More of a professional question than anything else

  • Thread starter Thread starter danbuscaglia
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danbuscaglia

I am a small business IT guy going to cal poly full time and working
close to 30 hrs a week at this company. I am the only programmer
there, but there is another IT guy that handles leads and stuff in our
dialer. The management here is completely scatterbrained and changes
what they want all the time. Many times it is communicated to me
through trickling down to the other IT guy who is incompetant. When i
know exactly what they want I program very well, but when things come
to me in bits and pieces it is very difficult to program correctly and
things get so muddied up that everyone ends up frustrated. Does anyone
have any advise for me about how I can take control of this situation?
I would really apperciate it.
 
I have also been in your situation. I do have a few ideas.

First, have an open door policy. Whenever anyone approaches you, take
notes. This will show others that they are important and what they say is
useful.

Second, don't complain about others. You will need others to know that you
are not a complainer or gossip. This will build trust.

Third. Create a committee that helps decide what is needed. Ask for one
person from each department. You will find much conflict at first. Just
take notes and try not to show your frustrations. Limit the meetings to 30
minutes. Have an agenda and keep saying "back to the agenda" and "We will
consider that next meeting"

Fourth. Body language and facial expressions mean alot. Take deep breaths
and realize that those around you may be just as frustrated as you. Do not
acknowledge complaints with complaints. Ask "What can we as a committee do
about the situation" Or "I do not have any authority over this, let's get
back to the agenda".

Fifth. If people won't show up to the meeting, offer donuts or cookies as
an incentive occassionally. Keep the committee down to 10 or less. If you
have a person from a department that never shows up, go back to the
department and ask for another volunteer. Sometimes working with HR on the
comittee idea works. Just don't tell HR that you are frustrated, they won't
support you as easily. Go in with a positive outlook on what you expect and
don't take no for an answer. Ask for a trial period of 90 days, If they say
no, tell them you would settle for a 30 day trial. I have found if you go in
with a positive attitude and a good outlook, you will get what you want in
the negotiation.

Sixth. Walk around and ask people about the jobs they do. Ask if you can
watch and take notes. Some will be resistant most want help.
 
I am a small business IT guy going to cal poly full time and working
close to 30 hrs a week at this company. I am the only programmer
there, but there is another IT guy that handles leads and stuff in our
dialer. The management here is completely scatterbrained and changes
what they want all the time. Many times it is communicated to me
through trickling down to the other IT guy who is incompetant. When i
know exactly what they want I program very well, but when things come
to me in bits and pieces it is very difficult to program correctly and
things get so muddied up that everyone ends up frustrated. Does anyone
have any advise for me about how I can take control of this situation?
I would really apperciate it.
Click to expand...

Well, this is probably not the right place - this has nothing
whatsoever to do with the design of SQL Queries in Microsoft Access.

But I can suggest... Communicate, communicate, communicate. If you get
a fuzzy request, go back to the person who passed it to you and
clarify; if they can't or won't, go - preferably together - to the
source of the request, and clarify. If the requestor realizes that a
muddled request will get a muddled result they might wake up.

Don't be shy about insisting on clarification of ambiguous, incorrect
requests. The worst that could happen is you'll be fired... and out of
what would seem to be an untenable job situation, collecting
unemployment and having more time for school work. <g>

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
One thing I have found useful is to put things in writing and have people
sign off on it. For one thing, as you step through things in writing, you
can identify areas that need clarification and ask for that clarification
before you do the actual programming. Most people are grateful to have
something other than a blank sheet of paper to start from, and will happily
mark up the requirements you have outlined.

The second advantage is that when you have in writing that the responsible
party agrees with what you plan to do before you do it, then when they have
complaints you can ask them to point out how your program differs from what
they agreed to. If it *does* differ (in a bad way), fix it. If it *does
not* differ, you can explain it is simply a design change, not a flaw, and
you have something in writing to back you up.

Of course, all of this depends on your being able to identify the
responsible party and communicate with him/her more or less directly.
You'll probably have to find your way to that one on your own.

HTH;

Amy
 
Select a manager who can be a confidant to you. Go out for a few beers with
him. Ask him to go to lunch with you once in a while. Go golfing with him.
Ask him if you can sit in on his meetings. Share some donuts with him.
Become buddies. You'll sonn be a main branch on the grapevine!!


--
PC Datasheet
Your Resource For Help With Access, Excel And Word Applications
(e-mail address removed)
www.pcdatasheet.com

If you can't get the help you need in the newsgroup, I can help you for a
very reasonable fee. Over 1000 Access users have come to me for help.
Need a month calendar or 7 day calendar? Need appointment scheduling? Need
room reservations scheduling? Need employee work scheduling? Contact me!
 
PC Datasheet said:
Become buddies. You'll sonn be a main branch on the grapevine!!
Click to expand...

Who on earth would like to become buddies with you ??
If you can't get the help you need in the newsgroup, I can help you for a
very reasonable fee. Over 1000 Access users have come to me for help.
Need a month calendar or 7 day calendar? Need appointment scheduling? Need
room reservations scheduling? Need employee work scheduling? Contact me!
Click to expand...

These 1000 (if at all a real figure..) is only the result of
-- 4 years abusing the newsgroups.
-- 4 years blatantly advertising and job hunting.

You just don't care about the newsgroups. You have no ethics at all.
You only care about making money, and you act as if the groups are your private hunting ground.

-- You abuse this group and others for job-hunting and advertising over and over again
-- You are insulting lots of people here when they ask you to stop this
-- You posted as Steve, Ron, Tom, Rachel, Kathy, Kristine, Heather and ??? while asking questions
(the latest 'star's': 'Access Resource' and Tom (e-mail address removed))
-- You try to sell a CD ($125,--) with FREE code you gathered from these groups here
-- There even has been a 'Scam-alert' about you which has been explained recently in the thread 'To all':
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.databases.ms-access/msg/46038ba2954261f9?hl=en
-- Also recently it became clear that you have been spamming innocent people asking questions:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.databases.ms-access/msg/4f76d0ed3e5f58ad?hl=en

So why would ANYBODY ever trust a person like you and hire you?
********************************************************

Explanation and more on this answer to Steve:
http://home.tiscali.nl/arracom/stopsteve.html

Arno R
 
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