Project manager going down in flames

[chef]

You should have 1 person who approves work/signs timesheet, effectively is the person who says if youget paid or not.

The moment someone gives you extra work or tells you that your workload has increased in anyway (i.e shortening deadlines) you tell them that it cant be done as you already have too much work on. You refuse to budge on this, "thats the way it is round here" etc. bullsh!t permie style tactis to get you to do more in less time gets a blank repeititive response of "I agree, however, Im telling you that my current workload means that will not get it done unless you tell me which other work I should drop in order of priority". If that's met with "it's all priority no. 1" then tell them that you can't take on this extra work/shorter deadline. Dont budge on this.. ever. Email them and cc in your payday person stating calmly that you understand that this is a hectic environment but your current workload of <SHORT summary of workload> means you cannot take on this extra work", ideal opportunity to discuss overtime rates in order to get it done if you want to.

If your already in the sh!t (which it sounds like you are), you need to man up and email the person who gives you work (never agree to multiple people giving you work) and get that person to prioritise your workload, again cc'ing in the payperson if they aren't the same person. If they refuse to budge, then write back (always keeping written logs of conversations is a MUST) telling them that given your background in ??? then you can see that workload prioritisation is required in order to successfully manage and meet targets/deadlines and so based on your personal opinion you believe the following is possible and sensible for the given timeframes to maximise useful output and will work to these deadlines. If they would like to change your prioritisation of work from the above then you will be more than happy to discuss this, otherwise you will assume this is acceptable.

If you have multiple people giving you work then email them all again inc the payperson and stress the importance of "in order to maximise production/completion of projects within the given timescale" and maybe also suggest a meeting (i.e war council) where the key stakeholders fight it out amongst themselves as to what gets priority.

in short
- make sure your payperson is fully aware so you dont get bad mouthed behind your back and then not paid if/when you get the boot.
- keep a written record of everything.
- Push your recommended prioritisation to everyone else making clear its best for production and let them fight it out between themselves while you carry on working to your new schedule
- be a man and stop saying yes to everything or agreeing to shorten deadlines or take on more work unless your aiming to be the one who takes the flack when the sh!t hits the fan (which it looks like it almost certainly will)

[d000hg]

Can you think of some good snappy 1-line explanations for managers too busy (or dumb) to discuss it at length:

e.g "I was already working flat-out last week. Just because there are twice as many priority-1 tasks as last week doesn't mean I can be twice as productive."

[Zippy]

Can you think of some good snappy 1-line explanations for managers too busy (or dumb) to discuss it at length:

e.g "I was already working flat-out last week. Just because there are twice as many priority-1 tasks as last week doesn't mean I can be twice as productive."

A good topic for a thread?
"Right, I'll just finish constructing this time machine and you can have it yesterday"

[d000hg]

"It's nearly 5pm. Don't worry, you go home to your family while I do those extra tasks that are essential to your job"

[sasguru]

You should have 1 person who approves work/signs timesheet, effectively is the person who says if youget paid or not.

The moment someone gives you extra work or tells you that your workload has increased in anyway (i.e shortening deadlines) you tell them that it cant be done as you already have too much work on. You refuse to budge on this, "thats the way it is round here" etc. bullsh!t permie style tactis to get you to do more in less time gets a blank repeititive response of "I agree, however, Im telling you that my current workload means that will not get it done unless you tell me which other work I should drop in order of priority". If that's met with "it's all priority no. 1" then tell them that you can't take on this extra work/shorter deadline. Dont budge on this.. ever. Email them and cc in your payday person stating calmly that you understand that this is a hectic environment but your current workload of <SHORT summary of workload> means you cannot take on this extra work", ideal opportunity to discuss overtime rates in order to get it done if you want to.

If your already in the sh!t (which it sounds like you are), you need to man up and email the person who gives you work (never agree to multiple people giving you work) and get that person to prioritise your workload, again cc'ing in the payperson if they aren't the same person. If they refuse to budge, then write back (always keeping written logs of conversations is a MUST) telling them that given your background in ??? then you can see that workload prioritisation is required in order to successfully manage and meet targets/deadlines and so based on your personal opinion you believe the following is possible and sensible for the given timeframes to maximise useful output and will work to these deadlines. If they would like to change your prioritisation of work from the above then you will be more than happy to discuss this, otherwise you will assume this is acceptable.

If you have multiple people giving you work then email them all again inc the payperson and stress the importance of "in order to maximise production/completion of projects within the given timescale" and maybe also suggest a meeting (i.e war council) where the key stakeholders fight it out amongst themselves as to what gets priority.

in short
- make sure your payperson is fully aware so you dont get bad mouthed behind your back and then not paid if/when you get the boot.
- keep a written record of everything.
- Push your recommended prioritisation to everyone else making clear its best for production and let them fight it out between themselves while you carry on working to your new schedule
- be a man and stop saying yes to everything or agreeing to shorten deadlines or take on more work unless your aiming to be the one who takes the flack when the sh!t hits the fan (which it looks like it almost certainly will)

WIS

[Zippy]

"It's nearly 5pm. Don't worry, you go home to your family while I do those extra tasks that are essential to your job"

"If these are all priority 1, can we discuss which one should be escalated to priority zero?"

[Svalbaard]

I have also delivered documentation and unit tests which was not in the plan.

Why did you simply not deliver what you were asked for instead of bundling these extras on top? Product based planning should be your PMs responsibility and if unit test results and documentation are not mentioned as deliverables then it's not your job to second guess what he wants. Perhaps you could have raised these as additions as plan exceptions or similar to your PM before actually heading off and completing them.

I know it may appear unprofessional as you sound like a conciencious person, and it is difficult, but you may have kept your timelines if you had just done what you were asked and left the PM to manage any omissions via whatever checkpointing or governance model is used.

Of course, it goes without saying that his response was out of order and you have my sympathies. But you are quite within your rights to walk away, pick up the phone and make a formal complaint to your HR representative.

[RichardCranium]

Why did you simply not deliver what you were asked for instead of bundling these extras on top?

He says earlier - because he was told to do these unplanned activities.

make a formal complaint to your HR representative.

"HR representative" Oh, that's funny!

[suityou01]

A little update for those that would have one.

Back in work today. KF is being a knob still, but I have tuned him out. Seems to be working. He is not being renewed, and has decided I am to blame. Good luck with that one.

His boss, has taken over as PM. First difference I noticed was I now have a copy of the plan, and know exactly what I am supposed to be doing and when for. Any queries I have she manages well, and gets results from the business. This is all excellent and the change is palpable.

On the down side, they hired me because I had broad experience of the kind of tools they use, with competing vendors. They may or may not have changed their mind as to whether they now want someone with experience in the exact toolset they are using.

She made the point that I had two weeks of handovers, and should now be up to speed. I made the point that I did not have two weeks of handovers as my predecessor was developing in that time, and it was nearer one week, and we spent most of that week going over his code, none of which is documented.

I thought she was being unreasonable, if you hire someone with "nearish" skills, then you expect a degree of learning curve, otherwise you hire someone with exactly the kind of skills you need. I think they are trying to have their cake and eat it, and are just one of THOSE clients.

Most importantly I am not letting it get me down. The range of technologies they use, and the vast quantity of undocumented code and technical debt is stressful enough in itself and would make even the most hardened CUKer grimace. The fact that they have someone who has 95% of the skillset they need, and is working hard to close the gap on the other 5%, and hasn't chucked in the towel would for me as a PM be enough.

I know you "there's no friends in business" types will flame me for this, but I think solid businesses are built on cooperation, negotation and reason. Not bullying, selective deafness and witch hunting.

I am quite a way round this learning curve, and have done stress - > extreme stress -> illness -> bounce -> resillience. I am now wending my way towards ambivolance.

Is this the promised land?

[Zippy]

Thanks for the update SY01. Glad you are getting stuck in there.

Don't worry about the PM as she's probably been given a load of flannel in the past (and, rather naively, believed it). Similarly, don't worry about knob - you are probably a closet hero for helping to get rid.
Now the pressure is off a little, you can concentrate on learning the tool.

This is the Promised Land and you can expense the milk and honey