More than a monkey

September 25, 2006 11:31 AM

I've recently become aware that my boss only sees value in a small part of what I do.

This morning I received several emails about a problem that occurred over the weekend. Being a System Administrator I am responsible for the health and functioning of the robots here, but through a series of failures (cell phone accidentally unpowered, lack of work email at home), he had to take care of them. Also being that this is a startup, my boss is the official backup when things like this happen.

He sent me a separate email saying that he likes my script writing, but my job description requires me to be responsive and in contact for these , yadda yadda...and I'm like "what?" I pretty much built and launched these guys hardware and systemswise, most everything except project management for the java software and QA. For him to say that it all boils down to scripts is quite an insult. Now, I'm pretty sure this email was sent in frustration and so will probably be met with some softening once he actually gets into the office and we talk about it.

My question is: how personally should I take this? Rather than explaining what happened in an email reply, my first thought was to zero in on the script comment and leave the rest for conversation. Then I thought maybe I shouldn't reply at all until he's here to talk about it. I'm generally frustrated about other qualities of startup work and the lack of structure thereof, but I don't think this excuses people for being lame.

posted by rhizome to work & money (12 comments total)

If he wrote that he expects you to be responsive and contactable for hardware and systems-related problems, then it sounds like he knows that you have something to do with all that hardware and systems-related stuff. Or am I missing something?

You have robots? Cool.
posted by chrismear at 11:41 AM on September 25, 2006

Objectively, it seems like you dropped the ball. You were supposed to be on call for the weekend, and you weren't. (And why is there no webmail access to your company's server?)

Your boss's response exhibits the fallacy of "constructive criticism." He thinks that any negative comment needs to be supported and contrasted with something positive, no matter how irrelevant to the issue at hand. That's bad managerial skills, but not something to take personally. Now it's your turn to demonstrate what you will do to make sure this doesn't happen again.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 11:42 AM on September 25, 2006

First, don't do this over email. You'll be asking for trouble. Wait til you can meet in person.

I'm assuming that it was clear that you were supposed to be in contact. Do you have a pager? Were you expected to have access to work email from home, but didn't for some reason?
( that last is important, because if you were expected to check email, and didn't/couldn't, that doesn't look good.)

Second, come up with the solutions so this won't bite you in the ass again. Apologize for being out of range, explaining what happened should be followed immediately by those solutions.

Then you can inquire what he meant by the script comment. Ask for clarification.
posted by canine epigram at 11:45 AM on September 25, 2006

Here's some ammo for that face to face meeting. If you are 'on call' then you should have a company provided communications device. A pager, cell, crackberry, whatever. It shouldn't be on you to be tethered to the office. Also you should have a company provided secure connection to the company network, and I'm not just talking Webmail here. You need a VPN. It is time for your company to grow up and act like they want you to act.
posted by Gungho at 12:13 PM on September 25, 2006

VPN is not that hard to set up.
posted by sonofsamiam at 12:24 PM on September 25, 2006

I second what Saucy Intruder said about the "constructive criticism". Your boss was pissed that he had to come in and do your job, but didn't want to send an email that was all negative. The scripts comment was just grasping at something good to say in a quick email. If you work in a small start-up, he knows what you do. When we are upset, it is hard to think of the good things about people.
posted by fhqwhgads at 12:44 PM on September 25, 2006

Thanks all for the replies. A couple of clarifications, this was the confluence of events on my part:

1. (Company-provided) cellphone ran out of charge on Friday, I much-later found out that the light that illuminates when it is plugged in to be charged does not mean that the phone is on.

1a. They got me a cheap phone which freezes all messages when a text message arrives via email to the phone. Even though I knew there were messages, I could not receive them, and most of the time these are notifications that something was already fixed via the datacenter's instructions.

2. There is a secure connection for all of this. Nobody had to go anywhere. Everything can be done from both of our homes via ssh.

3. Getting work email from home requires that I remember to shut down Thunderbird before I leave. Obviously this needs to change to a non-POP3 setup, but there are a lot of things to do around here.
posted by rhizome at 12:57 PM on September 25, 2006

Oh, and:

4. They know and have contacted me on my home number before for (seemingly) much less important things.
posted by rhizome at 1:05 PM on September 25, 2006

Do NOT reply to this email, except to set up a face-to-face time to talk over these issues in person. He is obviously unhappy that you were not in contact with the company, and that he had to do what he thinks of as "your job". You now need to point out (using "I" terminology, not "you" terminology) where you were failed and what THE TWO OF YOU can improve to help you do your job better. Statements like,

"It is difficult for me to stay in contact without _____. Let's devote some time to installing and configuring ______ so that next time this happens, I can respond in a timely fashion."
posted by muddgirl at 1:10 PM on September 25, 2006

Configure Thunderbird to leave mail on the server for a few days before deleting it. Then you can still get at it with a simple webmail app like SquirrelMail or even Gmail.
posted by xiojason at 1:27 PM on September 25, 2006

3. Getting work email from home requires that I remember to shut down Thunderbird before I leave. Obviously this needs to change to a non-POP3 setup, but there are a lot of things to do around here.

It shouldn't be necessary for you to have to quit Thunderbird. Most mail clients have options that support access to a POP server simultaneously from multiple locations. In Thunderbird I think the option is called "Leave messages on server" in "Server settings" accessed via "Account Settings". With this option on (and something similar at the other end), mail on a POP server can be simultaneously checked by two mail clients. To keep the download times reasonable, you'll also want to enable the option (on one client) to remove older mail on the server - set it for for a day or two longer than the longest time you don't ever run the other client.
posted by RichardP at 1:38 PM on September 25, 2006

I don't mean this to sound harsh, but you dropped the ball and you should apologize. Explain as much as you think you need to, but don't make it sound like an excuse - you need to own the responsibility. If there's some link in that chain of events that you could use some help with, then ask for it - without blaming.

I'm generally frustrated about other qualities of startup work and the lack of structure thereof
This to me sounds like the bigger issue, and probably the reason that you admit that you are taking this personally. What can you do to ease these feelings? Are you being rational, or emotional? I would look to this area as well as the immediate issue...
posted by KAS at 3:26 PM on September 25, 2006