Work
Well, interesting day.
Z is not only an annoying git, today showed just what a bastard he could be. He came over to speak to ONB about a paper he has written - it was late, he stayed until 7.30 last night, and arrived at work at 7 this morning to try and get it done on time.
I spent time with him last night re-writing it (he loves his long words, and spends paragraphs explaining things that these people just do not need to know, and he could say in 3 words), but didn’t get chance to see the final version before he sent it to Z.
Anyway, Z came over, I offered to sit in but ONB said he was fine, and they both closed me out.
I then got a question from someone else, so was taking them through some of the things he needed to know when I heard Z say, in a very loud voice, in our big open plan office, “This it totally unacceptable. I am really angry at this, you have had 6 months to do this and we could have done so much in that 6 months…” I couldn’t intervene because I had someone with me, who was with me until after Z had gone.
ONB was sitting there looking so small.
It seems Z was not happy with the paper, in spite of ONB having done everything he has asked for him in his step-by-step instructions along the way. The issue is that Z micro-manages everything, but has no concept of what is involved in any changes he requests. He will ask something, and is very specific about it. ONB will then do this for him, and present it to Z. Z will then ask for something else - maybe things to be split out to a more granular level, maybe something new to be added to the mix. However, he fails to realise that (a) our data is shit, (b) there is no documentation, so a lot of the time we are working blind, and (c) running anything against said data can take several hours. And so what he thinks is a simple change can often take a minimum of half a day, often several days. And rather than accepting that it takes this long, he is getting annoyed with us for not “making it simple” so he can get his answer in 30 minutes.
This in itself is bad enough.
But to actually shout this out in an open plan office is so unprofessional. ONB is now totally demotivated.
Also, it was announced today (although I knew yesterday) that S has got the promotion to manager of our team. I am so pleased for her - and she will stand up to Z much better than L used to do.
Anyway, she was in a meeting while all this was going on, so when she came back I sent ONB off to lunch so I could tell her about it. However, ONB was dithering about something (scared to death by Z, trying to make sure something was set running) and while he was still there, Z himself came over to speak to S about it.
Eventually ONB left. I overheard some of the conversation between S and Z, and three cheers for S! as she is jumping straight in to defend S. She pointed out that she hadn’t had any involvement in this paper, because Z had been managing it right from the start. She asked why he was so angry, when surely he had been involved in every step of the process, so was aware at what stage all the analysis was at? She also pointed out that there was a delay to the paper because only yesterday he had changed the methodology of how he wanted certain things calculated. He didn’t even explain it to ONB, he had explained it to P, who then explained it to ONB. Who then had to spend an hour or so going through her spreadsheets (she left early, and wasn’t in today) to completely understand what was going on.
This afternoon, I had booked some time with ONB to go over things that might crop up next week while I am not there. As I stood up to head to the canteen (where we could have our meeting) Z comes over, now all bouncy and happy after his earlier sulk. “Anni, I need to go get a coffee and some sugar, but when I get back we will go through your work.” Fuck it. “No we won’t, I have a meeting with ONB now, and as I am not in next week, and ONB is going home early”. He looks at me. “What is going on? Where are you going next week?” “I am off up north, the project *you* nominated me for, and were aware of the time and involvement it would take from me.” He just rolled his eyes.
I told ONB we would postpone the meeting for 5 minutes, to let Z get his coffee otherwise he would jump in on us when he saw us sitting in the canteen.
He was so demoralised. It was just awful. He said he didn’t think what Z had to say was particularly fair, but he was humiliated by him announcing it pretty much to the whole world. He said several people had come up to him, asking him if he was okay.
There wasn’t a whole lot I could say to make him feel better. I told him that S had stood up for him. I told him that I was going to try and have a 1-2-1 with him, to make my voice heard.
I also took with me a ’sign-off procedure’ document I have been talking of putting together, and today got around to actually doing something. This will involve nothing leaving our team until it has been checked and double checked by a second party. This will include passing anything to Z. I have also told ONB to ask Z to put into an email anything he asks for - even if it is just a ‘little tweak’ - so that there is a record of what has been requested, and that everyone is clear on what everyone has to do. I know Z won’t do this, but we should ask, and if he doesn’t, then we should put together an email ourselves and send it to Z, copying other members of the team who are relevant, detailing exactly what he has asked for. This should, hopefully, remove any ambiguity in the future.
This is exactly what I did this afternoon. When ONB and I got back, Z came over to look at my analysis. I was expecting him to get all pissed off with me, but I forgot that I am now his new favourite. Instead of his, “This is not up for discussion,” attitude, he now listens to what I have to say, and sometimes even takes it on board.
Anyway, he asked for a few things for the next level of analysis, so when he had gone I typed up a long email listing exactly what he had asked for. He seemed to accept this, although rather than emailing back an “Okay,” he printed off the email, stood over my desk to read it, said, “Yes, that’s fine,” threw the printout in the bin and walked off.
I can’t wait to see his reaction once the team agrees to some sort of sign-off procedure.
On another note - I applied for another job today. It is a promotion, although not the one I was hoping for (for which there is still no job description, nor job even advertised). It is a job I can do, although it might not be the ideal job for me. However, this job is up north, so would involve me moving.
I have tried to speak to the hiring manager, but she has been on a course for the last two days, and then I am out of the office for most of next week. I have applied anyway (and internal applications are a nightmare - they are really difficult to “big up”, since they probably already know your exact involvement in most projects anyway).