Find out my 'teammate' is taking off for 10 days 5 hours before he leaves. 1

[Jacque]

I'm fairly new to the organization and was teamed up with a guy who is not strong on communication normally but who has really pushed that to the limit as of late. It's a team of two. I'm sitting in our weekly team meeting only to find out that my teammate is taking 10 days off and I have 5 hours to learn how to re-run failed ETL jobs and other miscellaneous datawarehouse issues. Those are not what I was hired for and have very little experience in those areas. If I hadn't pushed him those last 5 hours, I don't even think he would have thought to train me on anything. Worse yet, he's just an 'ok' teacher. He promised me, and my boss, that he would babysit the ETL processes remotely so that he could catch errors, spot failures and rerun the jobs so that I wouldn't be overwhelmed. I was pissed at both him and my boss for not communicating this time off and it's not my business as to why he wanted/needed the time off, but some advanced notice of taking the time off would have been helpful. I just need to prepare for it. My boss said, it's not you, it's just his way. Great...that's so helpful...NOT!.

Day 1, jobs are failing bigtime and I go to find out that I wasn't set up with administrator priviledges on the server so I can't really do anything. So I tell my boss this and ask for admin priviledges but they haven't been granted yet.

Day 6, I've been stressing out with all of the failures and bug requests that I'm getting that I can't do anything about. I have been trying to research the errors to help my teammate fix the problems and sending him anything - a link, a suggestion, whatever, that I think might be helpful. I've offered to do anything that might help give him more time to fix the problems but I get no response either by email or IM.

This morning I see that he's active on our IM site, send him a 'good morning' IM, nothing else, just 'good morning' and he immediately shuts down his IM. That made it very clear to me that I have no team...

I really like this company, my boss and my coworkers but this situation just sucks. I've spoke to the boss and he said it's just his (my coworkers) way...well that's just not good enough. My boss can make him respond because he's the boss, but that doesn't help me. I like my coworker as a person but as a teammate - he sucks!

Any suggestions?

 

[flapeyre]

At my last job, there was a vacation calendar set up in Outlook. We had to mark out time as being out of office on that calendar and our own (and only after our supervisor's approval). Corporate policy required at least 1 day's notice for absences (unforeseen events such as a death in the family, illness, or other emergency excepted). I made it a habit to always check the vacation calendar every morning. That way, even if someone I covered for would be out for a while and didn't approach me, at least I could approach them.

Look up your organization's policies for time off, and see if they were followed. As always, document everything. Save those e-mails.

"It's just his way" doesn't cut it, IMHO.

-- Francis
Francisus ego, sed non sum papa.

 

[goombawaho]

You're doomed. Why? Because your boss let this shizzle fly instead of forcing the crappy coworker to follow reasonable protocols for getting time off. Now, maybe it's something huge why he's gone, but being on the IM system doesn't jive with that. Best advice: stop stressing over things that you cannot fix/control.

I've spoke to the boss and he said it's just his (my coworkers) way...

Translation: Boss doesn't have the interest in disciplining coworker OR he's too valuable - an "untouchable" OR your boss is a wimp.

well that's just not good enough.

It will HAVE to be good enough because neither the boss nor the coworker is likely to change much (human nature).

If you can't stand it, you have to start looking elsewhere. Please don't start plotting a commando operation.

I had quite a similar situation. A coworker runined his life by having an affair (maybe only a mental affair at that point) with a woman at the office. Wife found out, threw all his stuff out on the front porch in December. He basically turned into a puppy that looked like he'd been kicked down stairs every day for months. Could NOT get him to do any work that I needed him to do to allow me to do some of my work (my work dependent upon his being done first). Talked to human resources. "Oh we can't fire "Rob" because if we do, we can't replace the headcount". So, he's useless and he's not fireable. Could have strangled him. My boss had already left for greener pastures. Didn't replace the IT manager either.

 

[Jacque]

Flapeyre,
I have multiple calendar displays set up so that I can see my, my bosses, my coworkers and a few other important calendars at once, my coworkers calendar did not and still does not show the time off. I agree, "Its just his way" doesn't cut it.

Goombawaho,
I wish it was that easy to stop stressing, I've been the responsible one all my life and it's hard to stop and step back. (darn it)

Translation: Boss doesn't have the interest in disciplining coworker OR he's too valuable - an "untouchable" OR your boss is a wimp.

It's definitely a combo of the first two.

If you can't stand it, you have to start looking elsewhere. Please don't start plotting a commando operation.

That's kind of my thinking - start looking elsewhere - not the commando op......although it crossed my mind this morning.

How did you end up dealing with your dead weight coworker? Your boss left - what did you do?

 

[goombawaho]

They got rid of about 15 people one day about six months later (engineers, the whole IT department and more) and replaced IT with a contract company and the engineers with some in das vaterland. So, by becoming unemployed I "solved" the situation.

But the upside - I have never worked a full day in my life after that day in April 2006. I am my own boss now and making enough money to do what I need to do and take more time off to play.

For you, you'll have to learn to grin and bear it or plot your escape. If the job is good, pay is good, the people are nice, the location and office are good, it might not be a bad idea to learn to say "to heck with it" and do YOUR job and no more. Otherwise you might end up "out of the frying pan and into the fire" somewhere else where it might be double bad.

BTW - CEO got fired about one year later. Company closed the North American office about two years later, so I was ahead of the curve.

 

[Jacque]

That's awesome, I'm happy for you. Wish I could do the same.

The job is good, I've had the opportunity to learn more and gain experience with different types of software in the few months I've been here than in the last 15 years of my career. It's a fairly young and youthful company. We work hard and play hard. The pay is good, the majority of people are awesome, the location is perfect - close to home, a no freeway commute and the office is gorgeous. I'm going to try to

say "to heck with it"

and see if I can to work with other developers and maybe change the direction of my career .

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah, I KNOW it's hard, but sounds like you checked off most of the boxes for the things that make you happy at work. The coworker thing may fix itself if he pushes the system too far or he decides to leave for himself. Don't be a fool like me, I started to nag my coworker about his slacking nature (long lunches, f-around attitude) and that's probably one of the reasons they jettisoned the IT dept - no teamwork/chemistry between us.

Don't give H.R. or your boss any reason to put a black mark next to YOUR name. Make sure any problems caused by the bonehead's absence or incompetence doesn't get counted against you. Send emails to your boss to make sure that anything falling through the cracks is documented + verbally refer to the email and ask him "what are we going to do about XYZ?" Be subtle, but let him know that stuff is falling through the cracks.

 

[SteveTheGeek]

Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Trying to extend outside your own direct responsibilities, particularly if colleagues and bosses are unsupportive for whatever reason, can vastly increase your stress. It certainly does for me. So, I've adopted a variation of the Serenity Prayer. Remember the Somebody Else's Problem Field in the Hitchhiker's Guide "trilogy"? When someone comes to you with a problem that is not your responsibility, and you cannot be of help to them (or there's someone nearby that CAN help them a lot more), decide that it is an SEP. Point them in the right direction, give them a little advice on how to handle it if you can, but in the end make it clear to them that that's really all the help you can be to them, and don't think/stress about it any more, because it's just an SEP.


CompTIA: A+ (WfW 3.11), Network+
Microsoft: MCSE+I (NT4)
Novell: CNE (4.11, 5.0)
Citrix: CCA (Metaframe 1.0)
Cisco: CCNA-Security (current)

 

[Jacque]

Thanks for all the suggestions and words of wisdom, I appreciate the help.
Jacque

 

[ANFPS26]

I have a sign on my workshop wall that says:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot fix,
The courage to fix the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Jim

 

[Andrzejek]

Talking about the signs, often I wish I would have this sign (You Can’t Fix Stupid) at my place of work. It would help me a lot with my stress. Just thinking about it makes me feel better



Have fun.

---- Andy

 

[Jacque]

UPDATE
My coworker returned and I find out that he didn't do anything that he said/promised that he would do. He didn't "babysit the ETL processes remotely so that he could catch errors, spot failures and rerun the jobs so that I wouldn't be overwhelmed." He never read his emails or IM's, so that the one actual fix that I came up with was never done. The job that just needed to be rerun, never got reran.

It gets better....said dripping with sarcasm....the boss called a meeting with our group - we are not a team - to discuss how we are going to handle maintaining the ETL processes and the data warehouse issues. I'm supposed to put out a daily email noting all job/process successes and failures, listing all open issues and the status of those issues. Who took nothing away from the meeting...my coworker. I got all of the work, he didn't even get a slap on the wrist...

To say this sucked was an understatement.

I'm going to suck it up, survive as long as I can where I am and then try to move into a new spot.


Thanks everyone for your advice. Have a nice weekend.

 

[stubnski]

==> I'm supposed to put out a daily email noting all job/process successes and failures, listing all open issues and the status of those issues. Who took nothing away from the meeting...my coworker. I got all of the work, he didn't even get a slap on the wrist...

This is good. It will be a lot of work upfront but you now have a paper trail of your co-worker not fixing the issues. You can always send out a weekly email to the group asking your co-worker for an update on where he/she is at in implementing a fix for those issues assigned to him/her.

 

[strongm]

>those issues assigned to him/her.

Um .. I think the point is that Jacque is saying that the coworker in question didn't get anything assigned to them.

 

[Jacque]

Strongm,
You're exactly right, he didn't end up with any assignment from the meeting. He didn't even take notes. I had to verbally repeat the fixes I researched, he made the changes and now the jobs are working. Today we had only one failure, so he looks like a returning hero. Sometimes life just sucks.

 

[goombawaho]

It will be a lot of work upfront but you now have a paper trail of your co-worker not fixing the issues.

I think maybe that the company is starting to document his failures, so do a great job of reporting the problems!! Help to dig your co-workers grave for him. Document the hell out of it.

That's what I took from it. Could be wrong, but........ time will tell.

 

[Jacque]

Goombawaho,
I like your thinking and hope you're right. He wasn't paying attention to which job needed to be rerun, so he started rerunning the wrong one and then got pissed at me when I told him he was rerunning the wrong one. When I asked for updated status of yesterdays outstanding issues, he snapped at me - I don't have time to answer those stupid questions. So I sent out the email email with a lot of 'researching - reload TBD' on it, I can't put an updated status if I don't know it.

Oh well, a big berry daiquiri(sp?) is sounding really good right now. Can't spell it but sure can drink one.

Thanks again,
Jacque

 

[stubnski]

-> Um .. I think the point is that Jacque is saying that the coworker in question didn't get anything assigned to them.

They didn't get anything assigned to them during the meeting but who else knows enough to fix the ETL issues? Jacque's coworker will get issues assigned to him since he is the only one who knows the system...

-> When I asked for updated status of yesterdays outstanding issues, he snapped at me - I don't have time to answer those stupid questions

Ask the questions in an email so everything is documented. CC your manager as well so he/she knows you are doing what you can to get the issues resolved.

 

[Jacque]

stubnski,
Yep, that was my point. I expected him to at the very least get a slap on the wrist, instead I got more work and he got nothing.

I spoke with the boss again who asked about some of the statuses and I told him that I can't get blood from a stone, I provided as much information as I got but in a much nicer form. He laughed and said that my coworker is much better than he used to be, so I told the boss (who's very geeky and handy) to build me a cattle prod and I wanted it by Monday. He laughed even more.

Then he announced that we were getting a new member to our group, an internal person who I know has ETL knowledge and experience. WooHoo!
And he complimented me on my handling of a client issue. He's very good at redirect.

Oh well, hopefully this little saga will end on a better note than it began.

Thanks everyone!
Jacque

 

[goombawaho]

Why won't they get rid of that load?? Everybody seems to KNOW that he is a turd. I still keep thinking that this is the beginning of his end (the flushing if you will), but stranger things have happened. Is he related to anyone in the company?

What else does turdly do besides the ETL stuff? Does he take care of any of the other stuff?