RE: Performance Review -- MIDRANGE-L

I actually bought one of those Now Serving # signs (its sitting on 6).  The
next ticket # is 48.  I put it on my desk and let the users/management see
it when things are getting "hairy".  Believe me it breaks the ice when you
say that whatever it is they want they won't be getting today!!!

If you wanted it yesterday why didn't you wait until tomorrow to ask. ---
Anonymous

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Ed Chabot
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 2:58 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: Performance Review


Scott,
I understand what you are saying and have been through that.  I know it
bugged the sh*t out of me when, working as a P/A, when my boss pulled the
same crap.  I have had pretty good success not doing the same to my people.
All it takes is for your boss to make a list of the open items, have someone
or some group (the higher on the totem pole the better) prioritize and fight
over the resources that are available.  For this to work, your boss needs
for you and your peers to brush up on your estimating skills so that he can
tell upper management how long each project will take, and thus cost.  Then,
this is the great part, they decide which projects are worth the time/money
required and which projects will benefit the company most.  All your boss
does after this is manage the list.  All you and your fellow P/As do is hit
your deadlines and get better at your estimating.  Once upper management
understands that there are resource constraints and time/money involved in
all of these projects you'll be surprised at a)how many projects get
scratched off the list, b) how much dedicated time you'll get on the project
you're working on and c) how upper management starts looking at I.S. as a
resource instead of an expense.  Sure, every now and then you have to break
off and fight a fire but that will never change.

Ed Chabot
The Marlin Firearms Company
100 Kenna Drive
North Haven, CT 06473
(203)985-3254

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Scott Klement
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 2:28 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Performance Review




On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, nj wrote:

> has anyone noticed lately how ungrateful people have become?
>
> it's like you can do 999 things right and you get flamed for the 1
> thing you messed up on.
>
> but it's like that everywhere, isn't it?  some days it can be really
> depressing...
>
> nj
>
>

This is very, very, very true.  I frequently find myself feeling like
crap because of one little problem in the 5,000 programs I'm currently
maintaining.

And not only this, but everyone thinks that THEIR task is the most
important, and they'll agree that "XXX is really important, and you need
to get that done"  but it's always "but do this real quick, first".

Almost every day my boss comes in and gives me two or three new projects
and in the same breath asks why I'm not devoting more time to something
else.  Well... maybe, just MAYBE, it's because you keep giving me other
stuff to do FIRST!

I can't tell you how nice it is to hear that I'm not alone in having to
put up with this stress!


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