Save. Spend. Splurge.

Nobody works as a team any more..

The area that I work in is so specialized with so many moving little parts and teams, that it always amazes me when I get somewhere and realize that they have no idea how to work as a team.

Everyone is siloed into their own departments and no one works together or talks to each other.

THEY SAY THEY DO, but they don’t because in their meetings you don’t really have people who are experienced enough with the right knowledge leading the charge, and then on top of that, they don’t have the proper meeting structure in place.

It is frustrating to try and figure out your part when no one else works with you.

This is not teamwork.

Teamwork is when we do something, it affects something else, and if the group is not in sync, nothing will fit together as it should!!!

We all succeed together or we all fail together.

I also really hate how unrealistic we are with all of this. People think building things is done over night.

My favourite line is: “Oh just do it like X and it is the same“… NO IT ISN’T.

If it was the same I would use what was already there and not do something differently. If you are asking for something differently to be done, it means IT IS NOT THE SAME, by definition.

What I really hate above all, is not having a clear person to go to, who understands each little moving part, organizes it, keeps us calm, goes back to Vice-Presidents and tells them that they can have it quick and ugly, or if they want it done well, it will take more time. Or more money overall.

…although there was a saying going around that I had never heard before. It goes something like this:

To make a baby takes 9 months.

You cannot put 9 women together and have the baby in 1 month.

It takes TIME.

I have never heard that expression before but it does make sense.

Like all good things, it takes time.

I wish people would keep that in mind because I sometimes have to bite my tongue before I say: You think you can do my job in 2 weeks, what takes me 2 months to do properly? GO. AHEAD.

One of these days though…….

That’s one of the work frustrations I feel, along with accelerated timelines because people are not realistic.

They think because they HEARD from a supplier that they can get it done in 3 months when we all know that they are a bunch of sales liars who are trying to sell a project and don’t really think it can be done in 3 months because they’ll just get extended after they get their foot in the door, they think it’s true.

Anyone at the top, with half a brain, would realize a few things:

A) What you have in place, is not properly structured to begin with.

If you start with a bad foundation, you will have a lot of crap piled on top to compensate for it being terrible to begin with.

B) The people you have are not experienced AND/OR knowledgeable.

They think that they can do it all by themselves without outside help or contractors like myself to provide that help.

They think that just because they’ve worked in their job for 10 years, they know it all.

That may be true… for their job role, but not for something NEW that has to be done. How can you know what the possibilities are, if all you have seen is just one?

It’s like saying because you’ve built a toy house for your child, you’re experienced enough to handle construction on a huge skyscraper.

C) You don’t want to front the money to hire the right people.

I need an ARMY of people to help me. Am I getting the help? No, I am getting basically leftovers from other departments of people who couldn’t do their jobs there to begin with, thinking that they’ll somehow be helpful and ramp up on my projects.

Umm… if they couldn’t follow directions under a manager in another area, what makes you think they’re going to excel in this one?

Attitude is the #1 thing I look for, not knowledge, but if you tell me you’re going to do something and you up and leave at 3 p.m. while everyone is frantic and rushing on an urgent matter, what makes you think I’m going to trust you?

Ugh. Sorry. Unloading my work frustrations on you is not fair, but I am just so annoyed right now.

7 Comments

  • ArianaAuburn

    This is why I am taking Software Engineering course this semester. This course emphasizes the importance of working on projects in teams. I don’t want to be that employee who can’t work on a project who gives other people headaches.

  • ABC

    I get it. This is your private ranting space. But if you want to do something about it – stop being that person who waltzes in and out of a company and be the person who fixes it. This is common. You get more money and have no job security – so you want to be efficient. When people get less, and have more job security – they donโ€™t really care.

    • Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.

      I don’t have any power to fix anything.

      The last times I spoke up about working as a team, they all gave me a look that said “learn your place” and went on with what they wanted to do

      In the end I am just giving up, and trying not to care any more. If they don’t care, why should I? All the more money for me in the end.

    • Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.

      I should also clarify that as an “outsider” I am constantly reminded / told that I am NOT an employee and not one of them, so when I try to act like one of them, they think they know better. Only employees are heard where I am, and have far more clout than I do, but I have to take the blame when they screw up.. this is why I get paid a lot more money, it’s to be better than them, and to cover for their mistakes, basically.

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