
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That sucks, especially after having a similar experience of working yourself into the ground in a previous role.

Very annoying, i had a recruiter pop into my Linkedin the other day saying a client wanted some external help on an Adaptive Planning integration they're working on, nothing much, just advice from outside and at most be 10hrs a week for a month. I figured it was a decent little side gig and should be able to fit it around my current job and replied asking for more info. Since then i've had absolute radio silence.
 
Rids said:
I'm going to launch my toys out of the pram next week.

For the last 7 months I've been recruiting for a role in my team, its been a nightmare to fill as it requires a niche skillset that you don't usually see (crossover with actuarial and finance)

In the end we had an internal applicant, taking a step down from her current role to learn something new, easily one of the Top 5 performers in a finance team close to 80 strong. I was extremely happy.

We have a big project coming up next year, can't go into specifics but anybody involved in the project will be highly incentivised to ensure its sucess. I've known for a long time that I will be involved in the project, but have been planning my resource around this, including the hire of the new addition to my team. I was told this week that my new addition will also need to be involved in the project full-time, covering the project aspects related to the role she is leaving on the 1st of January.

So next year looks like this:

01/01/2024 - New hire starts
01/01/2024 - New hire seconded onto project
01/01/2024 - I'm seconded onto project

So that means that 50% of my team is going to be "full time" on the project activity, leaving just two bodies (one mid level, one extremely junior) to complete BAU activity. BAU activity that has taken 3 bodies to barely survive this year, including me working 60 hours a week pretty much non-stop. I won't get a free pass for BAU activity falling over, which it will, because its a regulatory requirement that simply cannot be missed.

If I refuse to do the project, which at a push I could, I cost myself six-figures in take home pay so that isn't an option. Backfilling my role with outside consultancy is a potential option, but based on the historic quality of outside consultancy that'll be a fantastic failure at a cost to the business of 2 grand a day. The only viable option seems to be that I work myself into a nervous breakdown for 9 months, I'm less than pleased.
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Is this a money problem or a genuinely impossible to succeed with current capacity problem? 9 months at 2k a day (which seems low if it's that specialised) is 360k. If they threw 250k at you in additional bonus should you succeed would you be happy or is it just not possible?

Edit, or some way of getting credit, counting towards next rung etc. Basically how do you win by the Downside of working 80 hour week?
 
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The Funktopus said:
So, have pretty much found myself in a situation where I’m being pushed out of a job by what I can only describe as perhaps the most blatant case of nepotism I’ve ever seen. Without giving too much away, I work for a company through an agency that provides maintenance services to an oil major in the UK, where I’ve been working since February.

Back in September, one of the bosses of the company I work for hired his daughter’s boyfriend, who has only just completed an apprenticeship in the industry I used to work in, without having any actual experience of doing the job, and nor does he have any experience whatsoever, save for the 6 weeks he’s spent on here so far, in this industry. So, with zero relevant experience, this guy’s been handed a highly paid, much sought after job that he’s not qualified for, and the only reason he’s got it that I can see is because he’s in a long term relationship with the bosses daughter.

Furthermore, and what really rubs salt in the wound, is that 3 members of our department, including myself, have just been told that this will be our last rotation, yet he seems to be being kept on. Would love to see the justification from the boss for keeping him over 3 members of staff who each have over 10 years relevant experience. The only reason I’ve kept my peace so far is that I may potentially get to comeback on ad-hoc work or to replace anybody else that leaves, but I’ll be honest, the injustice of this is just eating at me.

The oil major this company has a contract with has a compliance department, and their’s an email address to raise ethical concerns. I’m so tempted to report this.
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Well that stinks, but as already pointed out, you could end up blacklisted if you report it formally. Its likely an area where everybody knows everybody.

I'd be tempted to be a bit more direct and just say to people on-site "Its been nice working with you, but my contract isn't being renewed nor that of two other guys. The boss has lined up a newbie replacement he knows personally." If he's incompetent it will show up quickly. Leave out the family relationship part and just focus on the lack of experience. You don't know if the boss is being bullied into price reductions by the major.
 
Currently going through the motions working my 4 weeks notice. Having only a week and a half left, I have had an empty inbox for two days and i've nearly completed netflix. Currently working as an Account Manager in the Live Events industry but moving to Channel Account Management for a Tech Distribution Company.

Applied for a different role within the new company but wasn't successful, but when i received the phone call they followed it up with a 'however' and enticed me in. Quite looking forward to not doing the 40+ mile round trip to the office and being fully remote, learning about emerging tech and actually having the freedom to do my job.
 
The Broadcom acquisition completed today, now the wait begins to see what my employment future looks like. I'm pretty confident, but I do have some ideas about what to do if not kept on.
 
Trifid said:
Why is it so hard for a project manager to understand no means no? I've been booked offsite on a project for several weeks now and last week another project wants me to drop that to work on another project Monday afternoon. I said no, I told them my next available slot, and I see they booked it in for Monday anyway. I think I'm just going to no show as any time I think of replying it is anything but polite.
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Escalate.

It’s unprofessional that a PM looks to deliver something by screwing the company over.
 
Rids said:
I'm going to launch my toys out of the pram next week.

For the last 7 months I've been recruiting for a role in my team, its been a nightmare to fill as it requires a niche skillset that you don't usually see (crossover with actuarial and finance)

In the end we had an internal applicant, taking a step down from her current role to learn something new, easily one of the Top 5 performers in a finance team close to 80 strong. I was extremely happy.

We have a big project coming up next year, can't go into specifics but anybody involved in the project will be highly incentivised to ensure its sucess. I've known for a long time that I will be involved in the project, but have been planning my resource around this, including the hire of the new addition to my team. I was told this week that my new addition will also need to be involved in the project full-time, covering the project aspects related to the role she is leaving on the 1st of January.

So next year looks like this:

01/01/2024 - New hire starts
01/01/2024 - New hire seconded onto project
01/01/2024 - I'm seconded onto project

So that means that 50% of my team is going to be "full time" on the project activity, leaving just two bodies (one mid level, one extremely junior) to complete BAU activity. BAU activity that has taken 3 bodies to barely survive this year, including me working 60 hours a week pretty much non-stop. I won't get a free pass for BAU activity falling over, which it will, because its a regulatory requirement that simply cannot be missed.

If I refuse to do the project, which at a push I could, I cost myself six-figures in take home pay so that isn't an option. Backfilling my role with outside consultancy is a potential option, but based on the historic quality of outside consultancy that'll be a fantastic failure at a cost to the business of 2 grand a day. The only viable option seems to be that I work myself into a nervous breakdown for 9 months, I'm less than pleased.
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Someone somewhere is simply looking at the numbers, with a JFDI attitude. You just seem to be the expendable. I think there needs to be a conversation.
 
Have to say I’m going through a bit if a crap time. We now have our new structure, and it feels depowering. With a new boss that has put into place a bosrd that has equal ownership but ends up not feeling as if I have the ability to operate as a product given the maturity of the organisation. He also has a very ambitious “deputy” that has been promoted too quickly - with visions of the office.. a bit of a dictator/micro manager who doesn’t want to hand over control.
Where I get on with the deputy CTO he is very guarded nor open, for example having discussions without beinf part of them, something is pushing all my honed warning buttons to the point I don’t trust either. I’m not sure if it’s disempowering, a side effect of under rolling - essentially when originally hired I was to own the thing but it seems a change of director, has changed that.
It just doesn’t feel like home.
 
This week, more host file hacks and general reluctance to accept network issues from the network team.
Found some tickets in our queue that had been there since 2021. Marked as resolved with detailed responses like "this was done".
Had some more pointless meetings with people over voicing others on teams.
A new PM throwing his weight around sounding like a complete tool. Probably a highly paid tool which makes it worse.
Christmas meal/party still hasn't been booked and it's nearly December.
The rush to get this stupid project done before close of calendar year continues and is so high priority that normal BAU is now being rejected because of it.
Same old ****.

jaybee, quiet quitter since 2022
 
NickK said:
Have to say I’m going through a bit if a crap time. We now have our new structure, and it feels depowering. With a new boss that has put into place a bosrd that has equal ownership but ends up not feeling as if I have the ability to operate as a product given the maturity of the organisation. He also has a very ambitious “deputy” that has been promoted too quickly - with visions of the office.. a bit of a dictator/micro manager who doesn’t want to hand over control.
Where I get on with the deputy CTO he is very guarded nor open, for example having discussions without beinf part of them, something is pushing all my honed warning buttons to the point I don’t trust either. I’m not sure if it’s disempowering, a side effect of under rolling - essentially when originally hired I was to own the thing but it seems a change of director, has changed that.
It just doesn’t feel like home.
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I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable in work at the moment for similar, though not identical reasons.

Brought into a large project in a sort-of-PM role (I'm a consultant, I'm absolutely not a project manager though I can do the basics if forced at knifepoint) by a Client Director who is also the Director of the cluster in which I operate (IE he's my boss's boss - Client Director for this customer is just a "role" he's playing)

Let's call him Mr X.

The project I'm working on is part of a much larger programme of work the customer has ongoing with us.

Very shortly after this happens, our company brings in someone else to help smooth out delivery issues. This person is a Director of a different cluster (so effectively is equal in position to the other guy) so it feels like two people are at the helm.

Let's call him Mr Y.

Mr Y is asking my opinion on things I have had little chance to truly absorb and, as I'm quickly realising, using that information to make immediate decisions. He's very guarded with his own opinions.
Publicly he appears to be supportive of Mr X, privately I am not so sure and this feels like a political see saw between the two of them with me (and multiple others) stuck in the middle of it, unsure who they should be telling what and why.

I'm hoping it irons itself out over the coming weeks because right now I'm second guessing and doubting almost every piece of information I pass on, or decision I make and that's not like me tbh.
 
I find it's best to be overly transparent in these situations, i.e. if you discuss something with Mr Y then surface it to Mr X and vice-versa. Essentially demonstrating that you haven't picked a side and are just being a good citizen with your comms.
In the background, put some feelers out with peers to see what their thoughts are. If there's a general consensus, it could be surfaced in a generic way like wanting to establish a RACI or whatever so it's clear who is at the helm for what. Getting the responsibilities carved up and written down makes it easier to know when people are overstepping their boundaries.
I see this sort of situation in some orgs where there are change programmes going on, there will be incumbent 'BAU' (not really the best term, people owning the default operating models etc) leaders potentially butting horns with senior change leaders (looking after delivery) who are dragging people in different directions. It doesn't sound like quite the same scenario, but some of the principles may apply.
 
Yup, every org needs a RACI as part of the way it's operating, otherwise you'll end up with a slewed operating model. It sets boundaries and keeps people focused correctly.

In my case it's a little my own fault - I'm having to fit back into an organisational role from being a CTPO with clear accountability and free reign (including reshaping the team). My role has "overall product management" and "product guidance" which is basically using experience rather than doing the day job. The new boss and I think are early days - he's already indicated he agrees, and I've also arranged executive mentoring for the 'deputy' simply because I could see this happening a mile off. I (and his boss) are manoeuvring him, non verbally, into the role the boss wants him.

An example - C level steerco, I can see the BISO is uncomfortable with what/how he is communicating, I warn our team to be careful citing the BISO body language on our chat (including our mutual boss). The guy boasts he has really good relationship with her as they go out for drinks and have a catch up etc - and quotes the 'lols' etc from her in the their side chat.. yet she escalates via her boss CDIO across to the group-CTO and down.. At this point I feel like I'm teaching kindergarten..

I think part of the issue is simply the role is, well, less than engaging and there's a definite feel of not being part of the club (they're in re:invent and I'm here holding the fort for example).
 
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I've been job hunting for a while after the mess my current place is in and I'm really on the fence at accepting an offer I received from a company that does interesting things, reviews very well on Glassdoor (something my current place does not!) and from what I've seen during the interviews, ticks all the boxes.

The only issue I have is it's a 53 mile commute up the M3. Only needed in the office 3 days a week but still, it's ~320 miles per week. It'll be a complete life style change for me as I've been full time WFH unless I need the lab for test kit (electronics engineer) since COVID. I'm very used to going to bed later, getting up later and walking down to my study for the day...

On the other hand it's a ~45% pay increase, decent benefits and will have progression.

Anyone else made a similar move or have any advice?
 
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