February 18, 2009 at 6:57 am
.. and now for a thought completely different .. (sorry if my grammar is bad 🙂 )
I am a well paid consultant [is that redundant?], but I regularly make coffee. I have been on the "coffee team" at most of the sites I have worked. Is that a good use of company money? Well, people aren't complaining about "no coffee", and there is a shared sense of community which leads to a better working relationship with the client's workers. This relationship in turn which leads directly to smoother projects and better results on projects.
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Yes there are grammatical mistakes that could be corrected. In my mind the error rate is insignificant as the delivery is understood and the content usually superb.
<><
Livin' down on the cube farm. Left, left, then a right.
February 18, 2009 at 7:02 am
As an example for inappropriate use of resources. At a previous job, the IT manager was also responsible for changing light-bulbs and putting in new plumbing when we took over the office's ground floor, (e.g. putting in new radiators).
The department was only about 5 people, (the company was about 150 in total), but that was seriously part of his remit; technically it was IT's responsibility, but he decided that he didn't want the two support people and two developers having to do that.
February 18, 2009 at 7:10 am
nicholas.catley (2/18/2009)
thanks...:D But you kind of miss my point. The article was about people with appropriate skills doing appropriate tasks. As a person commenting on a forum, adequate comprehensibility is quite sufficient.When submitting an article to a wide readserhip, a high standard is appropriate.
No offense meant or taken!
Actually, upon review, I think I understand your point. I tend to allow for minor grammatical errors and spellnig mistakes. I do not know who is a native English speaker and who is an EASL speaker.
In any event, I'd like to emphasize a point that never ceases to amaze me.
Back in the day, I worked in a restaurant. I was hired as a jack of all trades. I bussed tables, played host, prep cook, and once even drowned in the dish tank. My point is this, I was hired to help the restaurant succeed. Even though my official capacity was X, I often had to do Y, Z, and a few others.
I have worked with some folks (not many) that are incredulous at the notion of stepping out of the sphere of comfort and pitching in. I am not the best Windows Admin, but I can help. I'm not the carpenter, but I can help. I'm certainly not the best X, but I try to help.
I tend to believe that most people on this forum think similarly.
Honor Super Omnia-
Jason Miller
February 18, 2009 at 7:28 am
It is probably safe to assume that as CEO, the travel approval rule is one that he/she feels is important. I could speculate that travel time is unproductive, or that under 7 days might indicate a sudden decision that could have been thought through more thoroughly. The point is, this CEO wants details on these specific instances. I would grant the benefit of doubt, and believe the reasons are probably worthwhile to this CEO, and the same could apply to anyone in a managerial position, that wants to take out the trash every day.
February 18, 2009 at 7:36 am
blandry,
I didn't reveal all the information, but there is a bit more. My friend manages the customer relationship, there are 3 or 4 sales people involved and engineers, and there was a mismatch between what the client expected and what was presented for a new sale. It's a long term relationship, worth millions a year, and this was a large sale of a new product (not an upgrade). I can't reveal more details, but my friend was asked by the client to come that day for meetings the next day.
The CEO isn't, or wasn't involved in this sale. The company has revenue in the hundreds of millions a year, though this is a big sale for them. However the CEO does have to approve all travel taking place in less than seven days. It's a similar policy that I've seen in large corporations, though typically it's the CFO or COO doing it.
The company is a public company, not on the verge of bankruptcy, reporting decent results given the economy.
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February 18, 2009 at 7:44 am
There's a difference between pitching in and regularly wasting time. I've made coffee before, refilled printer paper, and changed light bulbs. It helps to have everyone willing to help. But does it make sense for a DBA to be changing out light switches for a new one or installing a new fixture if the old one is broken? Might not be the best use of his/her time, even if you're a sunk cost.
A CEO of a small company probably does need to watch expenses, and I'm sure one at a larger company might want to prevent waste. Or prevent people from burdening the company with expenses that are unnecessary. Maybe people regularly forget to book travel in a timely manner. Maybe they do want employees to rethink the need to travel.
However it's still a waste of the CEO's time at a company that's larger than 500 or 1000 people. At some point you aren't involved in the situation, and even getting briefed on it means a few people are spending time on this when one senior person (director, VP, COO) that has some knowledge could make a decision. That's the idea behind leadership. You direct people, give them some freedoms and authority, and responsibility, and let them go do the work.
You trust them.
Maybe not everyone, but you trust most of them.
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February 18, 2009 at 8:14 am
I maintain that it is possible that this CEO may have decided that this knowledge is indeed of value to him or her, and for reasons that are not known to your friend, or others, but never the less fit into the this CEO's definition of the big picture.
February 18, 2009 at 9:37 am
JenG (2/18/2009)
I'm a great example of misuse of resources. I'm supposed to be a database developer and reporting expert. I spend most of my time doing desktop support and trying to teach totally inept people how to use computers! Whenever I propose a new database project that would improve one of our processes, I get shot down. If the current process works (albeit totally inefficiently), why on earth would we want to put time into improving it?!? It's more important that I go explain to someone for the 1000th how to log on to our intranet.
Could it be that your technical skills are better than your sales skills? If you really do have great ideas, you need to sell these ideas to management. Selling is often a foreign concept to a db developer. If you are uncomfortable/unsuccessful at selling your ideas and you still really believe in your ideas, implement them on your own time. Stay late and crank out that process improvement. It will be much easier to sell if it is already done. 🙂
February 18, 2009 at 9:46 am
We all pitch in when needed. Sometimes going and doing something outside the norm can be a mini vacation. Anything can be abused.
One day a fellow developer called me to check on some things. He was in the field at a client site. During the conversation he said, "You'll never guess what I've been doing the last three days." He had been building and installing APC racks. :w00t: Turns out the people at the client site were not ready. Rather than have our guy go home and come back (another air fare) they just had him stay. There was the whole discussion about how much those racks were costing at our guys on-site rate. But when the CIO hands you a wrench you go and do.
ATBCharles Kincaid
February 18, 2009 at 9:47 am
Jason Miller (2/18/2009)
nicholas.catley (2/18/2009)
...taling of getting the person with the right skills doing appropriate tasks, I really thing that someone with a better grasp of the grammar of the English language should be writing these front page articles. There are simply too may errors!I sincerely hope this was satire.
No. Not satire. Irony. The right word for that post is "irony". Another right word for it is "rude", but that's a different subject.
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February 18, 2009 at 9:50 am
I can understand (and even agree with) where this CEO may be coming from.
He's not requiring his personal review of every travel request, just the "emergency" ones. I suggest that this is not even about approving the travel expense but more about being appraised as quickly as possible about "emergency" situations (anything that requires travel in less than 7 days had better be important).
I know I'd like to live in a world where everyone is capable of deciding what problems are big enough to affect other parts of the company but I'm too much of a cynic to think it'll ever happen.
Maybe the CEO wants to know so that he can arrange for a higher up to personally contact the customer as a follow up. Building good customer relations is very important in most industries and in my opinion should part of everyone's responsabilities.
-D
You may now attack my spelling and grammar to your hearts content.
February 18, 2009 at 9:57 am
On Darren's point, I can certainly see the CEO wanting to be appraised of such situations. Were I in charge, I'd want to know about emergency travel needs, or other "emergencies" involving multi-million dollar sales. Wouldn't want to be a required part of the approval process for the airfare, but would want to be CCed on the whole thing, so I could follow up on it if needed.
I'd also make sure that salespeople working on things like that would have an expense account that they could spend on emergency travel and other such things, subject to review after the fact, so it wouldn't impede such actions. Sure it would be open to a certain amount of abuse, but if it was set to a percentage of sales volume, it would be money well-spent or well-abused. E.g.: You made 100-million in sales last year, you get an expense account worth 100-thousand for business-related expenses. I can see all kinds of possible advantages to a system like that. And, yes, I've been a salesperson, and I could have used something like that very much to the company's advantage (and, because it would result in more sales and more commissions, my advantage as well).
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February 18, 2009 at 10:00 am
On the original point of the editorial, yeah, there's a definite line between doing something off-job-description for the team, or doing something that should be at a lower level but needs control/oversight for whatever reason, and doing something that should be routinely handled at a lower level but isn't for whatever policy reason. In most cases, the ROI on that is negative.
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February 18, 2009 at 10:36 am
Amen, Steve. Include hiring and firing more than one level removed in that list.
🙂
February 18, 2009 at 10:38 am
I completely agree with the appraisal and notification for the CEO. Knowing about emergency or out-of-the-ordinary expenditures is important, and should be done. My point was the timing, the interruption for a relatively minor expense, doesn't make sense. He's doing a different job by responding to this and holding up work.
The point about wanting to notify the customer or contact them makes sense, especially as in this case the customer is a Fortune 100 company. However, notification and review, or deciding on other actions is different than trusting your people and allowing them to make the decision. And then holding them accountable later.
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