Do what I said?
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Are there users waiting on these jobs to complete at 8am? Maybe the overall goal is to get all of the jobs completed earlier. Perhaps the boss wants the job that creates the text file to run at 5:30, and is putting the cart before the horse?
If you've made your point in writing and received no response, I'd send it one more time and cc: someone else (someone at or above either your boss's corporate level or your technical level). Usually when more people get involved, the true reason will come out.
Good luck.
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Some good advice from Brandie and Jay above.
The key things to get about dealing with management is that they have a different perspective, or a different frame of reference. Neither of you is right or wrong, but either looking something differently or looking at different things and you don't realize it.
Document things with your boss and explain what you think the problem is. If you can't agree, do what he says, but with documentation. And if you're slower than he/she would like, document why it takes so long.
Don't forget your boss deals with more than your job, and you deal mostly with just your job. There are things managers know, plan for, or may even be working on without you being aware. He might be using your change as justification to get the other job changed to 6:00am.
The best thing you can do to get along with others is not be directly confrontational. Whether you're in power or not in power, it doesn't work well. The best thing you can do when someone is confrontational with you is to bend in the breeze, not resist it.
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I think most managers want to use 'me' or developers to show how efficient the team is. I remembered one time in previous company, there were two managers in our department, in the middle of our team meeting, the VP came in to call the other manager and our director out to talk. At that moment my manager made a gesture that 'good, he is in trouble, ha ha ha'. I was very troubled by his gesture. After all we all worked together.
The one who made me set up the job at 6am, I asked for the reason. I tried to explain to her about the mainframe system and how the job worked 4 times. It was lucky she loved email and copied my email to the whole world including the new director. One time the new director printed out one of her email and it was seven pages long !!! She thought she emailed to my director to get me in trouble because I questioned her decision. It ended up I was fine and she got demoted and put on probation. She was hired because she knew someone in the company. No one knew her background. However some managers put my name on the black list.
For my new manager in this company (he works remotely in Indiana and I work in NY, so email and phone is our only communication channel), I tried to explain to him but somehow we were liked talking Russian and Chinese. Our communication always breaks down. My director's advice is you two figure it out. He is the new manager, I know he want to test me how efficient I am despite I have worked for the company over 1 year and my previous manager gave me an over performance review. I have a feeling he tried to make me feel inferior and show me he is the boss and I have to listen to him.
Unfortunately my director is on his side, he said I have to follow my new manager and do what he says. I asked what if I had a better solution and he insisted to use his, my director said then you had to use his solution.
I know I am stubborn at time. Also I hate when people pretend they know everything but they are not. I keep thinking if I have followed this manager and his way of doing thing, my technical skills are going backward.
I thank for your advices and they are very variable. In the past I let one manager and the DBA walked all over me, I did whatever they told me to do. They made a big fuss when I made a mistake. The more they yelled at me, the more mistakes I made. I lost my confidence. I thought I was a lousy programmer.
So now I don't want to let people putting me down when I know I am doing the right thing. But it is just you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don't.
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>She did not give me an answer, but insisted that I set up the schedule to run at 6:00am.
>Would you follow the direction?
After I wrote up my "recommendation" and sent it to her (bcc'ing myself and at least one other trusted coworker ;-), I would, indeed, do what she said.
My reasoning?
A) She's the boss ("There are decisions you make and those you live with and that one isn't one you get to make.")
B) If the DTS package is done well, it won't load the system much when it runs, so it isn't like it's going to be a cycle/memory/resource hog.
C) As stated by others, she may have a reason for requesting this (maybe she's pressuring someone to get the other job to run at 6:00 instead of 8:00).
If you are really and truly bothered by this, then, at your next review, you could make a point of requesting clarification of your role, responsibilities, authority, and her expectations for and trust of yur judgement . . . however, I would, at that time, have my resume thoroughly up dated and posted (although, perhaps not searchable) on several jobs sites. 😉
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Real tough situation when you feel the director or upper management is on terms with your manager. Fortunately, I've never been in such an environment.
However, I have presented solutions to seniors/managers before and they have alternative solutions.
I also work in a different office to colleagues, so e-mail and phone is our link also. My approach would be to test both solutions on a test box and present the results back in a concise e-mail.
Of course, the manager and director could look at that as possibly having no faith in his technical ability and judgement.
Personally, I'd look on it as testing 2 possible solutions to evaluate which one is the best fit for your system.
Tricky situation for you, but that would be the way I'd go.
Good luck
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Loner,
Is this the same job you've posted about in other threads? If so, I recommend you polish up your resume and hunt for another one because it seems this job is an endless parade of stress for you. The worst thing you can do for your health and/or sanity is to hang onto a job that causes you this much grief.
Seriously, there are more important things in life than the job you have right now. Take care of you first by looking for a position where you and your skills are properly appreciated.
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Hi Loner
I reckon Brandie has nailed this one - if the US market is anything like the market here in the UK, then there's a real shortage of good people with your skills and experience, a fact that your current employers appear oblivious to.
Workplace bullying won't easily get fixed by tactful and clever communication as described elsewhere here - these are effective techniques which we all use when dealing with challenging superiors, which is a different concept.
Workplace bullying is becoming less common (even here - the lawsuits are frighteningly expensive) and you are statistically unlikely to experience it in your next post.
Cut your losses with these a$$holes, offer your prime skills and experience to another company.
Good luck
ChrisM
“Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail ShawFor fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden -
I agree... working for a jerk full time is a full time PITA. Start looking for something better.
If I may make a suggestion and I'm not trying to be a smarty about this... your handle is "Loner"... if you feel that you are alone, then you will be. Talk with your peers about work and get to know them... maybe even go out to lunch or bowling or ??? with them... makes work a whole lot more tolerable. If you really want to have some fun and learn about the folks in the company, go out where the smokers hang out when you take a break... you'll have a grand amount of fun... if they ask why you're out there and not smoking, just tell them "outside fresh air away from your desk".
--Jeff Moden
RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally) -
That is the problem. Nowadays you don't know who to trust. I thought I could trust my old manager who became my new director. He liked my work and thought I was an excellent developer, gave me an exceptional review. But when I talked to him about the new manager and I having conflict, he told me to solve it ourselves. At the end, he was on his side and push me to resign. We used to talk liked friends, but ......
Since year 2000, all of a sudden, people seems to change. They want to protect their job and who cares about having friends at work. I used to have a lot of fun working in some company and we could talk and joke about everything. These day, if you were not careful, you said something and someone overheard it, you may be in trouble. One time my mom called me at my office because there was an emergency, we talked about half an hour. The next day I got a call from my manager that someone complained I used business hour for personal business. The culture is so different now from 10 years ago.
If you know a company that still has human touch, let me know, I immediately send out my resume.
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