*WARNING: Slight rant ahead*
I have a dilemma and want the advice of successful IT professionals… I’m current “Web and Network Analyst” for a small company, which is a fancy way of saying I do some network administration and (unfortunatly) a lot of web development.
The problem is that my boss (IT Manager) has this very strange belief about “our” profession. In our weekely Monday meeting he told us (myself and two others) basically that this isn’t a “regular” job and if we have to work 24 hours thinking to meet a company deadline, so be it (not literally 24 hours). He’s said on more than one occasion that we aren’t ALLOWED to have lives, despite my co-worker having an 8-year old daughter to take care of.
Wait, it gets better. He also imposes ridiculous project deadlines, such as 2-3 WEEKS to develop software and web applications, and then gets disappointed when we can’t do it in that time (nevermind the fact that he’s a yes-man to any other manager, who gets to add whatever they want to the application whether its really helpful or no). He specifically said yesterday that he “spoils” the execs by doing just that in 2-3 DAYS, and they rationalize why not get someone like him who can do that instead of paying three relatively inexperienced IT people. Would not listen to my rationalization that good software/whatever takes TIME to develop.
But WAIT, theres MORE! He also has FORBIDDEN us to socialize with anyone else in the company. My co-worker has gotten yelled at for going to lunch with another employee and for hanging out AFTER HOURS with the OWNER OF THE COMPANY’S DAUGHTER. But he turns it around by saying that THEY (never says who exactly THEY are) think we’re unprofessional and he’s just “looking out for us”. Nobody else in the company is allowed to go to our section of the building, and we have to document practically every time we leave the area so “[he] [doesn’t] form thoughts in [his] head”.
But it gets even better! Now this I won’t go into, but lets just say that in regards to my co-worker there is a lot of… a word beginning with har and ending in -ment. But we can’t say anything because he twists it around to make it look like WE say that we can’t get work done because everyone else “takes advantage of [us]” by coming to us for help.
Is this REALLY what I can expect from IT? If it is, I guess in this guy’s words, this career isn’t for me and I should be working at McDonalds (he said exactly that. If you want a regular 8-5 job, go work at McDonalds.)
I apologize for this being pretty much a rant, but I came *this* close yesterday to walking out yesterday. I don’t need to be threatened that if I don’t “bring [my] skills to the next level” and crank out fully functioning software in 3 days that I may be fired.
Help me, Techrepublic. You’re my only hope.