... and I'll never forget it. "Never tulip on people on the way up, as you may just need them again on the way back down".
Stuck with me that has. Then again I don't think I've ever seen it implemented.
When I worked in Germany, the time before just now - when I blew the cylinder head on my car, I wasn't having such a great time on the project. The lead dev was a bit shouty, and used to talk to me like I was a piece of tulipe. There was one other contractor on site, German chap, who used to go for beers with me on a Wednesday night and listen to me get it all off my chest. Very sympathetic.
Then he said he was starting his own consultancy, and maybe some day in the future I could sub contract. He liked my work, and the fact that I could hack "euro commuting" as he put it.
I remember joking at the time that I insist "he did not get all shouty", and would treat me with a modicum of respect. He used to agree how awfully I was treated and always said he would treat his consultants with a high level of respect, because he is one himself and knows how hard they work.
Roll forward to last July when I got the call. Germany again, 4 weeks work, for his burgeoning consultancy. Fabulous!
So I went out there. 4 weeks became 11 months. Again fabulous.
Here's the but. I was treated like a skivvy. Undermined, talked down to, especially in front of the customer. This in turn made the customer treat me badly. Constant interruptions, with irrelevant questions like "how do you do this in excel". It was driving me mad. No sense escalating, although I did try a few times to explain that if you allow the customer to walk all over your consultants it does not set a good precedent, and would ultimately lead to a revolving door policy for his consultants.
I would tell the end client one thing, maybe try and exert some pressure on them to deliver things. They would go running behind my back, to this guy and he would fold immediately. Then when I carried on pressing the end client they would just laugh and show me the email that completely undermined me.
It's an interesting approach to building a consultancy, and one that confuses the tulip out of me. I remember thinking to me that this guy has worked so hard to build this consultancy, but it wouldn't hurt to be a little more gracious.
It is typical "suity the victim" stuff, and I recognise the one common factor here is me, but I genuinely do not understand how I end up getting trampled when I just turn up and do my best. In this recent case my best was good enough as it went live without a hitch.
Not every gig happens like this. But more than I am comfortable with.
Stuck with me that has. Then again I don't think I've ever seen it implemented.
When I worked in Germany, the time before just now - when I blew the cylinder head on my car, I wasn't having such a great time on the project. The lead dev was a bit shouty, and used to talk to me like I was a piece of tulipe. There was one other contractor on site, German chap, who used to go for beers with me on a Wednesday night and listen to me get it all off my chest. Very sympathetic.
Then he said he was starting his own consultancy, and maybe some day in the future I could sub contract. He liked my work, and the fact that I could hack "euro commuting" as he put it.
I remember joking at the time that I insist "he did not get all shouty", and would treat me with a modicum of respect. He used to agree how awfully I was treated and always said he would treat his consultants with a high level of respect, because he is one himself and knows how hard they work.
Roll forward to last July when I got the call. Germany again, 4 weeks work, for his burgeoning consultancy. Fabulous!
So I went out there. 4 weeks became 11 months. Again fabulous.
Here's the but. I was treated like a skivvy. Undermined, talked down to, especially in front of the customer. This in turn made the customer treat me badly. Constant interruptions, with irrelevant questions like "how do you do this in excel". It was driving me mad. No sense escalating, although I did try a few times to explain that if you allow the customer to walk all over your consultants it does not set a good precedent, and would ultimately lead to a revolving door policy for his consultants.
I would tell the end client one thing, maybe try and exert some pressure on them to deliver things. They would go running behind my back, to this guy and he would fold immediately. Then when I carried on pressing the end client they would just laugh and show me the email that completely undermined me.
It's an interesting approach to building a consultancy, and one that confuses the tulip out of me. I remember thinking to me that this guy has worked so hard to build this consultancy, but it wouldn't hurt to be a little more gracious.
It is typical "suity the victim" stuff, and I recognise the one common factor here is me, but I genuinely do not understand how I end up getting trampled when I just turn up and do my best. In this recent case my best was good enough as it went live without a hitch.
Not every gig happens like this. But more than I am comfortable with.
)
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