The Hand Inside The Puppet Head
Strange things have been happening.
It all started last week. Development Manager -- once perfectly willing to nail gun me to the whiteboard for being the subject of randomly fabricated gossip -- performs a classic micromanaging monologue, stops, pauses, and turns to me.
"What do you think? Are you comfortable with this approach?"
Even more shockingly, after I cautiously demur with an explanation, he says:
"Okay, that sounds fine. Scratch what I said."
I brace, waiting to be peppered with roundwire sash pins....Nothing. Days later, instead of the typical grumbling about not getting things wrapped up in less time than people normally need to brush their teeth properly, he says to the group of us working out last minute changes:
"Excellent progress!"
Honestly, someone needs to call the Men In Black. Some alien life form is using the apparently slimy, sleazy, scheming, rug-pulling, heartless maniac and pretending (with a little too much effort) to be human. There is no other explanation possible for why, after a year of masking project difficulties by shifting project plan dates to fit the circumstances, he would suddenly proclaim in the team lead meeting:
"I have received feedback that we're always painting a rosy picture of the project when it may not necessarily be the case. If something is behind, if issues are cropping up, then we need to reflect that in these plans and be honest about them to the users. I cannot emphasize this enough."
If it's not extraterrestrial body snatching, the cynic in me suggests that maybe someone's just been royally spanked.
Then again, I recently learned that more people I truly respect on the team would not be here if not for DM's direct intervention against prevailing opinions. If those aliens aren't careful, their repeat visits may just trigger a government investigation. I won't tell anyone, though, if you won't.
It all started last week. Development Manager -- once perfectly willing to nail gun me to the whiteboard for being the subject of randomly fabricated gossip -- performs a classic micromanaging monologue, stops, pauses, and turns to me.
"What do you think? Are you comfortable with this approach?"
Even more shockingly, after I cautiously demur with an explanation, he says:
"Okay, that sounds fine. Scratch what I said."
I brace, waiting to be peppered with roundwire sash pins....Nothing. Days later, instead of the typical grumbling about not getting things wrapped up in less time than people normally need to brush their teeth properly, he says to the group of us working out last minute changes:
"Excellent progress!"
Honestly, someone needs to call the Men In Black. Some alien life form is using the apparently slimy, sleazy, scheming, rug-pulling, heartless maniac and pretending (with a little too much effort) to be human. There is no other explanation possible for why, after a year of masking project difficulties by shifting project plan dates to fit the circumstances, he would suddenly proclaim in the team lead meeting:
"I have received feedback that we're always painting a rosy picture of the project when it may not necessarily be the case. If something is behind, if issues are cropping up, then we need to reflect that in these plans and be honest about them to the users. I cannot emphasize this enough."
If it's not extraterrestrial body snatching, the cynic in me suggests that maybe someone's just been royally spanked.
Then again, I recently learned that more people I truly respect on the team would not be here if not for DM's direct intervention against prevailing opinions. If those aliens aren't careful, their repeat visits may just trigger a government investigation. I won't tell anyone, though, if you won't.
posted by Little Green Potato at 10:43 PM
3 Comments:
Whoa, hang on one second. Can we just back up a little here? Have I missed some posts? Have I strayed onto the wrong blog? There's some serious positivity going on in these parts, and it's making me twitchy.
Nice working environments? Bosses that listen and engage with what you say? Cohorts that rank above voles?
I'm very pleased to hear that things are going well. Do you think you're in the middle of some genuine changes, or have various people all just had a good week at the same time?
If only there was some kind of Geneva Convention on working relationships. Bad managers would be rounded up, sniping colleagues would receive custodial sentences, and everyone who did good work would wear baseball caps with gold stars on the front. Those are a few more things for the "to-do-when-I'm-Emperor-
of-the-World" list.
Keep up the positivity! You're not pregnant, are you?
The only thing that's pregnant round here is the pause before the inevitable plummet into chaos and mud-slinging.
I think it's important to show how deceptive the highs can be in this life.
Glad to see you're back on form ;-)
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