30 September, 2008

Tact

Well if Ted E. didn't realise I'm being interviewed for the team leader position he (deservedly) didn't even get shortlisted for, he certainly knows now after the Stress Fiend loudly asked well within hearing "So what time is your interview? Do you know who's on the panel?"

He's now sitting stubbornly in the corner not wanting to talk to anyone.

Contains paraphrasing

Ted E. (recirculating an old email to the group to show us how on the ball he is):

"There are 15 pending requests that are all someone else's fault."

Me (replying to the group rather than directly to Ted, because I have no patience left to be professional about this):

"You've just recycled a two-week-old email without checking any of the data. The current figures are different, and a third of the requests are things you handle or had a direct hand in, and should know the answer to better than the rest of us."

Simple pleasures

Ah, how I love the look of sullen bewilderment on Ted E.'s face when he strolls in at 10 minutes past his boasted starting time and sees me sitting here already...

25 September, 2008

Application for the position of Team Leader, Purgatory

They finally advertised the ongoing position of Team Leader here, and they've held interviews. Now I'm just waiting to see what the outcome is.

What I didn't expect was to hear that Ted E. had applied for the job.

I was good, though. I didn't laugh uproariously at the idea (although it was close) and I think I managed to close off the "wtf?!?" expression on my face before it had time to take hold.

I'm not quite as stunned as I'd have been if he'd also reached the interview stage, but I'm still staggered at the sheer force of his self-delusion. I know he doesn't even understand the very basic jobs he avoids doing during the course of a normal working day, and therefore doesn't grasp that on his best days his performance is mediocre ... but to assume he could leap four position levels and take on licence and contract management, team management, budgeting, and HR functions.

Wow.

What colour is the sky on his planet? And he won't even understand why didn't get to the interview stage. No, he'll take it as further confirmation that no-one recognises his worth...

04 September, 2008

There's a time for democracy, and this isn't it.

"I just wanted to bring up people changing mail folders around and renaming them," says Ted E. as he produces a list of mail folders. "If you're going to make these kind of changes, then can we discuss them first at a meeting?"

Trouble is ... the folders in question have been there for at least a year, and I'm pretty sure some of them predate my time here entirely. So I'm not sure who he thinks created these and began moving them about.

And the solution... dear god!

Why would I want to hold a meeting to discuss the structure and filing of the group inbox with the very people who've actively helped make it into the Grand Abomination it is now?

Note that Ted E. and the Stress Fiend haven't suggested a meeting to discuss general principles or priorities, or how we should approach things in an Age of Reason. No. They've seriously proposed that the entire team sits down as a group and negotiates how and where 835Mb of "historical" email (read "irrelevant junk we'll never throw out because that would require a decision") should be filed.