Discussion on:

Poll: How is your job like Dilbert?

I noticed something interesting about these polls just now. I was the 3rd person to respond, but it only reported 2 votes. I know this because the option I chose wasn't chosen by either of the 2 votes the poll reported (2 options had 50% and my option showed 0%). Anyone else notice that?

I've noticed the same thing on occassion. I suspect that either the results are cached for a bit of time or other wise need time to propagate to all of TechRepublic's servers. That's my suspicion, at least.

J.Ja

I was figuring more that it is reporting pre-update results on the database (i.e. running the select before the insert). Either way, it's only noticable if you're one of the first ones to hit it, or you're the first one in a category/choice.

It's very entertaining if you're an early responder. You can compare the number of responders with the percentage for each response and see that they don't add up.

Well, maybe not -very- entertaining. It's just kinda of amusing. Not amusing exactly, just attention getting. Well, not attention, more like noticeable. Or less like 'noticeable', or maybe just there.

What was I talking about?

...

1) The worst manager I worked for was completely clueless. He was a DBA whose son played soccer with the son of the CEO. He ended up as manager of IT, over me.

With deadlines being passed without any product being delivered, he decided that we should all work weekends to catch up.

Finally we delivered a working prototype. In celebration he told everyone to take the day off on Monday. My question - does this mean that you are going to slip the schedule by a day? NO!

So this moron for a manager, made us all take a Monday off work and then asked us to come in Saturday because the schedule is behind.

2) Where I work we have a SDLC that the company spent many hours developing. It is quite rigid and very detailed. It was put in place to prevent systems going into a test phase with inaccurate or even no documentation.

All software projects have to follow the SDLC, unless .. they declare that the application is going 'agile'.

If your project is agile you do not have to follow the SDLC, you can make up your own process.

This reminds me so much of the Dilbert cartoon on agile, when the manager declares 'We are going agile' .. 'That was your training.'

Les.

This is how I fell: "I trying to be Dogbert, but I am Dilbert, but I am slowly becoming Wally"

That's funny, and too sadly, I can relate. That sounds a lot like my career about 7 - 8 years ago, I was stuck on the corporate treadmill after a promising start to my career, and quickly losing enthusiasm. Luckily for me, some things changed, I was at the bottom of the ladder for a while, but it was a far different ladder, thankfully. Sometimes, losing a job can be a very good thing!

J.Ja

I've been accused of that more than once.

Sometimes, yes, me too.

I chose 'other' due to a combination of factors -- mainly related to company policies and the like.
It sure seems sometimes that the Dilbert cartoon scripts were made from direct contact (internal info) from the place I work.
Other times though, it seems quite a bit different.

My boss contradicts himself in the same sentence. He has a task lead that was his Commanding Officer in the military and he was a Warrant Officer. Now the boss is civilian government employee and the guy that was his commander is a hired contractor under him, but you would never know who is in charge. The retired commander is a little man (5ft 5in) and picks with everyone in the office. The boss is a moron and his sidekick is worse. You ask either one a question and they ramble an incoherent answer until you just leave

Surely Scott Adams works where I do - where else would he come up with the same kind of ridiculous scenarios for his comic strip as occur at my place of employment?

Sometimes the person in the cubical next to me, pretending to be busy to avoid real work, is me. As soon as my work load slows down and I mention it to my boss, not only do I get a new assignment but all those that were languishing in the background suddenly come back to life with a vengeance.

Another area that makes me believe that Scott Adams actually works for the same corporation that I do is in the area of required remedial training. If somebody gets a paper cut while loading paper into a printer they report to medical, an accident/illness/injury report is files and then we all have to undergo training to insure that nobody else experiences a similar injury. I don't know if the problem is: the corporate paranoia that somebody is going to have a litiginous injury, that I work with a bunch of weenies, or if the person with the paper cut (or other frivolous injury) is taking advantage of the injury to get out of having to do any work for a few hours/days.

When they take away benefits (like sick pay) and have the audacity to put "spin" on it to let you know how much better the "new plan" is.

Scott Adams covers this in several cartoons and in the book "The Dilbert Principle" it's funny, sad, and true all at the same time.

There really should be an all of the above button to your poll.

I am Wally!

Seriously, I have nothing better to do than add yet another post to the list. I can probably stretch this out for an hour and record it as 3 hours spend contacting clients.

So I became a consultant, end of problem.