On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:21:58 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> And five minutes ago, I got a phone call telling my that... my boss...
>>> no longer works for this company. O_O
>> 
>> Clearly either you weren't the only one having problems with him....or
>> he found another job and gave his notice - and they gave him an
>> immediate vacation.
> 
> Nope. As far as I can tell, they just wanted to save some money.
> 
> The guy in question clearly had no idea this was coming from the tone of
> the emails I got from him the day before. Just normal day-to-day stuff.
> And a few hours later *poof*, gone.

That's often the case.  I had a boss who was sacked for incompetence, and 
he didn't find out until after lunch when he was escorted from the 
building.  Had discussions with a vendor (who had flown in) earlier in 
the day, even.

> 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 could be a good thing for you. :-)

Jim

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"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
news:4b675753$1@news.povray.org...
> First job after college that I had I left with 2 weeks
notice - though I
> had the flexibility to offer them as much time as they
needed since I was
> the only one doing the job there.  They were fine with the
2 weeks, but I
> never met my replacement.--Jim

I've never met a replacement at any job I've had. No matter
how long my notice was. Most places I've worked preferred to
take the salary savings for about 6 months after my leaving.
I guess nothing I've done was important enough for me to
pass the torch.. Or maybe they were just worried... :)

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On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:58:56 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:

> "Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
> news:4b675753$1@news.povray.org...
>> First job after college that I had I left with 2 weeks
> notice - though I
>> had the flexibility to offer them as much time as they
> needed since I was
>> the only one doing the job there.  They were fine with the
> 2 weeks, but I
>> never met my replacement.--Jim
> 
> I've never met a replacement at any job I've had. No matter how long my
> notice was. Most places I've worked preferred to take the salary savings
> for about 6 months after my leaving. I guess nothing I've done was
> important enough for me to pass the torch.. Or maybe they were just
> worried... :)

I've only done that once myself - and it was the company I was at before 
Novell (ie, my last employer); I had been waiting for 6 weeks for a 
background check to be finished (working for a company with export 
controlled software kinda requires it) and had also been scheduled by my 
then-current-employer to visit Microsoft.  I told them to hold off on my 
nonrefundable travel, and my project manager (but not my boss) guessed 
why.  We started putting a transition plan together, but the guy who took 
over for me for the big project I was working on was a member of the 
team, so the handoff was pretty smooth.

But I always have tried to make myself available; I can think of one 
exception, but I was asked to leave that job (and was glad to just get 
the hell out).

Jim

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:4b66d6c3$1@news.povray.org...

> One time we had some guy work for us who had been in some kind of
> traffic accident. It did something to his brain; he apparently had no
> short-term memory. We'd train him to do something, and two days later he
> had no recollection of ever having done this task. In the end we let him
> go again,

"Again"? Did he keep coming back?

</tasteless humour>

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>> 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.

> 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...

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"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
news:4b67b828$1@news.povray.org...

> But I always have tried to make myself available; I can
think of one
> exception, but I was asked to leave that job (and was glad
to just get
> the hell out).-- Jim

I went back to one job (for free) and identified an error
made by a machine shop who mis-read my blueprints... and the
day after Christmas! I'm a sucker...

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On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:13:24 -0800, DungBeatle wrote:

> I went back to one job (for free) and identified an error made by a
> machine shop who mis-read my blueprints... and the day after Christmas!
> I'm a sucker...

But something like that does tend to come through in future references as 
well.  It shows that you have a sense of ownership for things you've 
done, and are willing to share information as needed.

Jim

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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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Jim Henderson wrote:

> 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.

You give some good advice - but I'm far more focused on getting out of 
this job and into a real one. Once I've left this company, its petty 
politics won't matter any more. (I'll have a whole new set of power 
battles to lose! Yay, me...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:55:30 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> You give some good advice - but I'm far more focused on getting out of
> this job and into a real one. Once I've left this company, its petty
> politics won't matter any more. (I'll have a whole new set of power
> battles to lose! Yay, me...)

It never hurts to do a little but of both - absolutely keep focus on 
getting out, but if you can part on good terms, then the new finance 
director can be a good reference for you down the road - and since his 
area involves government compliance and you have expertise in that area, 
having him as a reference in the future might be useful down the road.

The petty politics won't matter, but the reference could end up being 
worth its weight in gold. :-)

Jim

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