Hm...so far I've only blogged about work-related things...
Maybe this'll become a theme...a work blog.
Oo...
*ponders*
Anyway, something rather "interesting" happened to me yesterday. I say "interesting" because I'm not sure as to how I should feel with respect to this situation.
So, in a nutshell, my manager basically told me to take on this role out of the blue. It has nothing to do with what I've been working on, it's for a project that's going downhill, and it'll probably take up most of my time so I most likely won't be able to work on what I have been working on (and enjoy working on). Basically, one of the projects that's managed by one of the members on my team is going on for way longer than the proposed budget can hope to support. And since the resources (read: $$) are all used up, he made the decision to eliminate one of the contractors and replace that person with someone internal.
My initial reaction was pretty much "omg I can't believe my manager is being so unreasonable, doesn't he know I already have a lot on my plate?" and "I don't think I know enough to take on this role, or do I want to because I know nothing about the project". However, after talking to a few co-workers, I'm starting to think my resentment might be a little biased. Afterall, it is within reason to ask this of someone in the corporate workplace, right?
Here are the possible reason why I reacted like that:
- Ever since I joined the team this summer, I've been hearing not-so-great things about him
- There has been a few times prior to this case where I felt he was being rude/unreasonable/unfair*
- Guru complains about him
- Guru spoils me by teaching me things and making me enjoy work :D
To sum it up, I basically didn't like my manager from the beginning. Why? Because the manager that I worked with last summer (the awesome one) is no longer in the company.
I feel like if he were still here, and he asked me to do something like this, I would probably not complain at all. Because I know he's reasonable, and therefore probably wouldn't even have asked me to take this role in the first place.
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*Situations that illustrate his rudeness/unreasonability/unfairness:
- My manager demanded (or rather "insistently asked") me to give him my cell phone number so that he can reach me on the fly when he himself cannot be reached by any means. (I didn't give it to him.)
- My manager wouldn't let me have his cubicle so that I could be closer to the rest of my team when he himself isn't even there for weeks at a time. (He works remotely and is supposed to commute to my site every other week.)
- My manager forfeited my chance of ever being in the same cubicle as the rest of my team when he let another newly joined member of the team take a recently evacuated cubicle, a spot which I had asked for his permission prior to the new member joining the team.
2 comments:
So when you say it's going downhill...you think your work will never see the light of day, i.e. the project will be scrapped in the end? And is your manager expecting you to work on both your current and this new project, when you don't have time to do both? Either of those would be reason to ask about.
But if it just happens to be a project you like less than your current project, well, someone's gotta do it I guess, and that's how it works in corporate world :/ You can still mention to him you liked your old project and you'd like to still have a role in it if possible, though. He might be insensitive but hopefully if you ask him to make reasonable accommodations* directly he could be cool about it. Orr maybe he just sucks and manages via "I don't want to think about this" dictatorship...hopefully not!
Cubicle wars eh...how Dilbert :) I guess I wouldn't have blamed him for keeping his own space (I know it doesn't seem like too crazy a request, but even telecommuters grow attached to their places, and it's sort of a lot to ask for someone to move all their stuff)...if he hadn't given an open cubicle to someone else later. He probably just didn't think about it. Accidental rudeness/unfairness? But yes...that did seem to be a *reasonable accommodation. Hopefully if you shove it in his face (politely, of course), you might actually have a positive interaction with him!
"downhill" = it's not in a good situation (financially), but it's not so bad that it's getting scrapped (it's not).
yea i did tell him that i'd still like to be involved in what i'm doing and he said that's fine.
so yea i guess it's not that bad.
in fact, i'm actually a little excited about this role. i hope i'll be able to help this project. :)
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