Not sure this is normal

Earlier in the week one of my managers started saying that they found it hard going into work because of the behaviour of our new chief. I tried to calm them down. Later, they were a bit more calmer when they understood that everyone was having problems with this person.

Then, near the end of Friday working day - after beer o'clock - another of my managers asked to see me. They had been approached by HR who wanted a statement about the situation in which they and others have been placed by our wonderful new chief. Seems there's a growing mutiny in the ranks.

The manager was not sure what to do and pointed out that I have much more experience. True but I have never experienced anything like this.

The work we do is rather complicated and requires us to deal with global processes and latest technologies. But instead we are trying to deal with psychological pathologies.

I'll expand on this:  technical stuff is relatively straightforward. So are processes. They are things one engineers.

It's the people aspect where things go wrong - on a good day with the wind in the right direction.

The situation we're in now is, however, in another league.

Daily

As a colleague said to me today: everyday it gets worse.

It certainly did for me.

Is it a bad sign ...

... when a HR manager at work discretely gives you the name of a good recruitment agency?

Even Accenture ...

... is getting rid of annual appraisals.

Another week at work

On Thursday I flew to Berlin and then on to Helsinki.

I landed at Vantaa's terminal 1 and was picked up by friends.

Yesterday I flew from Vantaa's terminal 2 to Vienna and then back to Munich. Both Vantaa Terminal 2 and the terminal in Vienna were new and very impressive.

Although this was a private trip it reminded me of my days, just a few years ago, when I was a global project manager flying inter-continental and intra-continental almost every two weeks.

This upcoming week, however, I will go to the office (near to a whore house - not joking, they are legal in Germany) and be treated like a copulating idiot.

Something has to change.

Another contact

I was looking forward to my call yesterday morning with a headhunter.

At first she started off in German and I thought I was doing pretty well but she then asked if it would be easier if we spoke in English.

I conceded that being English, it would be easier for me.

She told me the name of the company for whom she was recruiting and that more or less killed the discussion.

I had worked with their English branch many years ago. When I told my boss there that I had finally resigned (they all knew I was unhappy there) he called me a "bastard".

Of course companies change over time and, in any case, this branch is in Germany. But a few months ago I bumped into someone who my company had had to sack over a year ago. And he was now working there.

The headhunter and I nevertheless ended the conversation very pleasantly.

Contact

I made contact with the contact from LinkedIn and spoke with her about the position for which she was recruiting.

Although we had a nice, professional chat it was clear that I didn't have the experience in large, global consolidations programmes that she required - although she wondered who would.

The salary they were envisioning was €100k above what I am currently earning. Although that would be a rather nice amount, and I could actually do the work required, her customer wasn't the sort that could be convinced. Fair enough.

But it was good talking with her and, you never know, it may lead to something. It has done so in the past.

Quiet day

Last week I went to a meetup event and talked to a couple of people about using an IT Ronin team.

I got a few suggestions which I looked at over the weekend.

Also, over the weekend I correspondent to a couple of bites, one from Xing and one from Linkedin - agencies had seen my c.v. and wanted to contact me.

The Xing one was embarrassing as I hadn't seen the message before. Although I like Xing sometimes I miss messages.

Yesterday evening I suddenly started to feel ill and took today off work.

I might go in tomorrow where I reckon there is a 50:50 chance I will be told that my job is coming to an end (as they are outsourcing). They have to do it by tomorrow because the notice period is two months plus the start of the month. Plus if they don't do it tomorrow then I will be compensated for all 30 days of holiday I get for the year (German employment law). 

We'll see.

It's a bit cloudy

The company to whom we will most likely outsource our IT infrastructure services (of which I currently the head) were very surprised to hear that Amazon Web Services was a cloud provider.

One of my colleagues advised them that AWS are the largest cloud hosting provider in the world.

We can't get it out of their heads that there is more to public cloud offering than server virtualisation.

Yesterday a senior recruitment company contacted me on LinkedIn to see if I was interested in working for a major company based in Munich.

Yes.

IT Samurai to IT Ronin

In Munich there's a great team of IT-Samurai who have been betrayed by their ailing company and will soon be left to wander the business landscape as Ronin, looking for a new company to serve.

Though highly skilled individuals they are even more effective as a team - it would be a pity for this to be broken up and scattered by the wind.

But how to find a company that needs such a team in one go?

A bad day

Last night I didn't sleep very well.

This morning I sent messages to a few contacts on LinkedIn.

My help-desk manager later at work told me that I had looked glum all day.

This late afternoon I had to have a meeting with my teams (which includes the help desk manager) and tell them that some or even all of them would be outsourced.

Not my idea -  obviously.

I hope I handed it well, or at least not too badly.

I left work relatively early but I couldn't do anything useful (like job hunt) in the evening.

For some background, we have spent ages insourcing and then developing the teams beyond the storming stage. Then we get a new CITO who has the big fat idea of outsourcing. Just like that.

Big sigh

This week I didn't apply for any jobs.

As I am still employed I want to find a great, inspiring company and then apply to work there, rather than just find a job.

So, I am racking my brain to think of potential companies.

There are quite a few in Munich but some of them require good German (and I had good German until I joined a German company which only spoke English).

I have to remind myself that I have found five jobs here which did not require any German. And many other non-German speakers have found work here.

How to demotivate your senior managers

Be:

• rude and insulting
• openly condescending

Don't:

• let them explain or question, cut them off if necessary
• listen or show them any respect

Do:

• come up with a strategy which is based on the obvious

But:

• do not be surprised when they tell HR that they have decided to leave the company specifically because of you

Two weeks ago I went to a startup seminar. One of the speakers co-founded a private company which eventually designed and built a rocket which docked with the ISS.

It rubbed in that I can do better things than work for a company where I am suddenly treated like a fucking idiot.

Fortunately the HR head did listen and treated me with respect. As did a (very senior) manager whose advice I asked beforehand. I think I handled it well: I told them I am going to find another job, why this has happened (using the above bullet points) but assured them that I would be as supportive as ever. There was, of course, the caveat that I wouldn't be able to put in so many hours as usual as I need to spend time job hunting.

The truth

My new boss told me that often people leave because of their managers.

He is so not wrong.

That's it

I 

Have

Had 

Enough

More people are leaving.

The second colleague who left (see post below) also, it turns out, went to work with our old CITO.

But even more people are leaving. An alarmingly large number.

The current CITO has retired. Or maybe has been retired. (Note to c-level staff: if you think we are idiots then you are the idiots).

His replacement ... I don't want to write about his replacement.

But I'll write more later.

More hmmm

A few weeks' ago a fellow manager decided to leave. He's going to work with our old CITO.

Today I learnt that another colleague is leaving as well. Has had enough.

Hmmm

In a meeting today with a new c-level person who is rather clever. But not clever enough.

He let slip something which suggests jobs will be going east.

I like curry, but not that much.

This evening I went to a meeting of the American German Business Club - part of my marketing mix when job hunting.

A long time

As it's a new year it means that I have been in this company for 2.5 years.

Doing the same role.

OK, the company has grown a lot, shrunk a bit, and then grown a lot again: basically when I joined it was 100 people strong, a year later it was 400 and now it is 500 strong. With a good global presence.

But, one way or another, I don't tend to stay in companies too long. The longest was 3.5 years.

So, by July I should have been in the company for three years. Unless ...

Praise from boss

There's always some people who need to job hunt. In the sense of needing to be put in a position of looking for another job.

But putting them in that situation can be difficult, very difficult, especially with German employee protection laws which kick in after six months. And there are people who behave well right until they pass this probationary period.

So, here's my suggestion to line managers who need to correct this situation.

Find a fellow manager in another company. That manager agrees to head hunt (easy as you have given their name and contact details) and recruit the problem employee. They make a great offer and take on your problem.

Then, a bit later, certainly before the probationary period is over, they sack them. No reason needs to be given.

You may be obliged to reciprocate.

Reasonable solution to a modern problem?

I described this to my boss who called it "dastardly" ... approvingly I think.

Massive failure

I went to a meetup.com - err - meetup where there were a couple of talks.

One about DevOps and one about software engineering.

They were interesting but would have been more interesting if they were in a language with which I was more familiar - namely English, rather than German.

I followed as best I could but didn't ask any questions.

Although, one question I should have asked was "where is the bottle opener?".

As well as food there was beer - Munich's finest: Augusteiner.

But no bottle opener.

Someone sitting next to me saw me pathetically attack the bottle with a key. He took pity and offered a small bottle opener he had with him.

I now know where I have been going wrong in my life and will get one myself soon.