Volunteering - The Source

My company gives me a few days off and the Friday before last I volunteered to do food shelf work in the hood where I used to work near Nicollet and Lake. I worked that area for almost ten years?  Darn close, doing all manner of typing and cleaning.

Here's our crew.  Small.  But we don't have a Twin Cities office, so that constrains our size a bit.

We spent a lot of time moving bulk produce into family sized bags, about two pounds each.  My hands got stiff prying apart bags.  Whenever we finished up a shopping cart, it was back to the pallets to refill it.

The Source does pop up food shelves, meals, and more.  It's quite the enterprise.

Almost done with a shopping cart.

I think my neighbor donated all of his pears last year to a food shelf.  It's cool to see fresh fruit being packed for families, not just prepackaged food.  The guy in the gray hoodie has lived in that neighborhood his whole life.  We got to talking and he once got a flu shot at Third District Nurses when they were in the neighborhood. I was handling checkin/admin work for that event as we only had one ever.  So he and I met over a third of a century ago.  We didn't remember each other.

Success - an empty cart.

Afterwards, those of us who could stay went over to Eat Street Crossing.  There's a bit of a disconnect between going out for ramen after loading up food for folks, but sometimes you just have to deal with the dichotomy of your actions.  Eat Street Crossing is several restaurants under one roof and has been there about a month.  It was a great place and I'm going to justify my food shelf to eating out path by hoping that new employers in that neighborhood contribute significantly to dealing with income and hunger issues.

Some coworkers enjoying pizza and vegetarian ramen.

My ramen was not vegetarian.  But it was delicious.  They had very lean pork instead of fatty pork.  My wife would approve.  I like this picture as we have a local celebrity in the background.

Accident Posters

 These are interesting.  They're from my iPad1 (!) circa....2012?  They must be from after I came back to work with the cane.  My brain was operating a little different from standard at the time and these are definitely me, but something about them puts me in memory of a state of mind that was a little strange during meetings.  If I was SVG savvy, I'd create some real posters with the National Park / Workplace Productivity feel to them.

This is a Stone Angel Free Workplace: Your Accidents Are All With Your Future Self

This is a Dalek Free Workplace: Although We Do Exterminate Anyone Who Might Cause an Accident

This is a Cyberman Free Workplace: If There IS an Accident, You Won't Feel Pain

And then we switch from Doctor Who to Elder Scrolls!

This is a Sweet Roll Free Workplace: 324 Days Since Anyone Took an Arrow to the Knee.

Kodu

Teaching Kodu at work last month.  This app would not work on my work machine no matter what I tried.  Eventually had to load it up on the machine at home.  Fun to play with - easy to create and code Minecraft-like environments.  But very twitchy based on the machine after reading some similar online comments.

The kids had fun - we had their machines preloaded.

Collaborative Space

I won't get the order on these statements quite right.  And I'm going to paraphrase. But this catches the spirit of an exchange I had with facilities on Friday morning about an area at the end of a dead-end row one of my teams sits in - and only my team members - where we merged four empty cubes and that we use for some collaborative time because my team members have been moving around within the three teams I manage.  Generally a quick game on Friday that I hope highlights communication and which is run in rotation by me or one of my six coaches: Fuse (it was very interesting to see who froze during a quick decision making process), the Marshmallow Challenge, Concept (it was interesting to see how in sync the developers were when it came to thought process), Werewolf (who do they go to when they pick the untrustworthy person/s), sometimes a quick TED video, volunteer events and technical sharing including the start of a little tech library, and more.

So facilities - in the form of one person who had been seen loitering in the collaboration area - visited me.  They were angry about the table and that my admin had not set up a meeting to discuss the table. I asked, what's the problem with the table? They told me it shouldn't be there.  So I asked why they had been willing to put it there instead of telling me I couldn't have it when the request was filed.  Because we had gone through facilities to procure it. I'd have been fine with being told "no table" in the first place.

Well...it should have never been approved.  And the first request was for a table in the wrong location and facilities had put a table in the wrong place.  I noted I hadn't filed the request personally, so I couldn't vouch for the content, but that I had included a photograph of the cubes with numbers visible and a note that there was tape on the floor marking the edges of where I approximately wanted it to fit.  I added if they didn't want a table in that space, they could just take it back.  The response: ...well....maybe.

We moved to the next related topic: why wasn't there a meeting with J, the admin?  I replied that J was only filing requests I asked her to and it wasn't her job to verify I'd pre-cleared a request with facilities...she didn't need to be involved. If facilities needed additional removal requests filed, they could tell me what they wanted removed and I'd file them personally and we could leave J out of it.

Well....never mind.

Facilities continued...but you shouldn't have that space.  Someone else needs to use it.  Me: that's fine; we never assumed we'd have it for long and that we'd give it up as soon as it was needed by another team. Facilities replied: we might need it.  Me: do you need it?  Them: we might. Me: if you need it take it; we'll move the loose items.  Them: there's a table there. Me, biting my tongue and not pointing out we already discussed they didn't have to move the table there in the first place if it was a problem: remove the table. Them: it should have never been there in the first place.  At which point I wanted to quote Westley from The Princess Bride when he tells Vizzini, "Truly you have a dizzying intellect."

She moved on...and it's a risk to move the file cabinets. Me, think back on a coach I had who had been lectured about a contractor moving his phone and laptop without a facilities request: we turned them sideways. They're empty. And if you want the space back, we'll move them back.  Did someone file a complaint?  We move to another, closed room, if we even think we'll be noisy.  We try to respect our neighbors.

Facilities: well, you really shouldn't meet other than in approved spaces.  Me: like our dedicated room?  The project takes priority when they need it.  Facilities: there are three other collaboration rooms nearby.  That left me confused until I realized: you mean those little offices? We don't fit, but we have the alternate room if there are noise complaints. Facilities: Well it's not really fair to anyone else that you have additional place to meet when they don't. Me, at this point incredibly confused because I feel we're venturing into some very strange logic that says no one should do anything unless we all agree beforehand and divvy up the resources even for those who don't want or use them: What are you talking about?

Facilities gets a little glint in the eye, like they have me right where they want me.  And maybe that's me being paranoid in retrospect, but I heard the big intake of breath before they dropped this one signifying it was of extra importance:  Games.. You're playing games. Me, a bit incredulous to say the least: you mean having team building activities. Them: no, games. Me: and team building activities inclusive of those games. Them, with what really seemed like literal derision: no.

Just no.

Big pause.  Facilities: And there's food. Me, thinking back on a few corporate "you should celebrate milestones and anniversaries and birthdays" directives that we liked to celebrate anyway, but the company had assured us were important: like donuts?  muffins?

Facilities: no, loose food. Me, realizing where we were: The canned food for the corporate food shelf event that's already moved on to a cart and then on to the Eagan foodshelf?   The toilet paper and canned food?  Facilities: There were boxes. Me: closed boxes. Them: they can still attract rodents. (I literally thought at this point about how floors in the cube areas are no longer vacuumed unless you make an official request and the cafe meeting area has seen two separate requests from me to clean it after a week of food, plus one for the tops of the dividers, one for a bathroom you could smell from nearby work areas, and two for a bathroom with drain (or as my tech calls them "shit") flies. I'm know for filing cleaning requests).

Me: so what do you want me to do about the area?  You haven't told me anything concrete? Facilities: we need a meeting with J the admin and you. Me: J isn't involved.  I told you she only filed what I asked her to file. Are you asking me to involve my management?   At this point it got even weirder, facilities: I'm trying to be reasonable here, my boss wants me to be less reasonable (yes, that's right...good cop fucking bad cop because of a table in a dead end row where no one sits). Me: Again, what do you want to happen?  Facilities: Well, nothing now. Let me take it back to my manager.

At that point I headed off six minutes late to my CTO's all hands meeting on the other side of the building. I've been thinking of recommending to HR that our culture initiative/training expand to include contractors.

Skateboard

Yesterday, during a management meeting, there was a lively - as lively as possible given the topic - discussion about the skateboard model and Minimum Viable Product (MVP).  The idea is that you focus on features rather than an end state.  So instead of building a car by creating wheels and then a steering wheel and then an engine, you instead build a skateboard, then a bike, then a scooter, then a motorcycle, then a car.  You can see it laid out here.  As a bicyclist, I have a problem with the model, because I'm happier with a bike. I never get to car.  My focus is on what can I do with less, but still get more (I can afford multiple cars, no gas, less maintenance, more "intent" in my destinations, time with friends to talk, exercise, less maintenance, I can still haul most things in my trailer >> e.g. I don't need an engine on my app, I need a two wheeled trailer).

Around here we think the car is the goal, regardless of how much you might like the bike.  One of the architects echoed that sentiment and said, "What if I want a hovercraft?  I might like a hovercraft."  To which I wanted to scream, "MY HOVERCRAFT IS FULL OF EELS!"  Now I'll never know if my coworkers are Monty Python fans or if I'd have received a written warning.  We've got a lot of new focus on MVP, so perhaps I'll get another chance.

Recursion!

Recursion at work!

Recursive Arguing II

Yesterday, it was about how to pull a hot fix.  This time it was about who is an admin for a particular provisioning tool and involved not just me and the 3PAO but the PMO as well.

PMO (after much back and forth previously): We sent them the list of internal administrators for the password tool.

Me: This spreadsheet has internal employees.  But they're acting as administrators for their testing and sales companies.  Not as administrators of the tool.  Are you sure this is what the 3PAO wants?

3PAO and PMO: That's what we want.

Me: You want sandboxed administrators who can't create administrators for companies that don't exist in reality but are there to demonstrate functionality to potential customers.  Additionally, that sandbox means they are scoped within their fake/faux company and have no impact on other customers whatsoever.  As long as we're clear.

3PAO: We're not clear.  Those are superusers, right?

PMO: They are administrators.

Me: We don't have superusers.  They are administrators within the web application for their company.  They are not administrators of the password tool.

3PAO: We don't get it.  They're internal users and they can provision internal users for the application.

Me: Yes.  The web application.  Within their fake company.  There are two things being considered here.  1.) the web application: our employees can use it just like an external customer.  If I was Bob's Widgets I would have an administrator.  That administrator would determine who in my company could use their seats.  If I was the administrator for our company - we can eat our own dog food - or for a fake company we use to show potential customers functionality I could only add users for that fake company or our company.  2.) the password application or service layer - it's really both.  There are internal people who have access to that tool and are administrators.  They can create administrators for companies/customers who buy our tool.  It seems to me that's who you care about as they could add themselves to someone else's membership.  Like the person who created this list of internal administrators for the application in the first place.

3PAO: Exactly.  The people on this list can create an administrator for company X (a company to which they don't belong).

Me: NO.  They can only create users within their own company.  They are not internal administrators of the password tool/service, they are administrators for their instance of the application.

3PAO: That's the same thing...

PMO: Wait...maybe not.

Oh...it went on and on with me drawing pictures and flowcharts and providing concrete examples of the data using internal groups and employees and fake Doctor Who-based examples.  The end result is a meeting with the internal person who created the list so I can get a new list of the three or four people who code or admin the password tool who could actually cut across company lines.  I don't think the concept of Service Oriented Architecture has embedded itself as deep and wide as I would expect.

Recursive Arguing

I had an interesting security-related discussion at work.  A third party assessment organization (3PAO) asked me some questions related to TFS metrics.  The first control they asked for backup documentation for was a complete listing of all work done in the last six months on my project.  I scoped it around my team's application in TFS and pulled both the stories and bugs, which we keep in separate instances.  Our Release Management Team tends not to care about our stories.  They want to see bugs and hot fixes to which those bugs are tied.  I hear aspects of that will be remedied as we upgrade TFS (we should be able to tie across instances), but for now, it's as it is.

The 3PAO took my list of bugs and stories and went away for a while.  Then they came back and gave me a list of approximately twenty (20) of the items in my original list of thousands and said (via email - they're remote, so there's not much in-person communication, although I strive for that given other miscommunication), “Give us the hotfix info on these.”

I said, “Those aren’t hot fixes.”

They said, “Ah, you didn’t have any hotfixes.”

I said, “No.  You asked for all work. Not all work is hot fixes. Your chances of randomly pulling work connected to a hot fix is pretty low.”

They responsed, “So none of these are hot fixes.”

Me, “None of those are hotfixes.”

The 3PAO “So you didn’t have any hot fixes in the last six months.”

 Me “We had hot fixes, but you didn’t randomly pull a hot fix from the work completed.”

The 3PAO, “We’ll pull again.”

Me “No, that’s like trying to play Powerball.”

Them “We’ll do it anyway.”

Me, nuts by now because this paraphrasing is a distillation of the hundreds of words actually exchanged in each email, “Here are all the hot fixes from the last six months and the associated files and approvals and reviewers.”

The 3PAO, “We still need to pull a random list."

Me, “You do that, and compare each item you pull against what I just sent you. If it’s not in there, pull randomly again until you get one.”

That seemed to take care of the problem.  Overall, it made me very glad I'd coded up the TFS pull in C# so that I could modify what I was sending them each time with little report work in TFS.

I'm a little man lost in a parking lot!

If only I'd gotten a fortune cookie with my lunch, it would have been perfect.  This is from when I saw Scott (The Boss) and Ron walking around the back parking lot at work.  I almost never eat at the counter along the windows overlooking the lot.  So I know it was fate that led me there that day when everything else was full up.

From my window seat, I could watch as Scott and Ron wandered toward the far second lot, then doubled back, then walked in a wide circle around the (rather large) near lot, and then had to go almost car to car to find his car.  I think it took them a good 15-20 minutes of walking which is probably significantly more time than it took them to drive to lunch.

Elfvators

I can't tell if this is on purpose or why anyone would do it.  But this sign at work clearly says Elfvators.  I know why you shouldn't use the elevator when Gremlins are around, we learned that at the Trylon watching Gremlins 2, but what do elves have to do with anything?  Or bear paws, for that matter.  I search for Elfvator doesn't show it to be a meme, although this guy found one.  And this guy found a better one.

Not-So-Lethal Weapon

Yesterday, I was sitting in my office, near the front doors, but far away from my teams.  One of the other managers in the space, the one who has the job I used to do, pokes his head in my open sliding door.  He looked incredibly nervous, his voice was a little shaky, and he said, "You might want to come with us.  We're heading up stairs.  There's a security...incident."  I looked at him, and he clarified, "Someone has a gun."

I grabbed my badge, locked my computer (who's a good corporate citizen with no common sense) and trailed along as everyone in our space, one of the few that has walls around a defined area, filed upstairs to the cafeteria.  After a minute, the manager who gave me the warning took a head count, and my old lead and I went downstairs to herd folks away from our area where the weapon was rumored to be.  I was watching the area immediately next door to the back and a little further into the space where one of my teams sits, parking myself so I could see if someone was coming out of space, which only has two doors.  You could see into the area, and there were two people standing around looking confused.  One of them the individual rumored to have the gun, which is off limits at our workplace.  There are signs as you drive in stating they're not allowed on the campus.  The other, a contractor who had wandered back into the area without looking up (usual for him - he's a great worker, but he's usually lost in thought), so not realizing that he was the only other individual in the space.

We'd seen a cop whipping through the back lot as we came down the stairs, courtesy of my old boss, who had seen the gun which the individual had "forgotten to leave at home" (this is all rumor as I know it).  Though I didn't see them, cops and SWAT, someone put the count at no less than 15, parked themselves at all the doors to the company.  A couple plain clothes individuals came in to talk to the person in question, then eventually let him go (legal conceal and carry permit?), though not to continue working, but to go home.  I get the impression this was very close to the end of a term at work for the individual, and the individual was known to be abrasive, so that may have been a huge part of why there was such a hurry to get someone on site who could make sure nothing was amiss.

The team rescheduled their bowling outing for the day to somewhere unknown, and hopefully everyone got past the craziness.  Although rumor from my uncle-in-law, just the other side of the elevator, had it that my old boss had been "threatened with a gun".  Not the case.  He just got to see it up close and personal at work.  Better.  But obviously not what you want on a Friday with an abrasive employee on his last day at a workplace where guns aren't allowed.

Exciting Friday!  I'm charging the whole event to Department Meeting despite Meeting Free Fridays.

I take the I out of Team...

I had a five hour offsite management meeting today.  Having only had my new teams for a few weeks, I think I'd have been better served going out for a beer with my business unit.  Or a bike ride, knowing one of them and our current amazing weather.  But that's not the point.  We were asked to list some pros and cons of the current organization.  At least as much as we could speak to after a few weeks if we were new to our areas.  I noted that one of my primary problems is that I have a team where 4 of the developers are contractors from different companies, my lead has left and I haven't filled the role yet.  My tech coach has certain restrictions placed on him around his work day.  I have one rotational developer who moves on in 7 months.  And that leaves two company developers who are both looking for a promotion to lead a team.  And a developer leaving because she couldn't get half the raise she was getting at her new company plus EB2 sponsorship (think a few years to green card instead of 20).  I pointed out that it's incredibly difficult to create a culture with only two people, trying to really bring home that our current lack of competitive compensation (we move in the right direction, but as a big company it takes time) is a barrier, and that with three people they might argue and come to a consensus, but with two they just tenaciously hold on to their viewpoints.  My point...we need to pay competitively (and offer compensation such as eb2) enough that we can gets more developers who actually work for us instead of contracting so we can have a team culture and stop worrying about bouncing up and down with capacity and forcing a discussion about resourcing and capacity with our business, as they should be somewhat oblivious to our resourcing issues and focusing on building something beautiful.  I used the example that I had people on the opposite side of the fence when it came to TDD (test driven development).

The result?  At least my interpretation of it.

I was told that perhaps I shouldn't be thinking about culture so much as forcing a decision on TDD and leading.  I should be breaking the tie. That was hammered home by using me as the end of meeting example of someone who should put some thought to really leading his team.

I already have a cross-team meeting on Monday (scheduled over a week ago) to drive at TDD and create a laundry list of development topics to drive at including Javascript widget creation, Jquery, javascript in general, HTML5, and beyond.  I don't have any problems leading.  I have problems anchoring (e.g being the manager who makes your team follow a particular path when they might be able to organically generate a better path by discussing issues at a grassroots level - agilely) when teams are fully capable of determining a direction on their own.  But they can't determine a direction when there are only two of them and they have dichotomous positions and the other two are momentarily distracted, fulfilling multiple roles, or too new.

I could take the developers from my one team, move them to the other team, and have a fully staffed in house team.  Functional.  Cohesive.  Self-directive.  And I could simply move 3 contractors over to the other team and have a team composed of nothing but contractors - if I pulled them from the same company, cohesive, functional.  I might make that argument.  I have a company who's offered a team.

But the point seemed to be that I don't know how to lead.  In the end, I realized I was a talking point and that's sometimes that is just the way it goes.  The truth is, I'm appreciating my new boss - he throws seriously technical issues my way and just says "go".  This is good.  And it makes me happy.  I want to really dig into code with good developers and architects, or developers that could be very good if given a chance.  If my boss' boss uses me to illustrate a point, I can live with that.  My goal is to make life easier, more interesting, and more productive for developers. That was always why I became a manager.  And in the end, that creates the culture and velocity that my business unit benefits from.  But I have the inkling that perhaps that's not the right talking point when it comes to our current direction/vision.

It usually works out in the light of morning.  Get good developers (including testers).  Build good code.  Collaborate with good business people and good customers.  The noise always goes away in the end.

Croutons

I wish I had a picture of what I'm about to describe, but I don't.  And a quick perusal of the web revealed nothing that captured the moment.  During lunch today, there was a bet at the table I was sitting at, "A container (think larger size take home container) full of croutons, passed off as a salad, on a per-ounce cost basis, will still ring in at less than $4."  The issue was around what was the best deal on a cost basis at the salad bar.  And there was some discussion about whether croutons might actually come in below the price of a box purchased at the store.

The result was $3.96.  Mike, during the height of lunch hour (noon), stealthily scooped out a whole container, sometimes taking no more than two at a time, and paid cash.  I opined that a similar container full of sunflower seeds would probably run $1000.  I hope there's not a crouton shortage later this week.  Mike wasn't willing to waste them.  He was calmly eating them as a snack food right up until he looked slightly ill.

Managerial scope

One of my reports came by for a one on one today and asked about a promotion. I pointed out asking was definitely the right thing to do because with so many people in the department, it was difficult for any one person to know everyone and their skill level, particularly with a bit of employee churn.  Now that I was sure in no uncertain terms there was interest,  we could make sure that if there were other managers in the department who didn't know the individual or didn't have team members who had worked with them, we could look for an opportunity, and so that the individual's lead and I could watch for opportunities to provide mentoring, leadership of small teams (technically in this case), interteam interactions within and outside our 200-or-so person department, visibility to upper management such as directors and the VP, and good documentation that specifically speaks to next-level responsibilities in mid- and end-of-year reviews. All of it contingent on a solid bedrock of being a good programmer, of course. I also pointed out that it was a good time to think about what it meant to be at the next level and if it meant a change in responsibility that might impact lifestyle (believe me, a valid concern - both for your ability to get out of the office on your own terms, and your ability to be heads down in the code instead of advising and leading others).

The response, "I only thought it was up to you."

It's nice to know it looks like I have some sort of authority.

Best Exchange at Work Today

At the front doors at work:

Guy: "Hi, I'm Brock."
Woman: "I'm sorry."

I'm pretty sure her name was Sari, or something similar. Makes me want to change my name to Sod Off.

Embarrassing....

This is a shout out to Tall Brad and Mike who told me a story about a woman at work who had dual colored pants. On second look (or fourth, knowing Tall Brad), it seemed like she was also possibly sporting a thong, which was obvious via the split in her pants that Tall Brad had to inform her about.

This morning I was riding the elevator to the fourth floor with two contractor representatives. As we're heading up to up to talk at the corporate cafe, someone on the elevator taps me on the shoulder. "Excuse me," says the woman tapping my shoulder, "but did you know your shirt is inside out?"

And it was. When I noticed my t-shirt under my shirt was longer than the sleeves of the outer shirt this morning, I flipped it off and put on a shorter-sleeved undershirt, and then put the shirt back on without turning on the lights. Inside out. I'm sure that made a great impression on the folks who wanted to place contractors with us. They seemed genuinely amused that I needed to stop at the first restroom to resolve the issue.

Certain Qualifiers

I was on the stairs at work today and overheard the following exchange:

Her: "She's really sexing it up, short skirts and high heels."

Him: "So she's trying to be in the milf category?"

I don't think using "category" makes "milf" any more appropriate.

In Which I Prove I'm a Racist

Know how you're never supposed to ask a woman if she's pregnant?  Because she might just be fat?  I have another truism to add to the list...

This morning I was on the elevator, on the way down from my cup of coffee, and there was a guy on the elevator with me clutching his copy of the U.S. Constitution (I guess "copy" wasn't really necessary there).  A serious elevator chatterer because it feels like a place that needs conversation - just this morning a remarked to a packed audience in their winter coats, "you're all radiating cold" - I asked him, "Are you studying for your citizenship test?"

Pause.  "No."

Oh....damn it.  Quick, find a fall back position....

He beat me to my back pedal, "I'm already a citizen."

Argh!  Keep trying.  How about, "Usually when someone's carrying around the Constitution, it's because they're studying for the test."

"I just think it's interesting reading."

Come on...first floor....come on...

"But I wouldn't want to take the test, it's probably hard."

Whew...we can move on.  If he's talking to me about generalities, the conversation can probably be saved.  I opine, "They have some pretty good versions for smart phones and the iPad."

"I don't have a smart phone or an iPad.  I haven't been able to afford one."

Shit.  I'm racist and some sort of class elitist.  First floor is here, cut and run! "Have a nice day!"

"You too."

I spent the rest of the way back to my space wondering if I would have asked someone white if they were studying for their citizenship test or if I would have assumed they were programming a new Constitution-based app.  There are some white non-citizens in house and I know the person who coded the Constitution app, so I'm going to give myself the benefit of the doubt.

Layoff of a Friend

I was on the elevator with a friend from work today - not one most of my other friends know, but one from outside my normal developer circles - and he looked sad.  So I asked how he was doing and he started tearing up on the elevator.  Turns out he was laid off today after 14 years as part of a bit of offshoring.  He and his partner were just getting around to adopting, and being laid off may have an impact due to not getting the adoption help the corporation provides, not having a job, and not having health insurance (he carried the insurance in the relationship).  It was his intention to resign at some point - he's been negotiating to open a candy shop in St. Paul - but when the decision to leave the company turned out not to be on his terms, and he can't count on the two weeks per year of severance (it didn't come up in the lay off meeting), and it interferes with the adoption, it scared him, regardless of his eventual plans.  Plain up.  That sucks.  Particularly as he just worked with me porting data into a dashboard for another affiliate that got a big thank you from several VPs.  I suspect when they come back in a few months and ask "can we add more data?" I'm going to have to say, "The data and apps behind my app went overseas. You'll have to move this one there as well as I can't work at 5:00 a.m. for free and you don't have a time bucket. I did it before because I was asked by a friend.  But I don't have friends in your group."

Corporations don't seem to understand the personal connection that makes a lot of work happen behind the scenes.  Now that I've managed for a while, I suspect the official line would be, "You should have tracked the time officially so we could account for it and understand whether or not we were making the right work decisions and/or the right layoff decisions."  But there's never enough time for all the little things that need to be done, never enough money, and putting them under the microscope subjects them to the certainty principle...that is, any project that is examined by the corporation is certain to cost way more than it needs to.  They probably wouldn't think that's funny, but when you consider adding a PMO, Data Expert, Testing (oh...the testing), and Manager to your project, as well as time accounting, et al, you can't help but add a pile of expense.  Streamlining small projects makes the world go round as long as it's not expected of the employee.  There was a kudos in our internal communications to a developer who had worked off the clock to create an app for the corporation.  No one should be expected to work off the clock, and you shouldn't engender the belief in other employees that they're less for not working all hours of the day to achieve corporate ends.  You do it because you see a need that isn't being covered by traditional work, and because you have a connection to the individuals whose lives are made easier by the work.  Sometimes that's you that sees the benefit.  Sometimes it's others.  But if you're doing it for glory, you should be figuring out how to staff that start up.

I'm rambling a bit, but seeing someone sad on the elevator makes me think of all the things related to layoffs I've read recently, and all the sadness and uncertainty layoffs foster in employees.  It reminds me of an article Ming sent me that I was going to use for the internal department blog that I was told not to publish.  In defense of my management, I suspected that publishing the article might make people nervous that layoffs were coming (for my department) when they weren't, so I asked.  But I'm still disappointed I didn't get to put it out there, and being part of a speaking up initiative that censors itself seems ironic.............

An interesting article by Mark Sheffert called Breaching Psychological Contracts was recently forwarded to me by a coworker.  It's a facscinating read, particularly as it's something of a foil to the "golden handcuffs" idea (you can find that by searching an earlier post on Iterate!) and, in addressing "invisible psychological contract that grows between an employer and its employees", covers some of the same issues that engage us and help us to create change (our VP recommended John P. Kotter's The Heart of Change to her managers prior to some of our initiative discovery and reorganization to account for changing development priorities).  Some of the human qualities that cause us to embrace change and be engaged with our work day-to-day, are the same qualities - emotions - that make change in our roles and employment, and our perception of the unwritten agreements involved, so painful.

As a Generation Xer, although I don't believe that category ever fully encapsulates anyone, I see individuals my age reacting to the changes in employment in our traditional manner, adding as many skills as possible so there's always a fall-back, and looking for opportunities to start our own businesses.  The number of groups and conferences devoted to just how to do that has greatly expanded in the last several years with Start Up weekends, TIE, Meet Up groups based on tech/venture capital intersections, events hosted at Best Buy in the tech start up space, and working code demos with more of a sales flavor than a code review flavor.  To me, there's no doubt that the economy and changes in the workforce created incredible unease for my peers.

Sheffert points out that the weakening of the unwritten contract, or the perception that it's weakened as may be evidenced by all the local venture events, can have a negative impact even if there aren't lay offs.  "Why are so many people leaving their jobs, even with unemployment so high? A recent study by Florida-headquartered consulting firm AchieveGlobal revealed that the top three reasons are a lack of growth opportunities, dissatisfaction with compensation, and a perceived lack of recognition for their contributions. These are all preventable diseases..."

Dissatisfaction with compensation is a difficult issue to address, as all companies are constrained by the bottom line.  But growth opportunities and recognition are facets that demand constant focus and which can be addressed even during a recession, albeit perhaps without a significant monetary focus. [After this, I put a positive spin on it, as we have a department initiative aimed at enabling individuals to speak up, speak out, and understand the importance of their roles].

.....

So, bad contracts.  Sad coworkers.  Sad friends.  I'm hoping it all works out for him.

I've Become Jaded

I've always been a bit snarky and sarcastic, although not as much as Klund or Mean Mr. Mustard. I try to make sure that I don't get into the habit of projecting my negative thoughts and presumptions on others because I know it can become a habit, and it's not a good habit if you're a manager (although I'm well aware of managers who got in the habit). But today I was on the elevator and a woman started talking about how it was daylight savings time and she found herself frantically reaching for her alarm.

A little voice inside my head was screaming, "Cat lady! CAT LADY!"

And she followed up with, "Poor little guy..."

At which point I was hoping she'd tumbled a child onto the floor.

"He went mew,mew, mewwwwww..."

F***.