I think it really bugs Doug that I don't have to report directly to anyone at the office. I think that makes him think the if I am not being watched then I am not doing my job.
I do have a lot of respect for the guy. He is on top of what is going on with the product technically. I just don't think he has a grasp for what it takes to do my job. That bothers him. I think it also bothers him that sometimes I hang out with some of the developers and chit-chat. He is not the manager of these developers either so maybe that burns him a little.
Doug is not my boss. He never has been. He had an agreement with my former manager, Brian, that he would be a "dotted-line" manager to me. When I was hired I took this as meaning if I needed management support for something I could go to him. That seems to have morphed in Doug's mind as meaning he has some authority over what I do. That is far from the case, even more so now.
Reporting to Brian was pretty cool. He knew that my being remote to him was going to be a bit strange, but it worked. I respected him and worked very hard to make sure he was glad he hired me. I have received nothing but praise from him. Due to changes within my company I now report to a different manager. I thought reporting to someone that had his office 90 miles away was remote. My new manager, Gregor, is in Scotland.
From what I understand he is a good guy. Get's us what we need, but also lets us self direct how we do things. The guys that came to visit from Scotland talked a little shit about Gregor. Not because of what he does. They were referring how he doesn't communicate with his people. Barrie told me I should call him and introduce myself. I didn't want to come off as being some kind of suck up. I didn't call.
I heard of the news about the re-org weeks before I ever made contact with Gregor. I was kind of waiting for either Brian or him to tell me. Brian finally confirmed the rumor a number of weeks ago. I still heard nothing from Gregor. I finally broke down and contacted him via e-mail when I heard we needed to start getting ready for our performance reviews. I sent the e-mail to both Gregor and Brian. Gregor finally responded and was nice about how we would proceed. I still haven't talked to him on the phone.
Doug had asked me if I had talked to Gregor about the "dotted-line" agreement that he had with Brian. I told him, "No, I haven't", and left it at that.
9 comments:
Dotted line...I got yer dotted line...
Yeah, Doug seems to be quite the ass. I'd follow Chrissie's advice if I were you ;)
Jon, you do what you want. But, this is what I would do.
1. Evaluate whether or not you think you need Doug to be your ...manager.
2. Respond in kind to Brian and see what he thinks.
3. Approach Gregor with your conclusions and the background.
4. Let the news come to Doug from Gregor.
Telling him to fuck off only burns a bridge. This is a professional business not a school yard. We are talking about resources not a pecking order. Gregor will evaluate you on how you get along with Doug.
If Doug does become your manager in deed, use him. He obviously wants to feel important, you don't have to kiss up to accomplish that.
I'm not going to tell Doug to fuck off. I do have to work with the guy.
A word of advice - don't burn your bridges, just play the game, and keep your eye on the ball at all times. You're smart enough to know how the game is played, and how to get what you want. We all get infuriated by people we work with, and it's why we have blogs - to vent and vent! Deep breaths babe.
I am never one to burn bridges. I would not have gotten where I am today without playing nice in the sandbox. I'll have to post about a run in with a similar manager I had years ago.
The one time a bridge did burn was when a now former friend of mine was my boss. I had worked with him, and for him before, but he had changed. His way of dealing with inter-departmental pissing matches drove me crazy. He pissed off the entire software engineering department, who I was responsible for supporting. I ended up quiting and going into consulting. He took that as an insult to him. He burned the bridge. He told me after I delivered my letter of resignation that I was just "chasing after the all mighty dollar". True I was getting a big pay bump, but I wouldn't have even looked for a new job if people there were treated with an ounce of respect. The weird thing was, when we worked together years before that he was considered THE guy to work for. Now he turned into the worst manager in the place.
ummm, what's going on with the re-org you referred to? did i miss something? are we talking internal re-org where your position might be at risk? i hope not. i just hear re-org and restructuring etc, as poor excuses for layoffs when most companies are pissing away money anyhow because of bad decision making. sorry, just want to make sure things are ok...
and per doug, it sounds like he is feeling stressed and ineffective in his own position. its transferrence. perhaps an approach yuo may not have thought of is to ask his opinion - not asking for his decision, but asking his opinion on things. this makes it clear that he is not yuor supervisor, but you do value his input. make sense?
LOL @White Hat... did you think I was serious?
I'm pretty sure, being that Jon is a smart guy AND 41 years old, that he knows how to conduct himself in the office... I’m sure he appreciates, as do I of course, your lesson in business conduct 101.
That being said, its still nice to tell people to fuck off ;) even if you dont use those EXACT words.
I'll try to get something for HNT in, but it's been a crazy week. No nekkid time for taking pics
Post a Comment