On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:34:34 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>>> As I say, as far as I can tell, nobody was upset with him, they just
>>> wanted to reduce the payroll bill...
>> 
>> There may well have been something going on that just wasn't apparent
>> from that far away.
> 
> This is also entirely possible.

I've seen some strange things happen that have gotten people fired, even 
people who were good at their jobs.  It happens.

>> This could be a good thing for you. :-)
> 
> Well... my boss is now the Director of Finance. (The Director of IT used
> to report directly to him. Now the whole IT group reports directly to
> him.) He knows nothing about computers. (I've met him in meatspace.
> Trust me, he knows *nothing* about computers!) And he knows even less
> about how to operate a computer system in the minefield of government
> regulations. (But then, the Director of IT didn't really grok that fully
> either - much to my dismay.)
> 
> So it's probably going to be quite quiet around here for a while. I
> imagine now all the various IT people will crawl back into their
> seperate little holes and just do their own thing independently - like
> they did before we hired this guy...

Quiet is good - maybe a good time to also arrange to introduce yourself 
to the finance director and outline what it is you've been having 
difficulty with.  Get on his good side early.  Don't bury him under 
technobabble - you understand him as an audience already, so leverage 
that in your conversations with him.

In particular, I'd focus on the regulatory compliance issues - that's 
something finance guys understand very well and could be a common ground 
for conversation between you and him.  I'm thinking about things like the 
system changes that go undocumented because the IT guys in the US don't 
consult you about those changes; your lack of access to some necessary 
systems, things like that.

Take it slowly, but make sure he knows who you are and what your 
responsibilities are with regards to these audits.  This could be a very 
good thing for you.

Jim

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