5 ms·

In my admittedly non-representative experience, having more managers around is definitely a now-you-have-two-problems situation.

mewpmewp2 2y ago
I mean, there's the 1999 documentary about this...
- justin_oaks 2y ago
  For those that are wondering what this "documentary" is, I'm going to assume the movie "Office Space".
duxup 2y ago
I once worked tech support for a company that made fancy routers. I got a call from a reasonably high placed sales rep who was upset I hadn't contacted his customer. I had to tell him: "That ticket is a P3 and I currently have 3 P1s, 5 P2s and I don't know how many other tickets." He asked I make his ticket a P1 (he had the authority to do so). Hour later he called back to find out what we had done, the answer was "nothing". Again I had to explain: "I have 4 P1s, 5 P2s and I don't know how many other tickets." It's amazing how little people understand / care to understand that other people have work to do too...
- lvspiff 2y ago
  Living the same thing here and keep getting told it seems like we aren't "finishing" anything and projects seem to just drone on and on. Well when you keep introducing things as "high priority" and "urgent" it means something has to drop off the list (even if it doesn't "officially") however in his brain that can't be true.
- BobaFloutist 2y ago
  In terms of what's best for the customers and the business, of course I understand your call. In terms of self-preservation and your quality of life, I'm surprised you got that call and proceeded to take no action on his priority for an hour.
  - duxup 2y ago
    I was actually still on the phone with the first P1 from before "Bob" the sales guy first call. Normally I wouldn't have even answered on my second line but generally Bob was a good guy and I knew he could pull the needed strings to actually get extra resources needed. Eventually Bob got the right people on the line, demanded I work his issue (we had a good working relationship) and some other techs took my other tickets. I preferred that outcome anyway. Bob was actually a good guy, his questions weren't unwarranted, it's just a really good story to demonstrate how people forget that other people are busy too.
  - Ylpertnodi 2y ago
    P0's required.
    - ryandrake 2y ago
      This is how most teams I've worked with "solved" this problem: By creating "P0". Now, everything we are actually working on is P0, and we don't know how to prioritize among them. Soon, someone will propose a P-negative-1...
      - mewpmewp2 2y ago
        That's a rookie mistake, they should've gone with the scoring system where higher number indicates higher priority.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > Hour later he called back to find out what we had done, the answer was "nothing". Again I had to explain: "I have 4 P1s, 5 P2s and I don't know how many other tickets." This reads as a lesson in miscommunication more than mismanagement. On his first call, he should have explicitly asked for an ETA. (Even if the assumption was you would immediately start working on his ticket.) On the first call, after his ticket was escalated, he should have been provided with the new context. The solution, ironically, might be inserting a manager between you and him who can better handle communication.
  - duxup 2y ago
    Normally I wouldn't have even spoken with the sales guy, but I saw his name on my phone and "Bob" was generally a good sales executive and actually pretty good to support so I answered. Long story short Bob's next call was to my management team (who already knew I was swamped) to get me some resources. This was very much a situation where things just had to reach a certain point / inconvenience the wrong people before it was resolved.
- xemdetia 2y ago
  What my favourite is managers creating whole new lists for themselves so they can say they are at the front of the line. Then are baffled that this is insufficient prioritization that 7+ top lists can't all be top. It really helps highlight who are the do somethings vs the do nothings in an org.

mewpmewp2 2y ago

I mean, there's the 1999 documentary about this...

justin_oaks 2y ago
For those that are wondering what this "documentary" is, I'm going to assume the movie "Office Space".

duxup 2y ago

I once worked tech support for a company that made fancy routers. I got a call from a reasonably high placed sales rep who was upset I hadn't contacted his customer. I had to tell him: "That ticket is a P3 and I currently have 3 P1s, 5 P2s and I don't know how many other tickets." He asked I make his ticket a P1 (he had the authority to do so). Hour later he called back to find out what we had done, the answer was "nothing". Again I had to explain: "I have 4 P1s, 5 P2s and I don't know how many other tickets." It's amazing how little people understand / care to understand that other people have work to do too...

lvspiff 2y ago
Living the same thing here and keep getting told it seems like we aren't "finishing" anything and projects seem to just drone on and on. Well when you keep introducing things as "high priority" and "urgent" it means something has to drop off the list (even if it doesn't "officially") however in his brain that can't be true.
BobaFloutist 2y ago
In terms of what's best for the customers and the business, of course I understand your call. In terms of self-preservation and your quality of life, I'm surprised you got that call and proceeded to take no action on his priority for an hour.
- duxup 2y ago
  I was actually still on the phone with the first P1 from before "Bob" the sales guy first call. Normally I wouldn't have even answered on my second line but generally Bob was a good guy and I knew he could pull the needed strings to actually get extra resources needed. Eventually Bob got the right people on the line, demanded I work his issue (we had a good working relationship) and some other techs took my other tickets. I preferred that outcome anyway. Bob was actually a good guy, his questions weren't unwarranted, it's just a really good story to demonstrate how people forget that other people are busy too.
- Ylpertnodi 2y ago
  P0's required.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    This is how most teams I've worked with "solved" this problem: By creating "P0". Now, everything we are actually working on is P0, and we don't know how to prioritize among them. Soon, someone will propose a P-negative-1...
    - mewpmewp2 2y ago
      That's a rookie mistake, they should've gone with the scoring system where higher number indicates higher priority.
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> Hour later he called back to find out what we had done, the answer was "nothing". Again I had to explain: "I have 4 P1s, 5 P2s and I don't know how many other tickets." This reads as a lesson in miscommunication more than mismanagement. On his first call, he should have explicitly asked for an ETA. (Even if the assumption was you would immediately start working on his ticket.) On the first call, after his ticket was escalated, he should have been provided with the new context. The solution, ironically, might be inserting a manager between you and him who can better handle communication.
- duxup 2y ago
  Normally I wouldn't have even spoken with the sales guy, but I saw his name on my phone and "Bob" was generally a good sales executive and actually pretty good to support so I answered. Long story short Bob's next call was to my management team (who already knew I was swamped) to get me some resources. This was very much a situation where things just had to reach a certain point / inconvenience the wrong people before it was resolved.
xemdetia 2y ago
What my favourite is managers creating whole new lists for themselves so they can say they are at the front of the line. Then are baffled that this is insufficient prioritization that 7+ top lists can't all be top. It really helps highlight who are the do somethings vs the do nothings in an org.