Hatrack River Forum: Pointy Haired Bosses

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Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :

We have all had them. I thought it was time to start a thread in honor of Dilbert moments.

I'll kick it off.

I work at a data center. Those who work my shift and I are often the only people on the premises. Because of this we need access to a great deal of the facility to resolve issues in a timely fashion.

Along with all the normal server room denizens we have some ancient boxes. By that I mean Windows NT, Pentium 133, and 256k ram. We often have to walk to the server room to fiddle with these ancient and finicky relics.

Sometimes we can get away with four or five trips to the room in a shift. But a usual day demands more trips and a busy day can constitute upwards of twenty trips to one of the two server rooms.

I suppose it’s only natural that, in a recent security audit, parties entirely unrelated to my job determined that we needed to have a locked door directly between us and the sever room. Additionally, it’s a keyed door instead of a scanned door due to budgetary constraints. As a result for the last few months we have to walk twice the distance to reach the server room.

The kicker is that the person who signed off on the door never has to deal with it in any fashion. It doesn’t matter to them that they needlessly complicated the job of someone else. I’m sure if they had to use the door even once on a daily basis the situation would change.

Anyway, today’s issue was unrelated. (Read different pointy haired boss, yes there are more than the one). [Angst]

I punch in at 6:00 and everything goes well until about noon. As I try to leave the area and head to the lunch room my badge fails a scan. Sometimes the scans malfunction so I don’t think too much about it and exit the area another way. I get back from my lunch break and lo, there is a friendly lady from security informing me that I am not authorized to be in my own work area. Apparently someone over the last week signed off on an arbitrary form that disconnected me and three of my coworkers from our work area.

The individual who signed the paper was not even in my managerial chain of command.

So, Instead of doing my job today I had to spend a great deal of time just making the calls so I could get back in to do my job. A sinister part of me wished that a server had gone down about then.

Anyway, things like this happen all the time, it’s not really a huge deal. To me it just illustrates the huge disconnect between the people getting the leg work done and the people who make the ‘brave’ decisions without even fully evaluating the implications.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I have a real pointy-haired boss. When you have a real pointy-haired boss, you're too fatigued from boss-stupidity to come up with anecdotes for a thread. You don't want to make people laugh, you don't even want to vent. You just want not to have to think about how much it sucks.

[Razz]

Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :

I hear you. I'm greatful that most of the bosses I report to are fantastic.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

My boss actually looks like the Pointy Haired Boss.

[ January 07, 2008, 12:48 AM: Message edited by: Icarus ]

Posted by JonHecht (Member # 9712) on :

I have never had a job. I need to get one.

Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :

I couldn't comprehend Dilbert. The jokes weren't funny to me.

Until I had an idiot boss. Suddenly, I understood, and the jokes were funny. [Smile]

(My current boss is awesome, but his boss has some pointy hairs.)

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

I have never had a manager I respected. In fact, I have yet to meet a manager I respect. In my anecdotal experience, middle management is uniformly incompetent, and upper management is uniformly insulated.

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

Thanks, Tom.

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

That's why it's anecdotal. I've never been lucky enough to work for you. [Smile]

Actually, it's probably worth noting that I've worked in fast food, in journalism, and in IT. None of these are famous for the quality of their management. (Full disclosure: I have worked as a manager in two of those three fields. I believe I was competent, but am probably blinded by bias.)

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I've had one good boss. One fantastic boss. I reckon public school principals count as middle management.