4 ms·

Whew, I've seen this one first- and second-hand a few times. I worked for a global multi-national for around 17 years, through a few acquisitions, and through

by mdip 7y ago

Whew, I've seen this one first- and second-hand a few times. I worked for a global multi-national for around 17 years, through a few acquisitions, and through a 6-9 month lay-off cadence that often came with overall restructuring and rotating/changing managers. I remember one individual, in particular, we'll call him "Bob". This guy's ignorance was rivaled only by his arrogance. Bob ended up taking over the team that myself and a coworker (who I shared an office with) and almost immediately started causing grief. A series of boneheaded, and very expensive decisions were made which effectively eliminated the department at the next lay-off cycle. Somehow the Bob not only survives another set of layoffs, he gets promoted and is now in my direct reporting chain. Almost immediately, any interdepartmental communication was forbidden (and I'm talking "Database Admins" not being allowed to e-mail "Unix sysadmins"), and similarly, much of his department started crumbling. I got out quick and my coworker, Greg (not really), entered a new level of hell. Though my department changed, my location didn't, and I still worked with Greg 75% of the time. Greg felt his wrath, daily and I got a bit of it "by splash". Then Greg saw an opportunity -- he was asked to discuss a project with the CIO, our department Director and VP. Greg didn't hesitate to bring up Bob[0]. It went over like a lead baloon; holy cow, the whole mood in the room changed. Something we hadn't known -- Bob hung out with a lot of folks in the office outside of work. He worked at the main office, which was much larger and in a different time zone than us and our Director. The VP in the room was also from the main office. Shortly after the meeting, he was informed by his boss that she had spent the last hour "begging for them to not fire [coworker]". Yep. They were all friends. Well, my story has a bit of an uglier ending, but not one that isn't deserved. The struggling company was purchased by a competitor and the CIO was replaced. Several layers were added above Bob. The new headquarters was in a city far enough away that they had their own networks, isolated from the old guard. Incredibly, Bob started making in-roads well before the acquisition was complete and had already begun trying to sully the reputations of people he considered "enemies". One of those people was Greg. Now, Greg had a few people who didn't like him. He was very cut-and-dry, blunt, but he was an "attack the idea, not the person" kind of guy and if you understood that, you got along well with him. He was/is crazy smart, articulate and has a personality of the kind that you want to get behind because you know he's going to be doing something great. And he'd slept at the new office the entirety of the previous week making sure that the infrastructure side of things went off without a hitch. We're in a 9-person meeting "war-room" for the acquisition, and the CIO walks in -- I throw him a (sadly, over-prepared question) about REST and our (non-existent) service infrastructure and he mentioned something about Clojure. My coworker is introduced[1] him and he said "So, what's the deal with Bob? ...". He attacked the person. And went on for 15 minutes, deadpan, facts-only, listing every failure and its inevitable origin: a decision Bob forced down the department's throat. I watched the new CIO get more and more disgusted -- he was a rare beast -- a C-level at a multi-national who understood systems and didn't have a skillset that was a decade out-of-date[2]. The CIO politely excused himself from the room, which was completely silent at this point save for my coworker and remained that way for a solid minute after the guy left the room[3]. Greg had gotten a little loud. Then we remembered that we were there to watch him address the IT department on the big screen in the room[4]. Someone in tech announced that things would be getting started about 5 minutes late. They started 15-minutes late. Shortly after introducing himself, the CIO apologized and said he had to take care of a "personnel issue" that required a little more time than he had expected. The door opened and our (new) department VP walked in, "[CIO] just got off the phone with HR and Bob. He was informed his services are no longer needed." Greg was on his feet and the room erupted. For literally months after that happened, people from the "old company" would call Greg (remote office) to thank him. What was amazing to me was that literally everyone except for 3 people in IT management and leadership knew this guy was at fault and yet he continued to increase in his ability to cause problems. It turned out that the prior week had been spent by the new CIO trying to wrap his head around the boneheaded architectural decisions he was inheriting. All of these decisions had one name behind them and that guy had been with the company for 10 years! [0] I don't recommend it. This guy, though, had stones and if given the opportunity to address the issue with someone higher on the chain, it trumped any fears of him losing the job. "If they're not going to trust me to tell the truth when it's hard to hear, they're not someone I can morally work for." He had brought it up to every single person from above him up to the CIO, why not the CIO? [1] That's an understatement. He was one of the major reasons infrastructure integration happened at all. The CIO looked at him like he was some mad genius. [2] I recognized the same on the development side when his Clojure response, despite not being a choice I would have made (unfamiliarity), was backed up with an argument that wasn't marketing or otherwise buzz-wordy. [3] Someone started with a "So......" at some point, I'm sure. [4] The company had a studio -- really cool -- and complete stage/audience room. We could have gone, and some did, but we were "war rooming" for the past week and a few of us weren't sure if it was just the left-overs from lunch that had stunk up the place.

mdip 7y ago
Reading this over a little bit, I wanted to clarify a few points. At least a few of the things Bob was responsible for fell into the category of questionable ethics, if not outright illegal behavior. There was cases where incredibly expensive, far inferior solutions were chosen over the recommendations of everyone else which turned out to involve a purchase from a company that had some connection to Bob. Server hardware vendors changed from major brands to lesser-knowns at a higher sticker and much higher support cost. Bob was very-much about connections. Where you had to get used to Greg crapping on a bad idea, and accept that he still had utmost respect for you as an engineer, you had to deal with Bob crapping all over you, especially if you were an engineer with a good idea. If it was a really good idea, it became Bob's idea shortly after he badmouthed you onto the next lay-off list. We noticed early on that if someone appeared to be smarter/more capable than Bob, Bob would target that manager. We lost my favorite two managers to Bob's relentless bad-mouthing inside and outside the main office ... which neither of these managers shared.
peteradio 7y ago
That would have been incredible to witness.
- mdip 7y ago
  So incredible. It still feels like it happened to somebody else. While writing that, yesterday, I realized that I was a participant in the whole situation most of the time. Not the first CIO meeting; George was downright crazy for doing that, but he disagrees with me on that. In that second CIO meeting, I contributed a few points of my own; but really, Greg had the stones to speak up -- I wouldn't have had he not gotten the ball rolling, so my contribution isn't something I really remember much of. I'm pretty sure I got the quote from the new director perfectly, though -- it was a moment in my life where I felt like I had witnessed "the right decision being made, even though it was tough to make" along with a whole mess of vindication for the tens of times I had butted heads with Bob. Someone looking skeptically might attribute some form of good will toward Bob. That's cool and I hope he's all right. He had family and friends; I'm sure someone found him to delightful. We never met the great Dad that he might be. We got stuck with laser-focused pure-rage. My favorite Greg, not Bob, story, though is the reason he's among my best friends years after that job. I had started in Desktop Support at a company that was 80% VT-something-or-other terminals in 1997[0]. Greg started a month after me, and shared my work-aholic tendencies[1]. The new VP of our new IT department, who's name is not Wesley, but who was one you could count on to correct you if you didn't use his full, given name, came to our office. We were HQ#2 back then. To set the stage, he picked a 25-person conference room for all ... 70-or-so? of us, for an hour-long mandatory meeting[2]. He's sitting with his butt leaning against the edge of a whiteboard, standing in the corner, wearing Birkenstock sandals and socks (nothing against Birks; owned 6 pairs in my life), addressing the tightly packed, mostly standing group. Greg is sitting at the oval table in the center. Before Wesley starts talking, it's obvious, he's going for a certain look. It wasn't hipster (AFAIK, too early). Then he started, trying to communicate ... something ... what ... the fsck ... are these words ...? Everyone in the room has a look on their face that resembles some form of straining. He mis-used words, he made new words made out of combinations of obscure words. Poly-isomorphic was used twice among several words that "I don't think it means what you think it means". Greg told me about a habit he had when people drone on and on. He starts counting those "annoying words", "uh's" and "um's", "you know's" and such and keeps score. It's a curse. I can't help but do the exact same thing[3]. I had to stop when the Migraine hit. Greg was in rapt attention, awkwardly, the only one in the room feigning interest. Q&A comes up and I ask about our mess-of-an-e-mail[4] platform, and he responds "Netscape"-something-or-other. Greg speaks up and asks if we had evaluated GroupWise, Exchange or another option[5], carefully elevating his vocabulary to sound "intelligent, but not douche-y" and mid-sentence he pauses, blinks, and says "...I'm sorry, ... did you want me to fluff you?" Now, it's hard to convey how that was delivered without the accompanying voice. Greg's voice is right in the middle; neither booming nor weak. I'd guess he sings around a Tenor range. He delivered this in with the same tone a server at a restaurant, might. There a desire to help in his tone, along with a tinge of innocence, and empathy: "Oh, that's my fault, I forgot to hold the mushrooms for you. Let me just run back and fix that." The words were at a total disconnect with the delivery. He delivered a slap in the face that you feel obligated to tip him for. It sucked the air out of the room. Wesley lets out an uncomfortable laugh and says, and in his first display of humanity, says "No, no, ..." and the room erupts in laughter. It's 55-minutes into this meeting. Many of the participants in the room are middle-aged very-overweight men who are visibly wet with sweat because it's mid-summer and you don't jam that many people into a conference room for an hour. The collective laughter was like a bomb going off; people left cubicles out of concern to see what the noise was. Greg was early 20s, I was 19, we were the youngest in the department by at least 5 years, and younger than most by 15. Here's this "equivalent to the cashier" spanking the district manager in front of his entire team on his day of introduction. And he was saying exactly what everyone in that room was thinking. Stones on this guy[6]. Funny thing is, for the most part, it became a story and that's it. Our, collective, manager told him "That was awesome" and he never took any heat for it. I'm guessing Wesley was a little embarrassed and just let it go. He stuck around for another year-and-a-half until the first acquisition or-so, and occasionally worked on things with Greg, but it was never brought up between them. Though it wasn't a Hollywood-style "and Wesley had a new found respect for Greg" ... I think Wesley realized, rightly, that Greg was an "equivalent to a cashier" at the time and wouldn't be competing for his job before he was long gone. [0] That was flipped in 6 months, but the most used app was a $100 product we had to install to handle whatever VT-weird escape sequences this thing used to display colors and accept input. [1] My dad is a happily retired small business owner with a fierce work-ethic. Some would say workaholic. I was his son. He was an awesome Dad growing up, and is an awesome Dad, now (he doesn't read HN). [2] I'm bitching, but he brought a fountain coke machine with him for permanent installation on the IT floor only, so we weren't unhappy. Suck it, Google! :) [3] My apologies if the curse strikes you, now. :( [4] Lotus CC:Mail - I became an expert in recovering people's inboxes. It was a fantastic piece of software. You could read mountains of e-mail provided you had an IT guy near by who could kill a day helping you de-corrupt your inbox file. It's like your whole inbox was just that .pst file. Still gives me nightmares [5] I want to say Greg was leaning the lines of postfix/a unix/open-source option, or a straight up Microsoft Exchange buy into the Borg scenario (he was an admirer of Bill Gates back when that was frowned upon /s). [6] Apologies for the graphic reference ... no better way to describe. It's part bravery. And were it anyone else I'd say "It's a little bit of stupid mixed in" but no, with rare exception this guy knew those were the right words at that time and knew full well he might be forced to walk out of the building (at least, in the early days). I think I've heard him speak a profanity twice, all placed very intentionally to make a point, and used as though they were high explosives to be used in the most dire of situations.

by mdip 7y ago

mdip 7y ago

Reading this over a little bit, I wanted to clarify a few points. At least a few of the things Bob was responsible for fell into the category of questionable ethics, if not outright illegal behavior. There was cases where incredibly expensive, far inferior solutions were chosen over the recommendations of everyone else which turned out to involve a purchase from a company that had some connection to Bob. Server hardware vendors changed from major brands to lesser-knowns at a higher sticker and much higher support cost. Bob was very-much about connections. Where you had to get used to Greg crapping on a bad idea, and accept that he still had utmost respect for you as an engineer, you had to deal with Bob crapping all over you, especially if you were an engineer with a good idea. If it was a really good idea, it became Bob's idea shortly after he badmouthed you onto the next lay-off list. We noticed early on that if someone appeared to be smarter/more capable than Bob, Bob would target that manager. We lost my favorite two managers to Bob's relentless bad-mouthing inside and outside the main office ... which neither of these managers shared.

peteradio 7y ago

That would have been incredible to witness.

mdip 7y ago
So incredible. It still feels like it happened to somebody else. While writing that, yesterday, I realized that I was a participant in the whole situation most of the time. Not the first CIO meeting; George was downright crazy for doing that, but he disagrees with me on that. In that second CIO meeting, I contributed a few points of my own; but really, Greg had the stones to speak up -- I wouldn't have had he not gotten the ball rolling, so my contribution isn't something I really remember much of. I'm pretty sure I got the quote from the new director perfectly, though -- it was a moment in my life where I felt like I had witnessed "the right decision being made, even though it was tough to make" along with a whole mess of vindication for the tens of times I had butted heads with Bob. Someone looking skeptically might attribute some form of good will toward Bob. That's cool and I hope he's all right. He had family and friends; I'm sure someone found him to delightful. We never met the great Dad that he might be. We got stuck with laser-focused pure-rage. My favorite Greg, not Bob, story, though is the reason he's among my best friends years after that job. I had started in Desktop Support at a company that was 80% VT-something-or-other terminals in 1997[0]. Greg started a month after me, and shared my work-aholic tendencies[1]. The new VP of our new IT department, who's name is not Wesley, but who was one you could count on to correct you if you didn't use his full, given name, came to our office. We were HQ#2 back then. To set the stage, he picked a 25-person conference room for all ... 70-or-so? of us, for an hour-long mandatory meeting[2]. He's sitting with his butt leaning against the edge of a whiteboard, standing in the corner, wearing Birkenstock sandals and socks (nothing against Birks; owned 6 pairs in my life), addressing the tightly packed, mostly standing group. Greg is sitting at the oval table in the center. Before Wesley starts talking, it's obvious, he's going for a certain look. It wasn't hipster (AFAIK, too early). Then he started, trying to communicate ... something ... what ... the fsck ... are these words ...? Everyone in the room has a look on their face that resembles some form of straining. He mis-used words, he made new words made out of combinations of obscure words. Poly-isomorphic was used twice among several words that "I don't think it means what you think it means". Greg told me about a habit he had when people drone on and on. He starts counting those "annoying words", "uh's" and "um's", "you know's" and such and keeps score. It's a curse. I can't help but do the exact same thing[3]. I had to stop when the Migraine hit. Greg was in rapt attention, awkwardly, the only one in the room feigning interest. Q&A comes up and I ask about our mess-of-an-e-mail[4] platform, and he responds "Netscape"-something-or-other. Greg speaks up and asks if we had evaluated GroupWise, Exchange or another option[5], carefully elevating his vocabulary to sound "intelligent, but not douche-y" and mid-sentence he pauses, blinks, and says "...I'm sorry, ... did you want me to fluff you?" Now, it's hard to convey how that was delivered without the accompanying voice. Greg's voice is right in the middle; neither booming nor weak. I'd guess he sings around a Tenor range. He delivered this in with the same tone a server at a restaurant, might. There a desire to help in his tone, along with a tinge of innocence, and empathy: "Oh, that's my fault, I forgot to hold the mushrooms for you. Let me just run back and fix that." The words were at a total disconnect with the delivery. He delivered a slap in the face that you feel obligated to tip him for. It sucked the air out of the room. Wesley lets out an uncomfortable laugh and says, and in his first display of humanity, says "No, no, ..." and the room erupts in laughter. It's 55-minutes into this meeting. Many of the participants in the room are middle-aged very-overweight men who are visibly wet with sweat because it's mid-summer and you don't jam that many people into a conference room for an hour. The collective laughter was like a bomb going off; people left cubicles out of concern to see what the noise was. Greg was early 20s, I was 19, we were the youngest in the department by at least 5 years, and younger than most by 15. Here's this "equivalent to the cashier" spanking the district manager in front of his entire team on his day of introduction. And he was saying exactly what everyone in that room was thinking. Stones on this guy[6]. Funny thing is, for the most part, it became a story and that's it. Our, collective, manager told him "That was awesome" and he never took any heat for it. I'm guessing Wesley was a little embarrassed and just let it go. He stuck around for another year-and-a-half until the first acquisition or-so, and occasionally worked on things with Greg, but it was never brought up between them. Though it wasn't a Hollywood-style "and Wesley had a new found respect for Greg" ... I think Wesley realized, rightly, that Greg was an "equivalent to a cashier" at the time and wouldn't be competing for his job before he was long gone. [0] That was flipped in 6 months, but the most used app was a $100 product we had to install to handle whatever VT-weird escape sequences this thing used to display colors and accept input. [1] My dad is a happily retired small business owner with a fierce work-ethic. Some would say workaholic. I was his son. He was an awesome Dad growing up, and is an awesome Dad, now (he doesn't read HN). [2] I'm bitching, but he brought a fountain coke machine with him for permanent installation on the IT floor only, so we weren't unhappy. Suck it, Google! :) [3] My apologies if the curse strikes you, now. :( [4] Lotus CC:Mail - I became an expert in recovering people's inboxes. It was a fantastic piece of software. You could read mountains of e-mail provided you had an IT guy near by who could kill a day helping you de-corrupt your inbox file. It's like your whole inbox was just that .pst file. Still gives me nightmares [5] I want to say Greg was leaning the lines of postfix/a unix/open-source option, or a straight up Microsoft Exchange buy into the Borg scenario (he was an admirer of Bill Gates back when that was frowned upon /s). [6] Apologies for the graphic reference ... no better way to describe. It's part bravery. And were it anyone else I'd say "It's a little bit of stupid mixed in" but no, with rare exception this guy knew those were the right words at that time and knew full well he might be forced to walk out of the building (at least, in the early days). I think I've heard him speak a profanity twice, all placed very intentionally to make a point, and used as though they were high explosives to be used in the most dire of situations.