Maybe there's hope!

[darkemeralds]

In the "Work: There's a Reason Why They Don't Call It Play" category, I just came from a gloriously mind-relieving discussion with the new operations manager.

Dear god, just to be heard on the subject of some of the management deficiencies around this place was wonderful. To hear, in return, that the New Guy understands the problems, knows what questions to ask, and has ideas for improvement, has lifted my spirits to a really almost unseemly degree.

Some people, in some lines of work, do well without any significant degree of structure. But me? In a technical line of work supporting a $50 million software infrastructure investment? Not among their number. We've been circling the drain around here, depending more and more on individuals' workaholic tendencies to make up what we lack in direction, supervision, and management. The New Guy named two things--just two things--he's identified as priorities, and he's absolutely spot-on. If he can get improvements in those two areas, the whole logjam will start to clear.

So there's hope. Maybe this job won't be my downfall this year.

Comments

[darkemeralds]

Yes, exactly. As you say, focus is critical, and he used several phrases that indicated to me a clear understanding that there's a mountain to move, and one shovelful at a time is going to be the method of moving it.

It struck me as mature and experienced, his recognition that a monolithic solution doesn't exist, and that hoping for one has kept up paralyzed. "Little mouse-bites," he said. I agree.