the silver lining in being a bypassed greasemonkey

[sergebroom]

I've already posted about some of this, but, in case I haven't, here goes...

There's this Big Project going on at the office that involves rethinking and redesigning our computer system. Pretty much everybody in the team has been pulled into this. Not directly participating are a woman who has a very young child, a man who's planning to retire one year from now. And yours truly, who's not pregnant, not a parent, and not about to retire. To say that I felt threatened by my boss's decision would be putting it mildly. The official reason is that I am a great greasemonkey(1) and they need someone like me to maintain the old system before it's retired next year.

Yesterday, I found that the project isn't doing well, and that it's more than two months behind schedule. Upper management is not happy with my boss. Part of the problem is that there wasn't enough time to prepare. The irony is that this is the very reason why my Project from Hell went so badly that my manager used that to demote me last year.

I am sorry for the team, and I may eventually have to be drafted in. Right now though, it sounds like a good thing to be on the sidelines.

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(1) 'Greasemonkey' isn't the word that my manager used, but when I myself did, I heard no denial.

Comments

[marydell.livejournal.com]

The official reason is that I am a great greasemonkey(1) and they need someone like me to maintain the old system before it's retired next year.

Ah, yes. What I call "hospice care." A good gig for a sysadmin, where knowing all the quirks of a fragile system is job security, but not so good for programmers who are supposed to be making new things, not just doing support.

It definitely sounds like the sidelines is the safe part of the field at the moment.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I am involved with the Big Project, up to a point. Some changes need to be made to our system's mainframe components, and there's only one person in the team who has mainframe experience. Yours truly. And yours truly has been making the needed changes quickly and efficiently because he's the person who set up those mainframe components more than 10 years ago. Oh, and those are the only elements of our system that never ever break. So much for my boss saying I'm not a good designer.

All this to say, I am participating, but without the grueling parts.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Oh joy, an EvilBoss just like mine. I do hope the higher-ups are paying attention. Stupid and malicious is a very bad combination.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

They are paying attention. Just not the kind this type of person enjoys. Unfortunately everybody else is suffering along. Up to a point, so do those of us maintaining the old system, which the boss calls the Legacy, a name that makes me feel like I am in a horror movie: the not-Legacy people had a meeting that lasted so long yesterday that I had to wait until late in the afternoon before I could get the signoff on some Legacy stuff I had completed hours before. The pizza was cool by the time I got home. Thank goodness for microwave ovens.