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RE: OT: Technician having to play politics

From: Boivin, Patrice J <BoivinP_at_mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca>
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 08:53:46 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.0057BD3A.20030407085346@fatcity.com>


I mentioned this before on the OT list I think, months ago...

There is a good book from an MBA professor in Montreal that chronicles the demise of a UK investment bank -- all because the visionary founder of the company was outmaneuvered by technocrats. They kept hiring other technocrats, careerism and paperwork sank the whole company.

There is a review here: http://www3.sympatico.ca/cypher/fanatics.htm

A search in Amazon for "artists craftsmen technocrats" leads you to a $4 download (pdf) version of the book.

Regards,
Pat.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 12:49 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

The ultimate source of the information about places like that is found on http://www.dilbert.com. The species we're talking about is called phbus domesticus, PHB for friends. It has an external appearance of a human being but uses fuzzy logic incomprehensible to a normal human being. Results are usually disatreous and the only recourse one normally has is to vote with his feet and run away as soon as he can. Employment ads asking for a DBA that knows data modelling, MS SQL Server, oracle, unix, NT, has a MSCE and OCP and can turn water into Heineken(TM), all for $70k/year are usually a bad sign. I can turn Heineken into water, if somebody's interested.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 4:19 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

>
>Dear Ann (hehe),
>
>Previous to this assignment I have been considered
>to be principled about
>technology but reasonable and pragmatic. At this
>assignment I was given a
>big send up and there were some real insecurities
>already in-place from
>people put into high-level IT jobs without any real
>IT experience. I was
>told to take a proactive role (at first) and I did
>but I feel that this has
>only caused more resentment - plus I am not the
>best e-mail writer in the
>universe and e-mail can lead to miscommunications.
>Now, I look back at the
>last 3 years and realize that unconsciously people
>hear me with a certain
>perspective - miss know-it-all, technical geek -B*.
> Outside of my job I am
>considered patient, team-playing, caretaker type.
>I realize that the one
>thing I need to do is use this opportunity to hone
>my personal skills and I
>am not a person to easily give-up (worked one place
>for 10 years, married
>high-school sweetheart, dedicated wife, mother,
>daughter of elderly
>parents). However, with a bad start and the last 3
>years of dodging more
>personal missiles then I can think of (including
>being personally insulted
>in meetings with users - something I would never do
>to another) I don't know
>what to do. The IT market is pretty stiff and
>right now I have 2 small
>children, a husband and elderly parents relying on
>me and my income.
>Sometimes I feel that what I am feeling could be
>somewhat due to the
>tightening market and insecure overall economy and
>the fact that this
>particular organization has not had a strong CIO
>for the last 7 years -
>leading to more emphasis on political positioning
>(wow - learning much more
>about politics then I ever wanted to know) and
>that I am not alone. This
>environment I have used to temper my standards and
>responses, got Oracle OCP
>after holding out for 8 years, heck considering to
>write a book on the IT
>government industry - kind of a parody in light of
>P.J. O'Rourke. Please
>understand that not everyone in this environment
>has these issues. In
>otherwords, I am not Schizophrenic feeling everyone
>is against me. However,
>this environment is not balanced and so the
>moderate, objective voices seem
>to get lost in the storm. So I am trying to find a
>way to turn this whole
>thing around - I believe there is one person
>especially who is at the heart
>of this. Others have reported this as so. I do
>not wish to cause this
>person any harm. I just want to turn this thing
>around without having to
>get another job. I would like to see a win-win.
>My dream is to work with
>other technical professionals to development
>products of lasting quality
>that really address business needs. I have
>something significant invested
>in the users here, the technology, the other
>technicians and management.
>Any ideas/advice?

Macchiavelli, "The Prince"
Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
You can also search "36 stratagems" on the internet ...  

Regards,

Stephane Faroult
Oriole

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Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
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Author: Stephane Faroult
  INET: sfaroult_at_oriolecorp.com

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Author: Boivin, Patrice J
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Received on Mon Apr 07 2003 - 11:53:46 CDT

Original text of this message

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