Tyrant PM - Quit or not?

[Pip in a Poke]

Hi Pip

So what happened?

Got in this morning & she's decided she wants me to smoke test the application before it goes into a pre prod environment. She wants me to produce a plan & detail how long I'm going to spend testing each part of the application.

My initial reaction is to tell her I'm not a tester though the reality is I just can't be bothered to sit here all day clicking around on a website trying to make it fall over.

Dog end days of contract indeed.

[ChimpMaster]

Got in this morning & she's decided she wants me to smoke test the application before it goes into a pre prod environment. She wants me to produce a plan & detail how long I'm going to spend testing each part of the application.

My initial reaction is to tell her I'm not a tester though the reality is I just can't be bothered to sit here all day clicking around on a website trying to make it fall over.

Dog end days of contract indeed.

Sounds like SDC - Supervision, direction and control. Could be your reason to get out of there quick time.

[rocktronAMP]

Exactly how I stand now.

I wish I had been more audacious in my youth, but in contracting life that comes with having a war-chest behind you, giving the ability to really speak your mind and walk if need be. Now I really don't suffer fools easily, nor do I have time for stupidity or incompetence. Fortunately I am at the stage where I don't have to put up with it any more.

Right and Wrong are pretty much clear cut and if something isn't right, then speak up, else at some point in time you will look back and regret it. There are plenty of times in my past where I wish I had spoken out against wrong-doing in the workplace. I also had a bull-type PM on one contract. I put up with her for a year (why is it always a woman!); fortunately she wasn't a dragon every day but even then, I wish I had taken her aside and had a word with her. Ultimately we're all human and in the workplace we're all adults.

Pip - Hi Don't put up with the PM. Front her and speak to her, tell her how she makes you feel. At the very least you will feel better afterwards for having done it and not having let her get away with people you so badly.

Usually, negative psychological traits appear in the work place from other troublesome misdeamonours and traumas, which should usually be private kept outside business. She, herself, could be a victim of bullying (manipulation) from elsewhere in her own life. (Her husband, her kids, her mother-in-law, her mother and even from other women with her "cliche" (and you, Pip, might not fit the bill because your dress, fashion and communication style).) Your PM could be expressing "learned behaviours" from the recent past. Of course, you can confront her on your own, however it is better to do this in a group with at least another person with authority and as and/or with witnesses.

Psychologist often say, "the behaviour is NOT the person" and your PM has not learnt that one yet. I would stick out of the contract until my last two weeks, in meanwhile plan to hold a "group review / feedback" meeting with the PM, if and only if you care about her.

The other thing I would throw into mix is, do you care about this current client enough? If you do and you think that you might go back one day for another contract, factor into your calculations, if your current PM will survive. In the same company, will your current PM suddenly gain a promotion despite her misdeamonours to become the Head of Development in a year or two years? If you think that might genuinely happen then take a loaded "gun of invective" to your exit-and-review feedback meeting, if your client organises such things, because I doubt you would want to return to client so soon.

Good luck!

[ECommerceConsultant]

I'm a senior PM, and also manage teams of developers. I also used to be a developer.
Her behaviour sounds to be counterproductive. If there is a lot of work currently on, and there is constant re-prioritisation, then a rethink of methods needs to be discussed within the team.
What I would do in this situation (if I was a developer) - I would ask her the following (but do it in earshot of the rest of the team):

"Can we, as a team, meet on Friday afternoon, offsite for a drink, to discuss how to increase productivity and communication within the team?"

You could suggest making it a regular Friday meeting, every week or every second week. Say that the purpose will be for everyone to discuss what has gone well or could have been better this week. All team members can contribute to improvements, and everyone will agree on them at the time.

But....what you're really preparing for, for the first meeting, is to advocate an agile method of sprint delivery (do you have experience with this?). At the very minimum, you should suggest daily standups, 10 minutes only, for each team member to update everyone on "What did you do yesterday, what will you do today, and are there any blockers?" This will bring some benefits - the PM will get a daily update as to where things stand, and what was achieved yesterday, and she will be able to help unblock any obstacles which prevent the team from working. Also, because of this daily update, she will not be needing a daily summary by email of everything that each developer has completed (this is just ridiculous). Point it out to her that having to write this summary every day takes time out of your day which should be spent on high priority development tasks, and that the daily standup will provide her with the clarity and visibility that she needs to run the project (and if she needs further detail, she can look in JIRA).

I get the feeling she is not comfortable using JIRA and probably doesn't want anyone to know...how about you asking her in a gentle, kind way, that if you could show her anything in JIRA, how to set up alerts etc, you'd be more than happy to help? She might take you up on it, and it would make you look like the good person.

In summary, take a deep breath, and think about how to bring improvements in the team.
Make suggestions to have a weekly end of week meeting to run through the week's activities and learnings
Suggest a daily standup every day - to provide clarity to the development work and priorities
Offer to help her with Jira

If she is not open to change and positive improvements, then I'd suggest you find a job elsewhere where you will be happier.

Good luck.

[Yonmons]

Nature of the game enduring PM's like this, I only really locked horns with one who was completely useless and brassing off all team members, upshot was they made the bullets, and being a northerner ( who was once told that the email I had sent had attitude) I fired them, got me no where It became all out war which I lost and my services were dispensed with by said PM, but as I said at the time it was the right decision from him, in the 2 yrs I was on the project we had seen a whole trail of failed PM's come and go, and I had enough (we all had) of yet another fresh idea merchant. Shortly after he binned me, he got the order of the boot himself!

[SueEllen]

Got in this morning & she's decided she wants me to smoke test the application before it goes into a pre prod environment. She wants me to produce a plan & detail how long I'm going to spend testing each part of the application.

My initial reaction is to tell her I'm not a tester though the reality is I just can't be bothered to sit here all day clicking around on a website trying to make it fall over.

Dog end days of contract indeed.

Hopefully you went over to one of the testers and helped to illustrate this PM's incompetence?

If you are given work outside your skillset and schedule it's just a case of getting the right people over to inform the PM that it's their job.

[Abraham]

Whenever there is a tussle between the tyrant PM and a team member, PM always wins regardless of her/his bad behaviour. You are good at work, but they are good in "managing" you. It will be a losing battle, if you attempt to educate the tyrant PM. They would not tolerate any sign of "disobedience". Agile methodologies etc. are there only in paper, as many PMs are traditional PMs who have re-branded themselves as agile masters to protect their jobs, and their old style of project management never goes away. Unfortunately, it is the PM who has access to the higher ups, and he/she can badmouth you systematically so he/she can get rid of you anytime. Tyrant PMs want to run their projects like their little kingdom, and they would never like your talent or achievements visible to the higher ups, as that would weaken his/her authority over you.

With such tyrant PMs, all good people would have left on their own or terminated by the PM. With only the "yes master"s and his/her lieutenants remaining in the project, there is little or no chance of the project succeeding. At the end, the organisation would have no alternative but to cancel the project. The tyrant PM would now be in a new project, continuing destroying people's career and lives. The cycle continues.

Usually if your boss is a bully, his/her boss also is a bully, so the behavior is inherited. So, don't have any hope that you can report the bad behaviour to boss's boss, and if you did, you would have to face two bullies.

[perplexed]

Hopefully you went over to one of the testers and helped to illustrate this PM's incompetence?

If you are given work outside your skillset and schedule it's just a case of getting the right people over to inform the PM that it's their job.

Work outside skillset and schedule?

"I'm afraid I can't undertake that work as my insurance doesn't cover me for any claims for work outside my skillset and schedule. I'm however happy to advise others with any thoughts I might have as long as you're willing to indemnify me against any potential claims".

End of the day, if any client team I encounter are decent people, I'm happy to go the extra mile. Someone like that PM, it would be pure business and purely sticking to business. That usually winds someone like that up far more than yelling at them.

EDIT: Of course, encountering someone like that PM, you always find devs et al who can't stand them. Giving those people ideas as to how to improve things could lead to a groundswell without you having to do a hatchet job.

[Pip in a Poke]

Well I did quit and tomorrow's my last day.

I just couldn't take any more of her and her power games. Her latest trick was to have me find her swiveling in my seat when I got back from the loo on a few occasions.

So, the question is - who do I stick it to with both barrels tomorrow? I really think this stupid cow need bringing down a peg or two.

[radish2008]

Well I did quit and tomorrow's my last day.

I just couldn't take any more of her and her power games. Her latest trick was to have me find her swiveling in my seat when I got back from the loo on a few occasions.

So, the question is - who do I stick it to with both barrels tomorrow? I really think this stupid cow need bringing down a peg or two.

Option 1: Kick her head in.

Option 2: Explain as you're leaving to her management how they lost a valuable resource solely because of the way she behaves.