Background: My position
I do Database support/ administration / small bit of development / report generation / statistical analysis / technical analysis / etc etc..
I am NOT in the IT dept tho, our IT consists of 3 hardware/network staff. I am in the Research dept (think academics/ education/ policy, not IT dev)
Reason I am not in IT is because the database was the brainchild of the Research dept. They paid for it and pay my wages. They refuse to hand it over to IT because they want to "own" it and the information that comes out of it.
In the year and a half i've been here, i have had 3 different managers. Half the problem is, they are academics, not IT people, and they can't handle dealing with the database. All along it has been left up to me to get the job done and let them know of any problems. They have all been brilliant and fought the fight for me..whether it was software, hardware, money for more development..etc. They appreciated that i know what i need to do and get on with it and frankly, they were terrified of the work they seen me doing and didn't even want to know. However, they appreciated how hard i worked and my attempts to include them by using the least amount of tech jargon i could.
Now since the last one left, they finally realised that these academics cannot handle being my manager due to the technical knowledge needed. In May they said they were going to hire a "Database Manager" (which i could apply for), and asked ME to write the job spec for it. They have yet to even put the spec out yet.
So, basically, the director of the Research dept is my superior by default. This woman cannot work her email or remember where she saved a file to..never mind understand a database.
I have done and continue to do more than is required of me. To be honest, if i stuck to my job spec, I'd have a lot more time for TR, but i continually tweak, fix, and improve and have to do massive amounts of data maintenace & reporting due to the sh1tty job the developers did on the application.
As for documenting the database, i am doing it because we have NO documentaion. Yes, you heard me..none..well, ok, i found an original mock up for 3 screens which look nothing like they started out as, and a list of available option within our hundreds of drop down lists, and a list of the reports we requested be set up. They commissioned, implemented and signed off on the thing before they hired me. All i have for reference is a binder full of emails which make references to "oh we changed our mind, we now want this to be like this".
So i need to document the entire thing..i have most of it stored up in my head, but i cannot always be here (and don't plan on being here too much longer..once i get my MCAD i am gone).
When i was off this summer for a while, they realised that no one in the place has a clue about this stuff. They actually went to IT and asked them to do some work on it, they laughed at them. My boss does not understand technology at all. Surely if one is in IT, they must know how to work with the database.
So basically, she asked me to do this, after I recamended that i do it (yes she reads my recamendations, then puts that into her work for her boss; makes it look like she knows what she's on about, and then comes to me and tells me what i should do next.) I don't have a problem doing what i am asked, but when i'm working flat out, i just do not physically have the time to do more. I asked for a part time admin assistant ages ago..they were gonna think about it..which means no..
She expects me to have it done in like 4 days..she once made the comment of "well sure, all you have to do is tell the computer what it has to do and let it do its job"..
Grrr..how do i tell someone like that, that it takes me 3-5 days to write a stored procedure for a complex report when all they want to see is the button they click to see that report..it only takes 4 seconds for it to be displayed, so surely it only takes me 4 seconds to create it??
I would never deliberatley try to make anyone look silly because they don't know something..i completely understand that this is not her area. I don't understand the work she does, BUT i do try and make the effort to appreciate what she has to do to get her work done. All i want is a bit of professionalism.
I was so p1ssed the other day i almost did walk out..as i have been without a contract since August, i thought feck it..why bother..
BTW..she is Irish
