handling disagreement with senior team member 3

[stuckDuck]

I'm the junior member of a application support team. A user requested to have their user id updated due to a name change. The windows team has already updated the users id and email. However for this specific application we cannot update the existing id. We will need to create a new one and retire the existing id. I have already performed this task. However the Senor Team member says we do not honor these type of requests. I disagree, however my other team members are silent.

What can I do? I was thinking of asking the Senior member to site the specific business rule why this cannot be honored. Ultimately I need to deliver the bad news to the user. Whom is a fairly high up manager.

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

As the senior member in my group, I would welcome anyone's 'protest' of a rule interpretation.

I am also a former baseball umpire, who taught bb rules to both umpire candidates and managers & coaches. I would instruct a manager or coach to never protest on the basis of questioning a judgment call, but rather on the basis of arguing a rule interpretation.

I think that this situation has an analogy. As a manager or coach must grant deference to an umpire's judgment call, you must also act will deference to the senior member's judgment, after a respectful exchange. However rules are rules, and I would hope that your appeal to the established policies and procedures would lead to convergence.


Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![/sub]

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
I think this is reasonable:

I was thinking of asking the Senior member to site the specific business rule why this cannot be honored

If there is no business need for this policy/rule/whim then the Manager affected should be informed that the change cannot take place as requested because of this Senior member's objection.

If there is a valid business need then cite that when informing the Manager that the change cannot be made.

You are a team member, not a sheep, and if your Senior member does not accept that, or fails to realize that you are between a rock and a hard place regarding that Manager, then maybe, even in these hard times, it is time to find a new team.





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[Thadeus]

You state that the request is due to the employee's having changed their name... The most common occurrence of this is when a woman marries and takes her husband's last name or divorces and returns to her maiden name.

Is it the business policy of your department or company to single out women in such a way? Even if a policy was in place for this, would HR really be in favor of forcing a woman to continue typing in the name of her abusive, ex-husband as a User ID?

My example isn't to be hyperbolic, but to raise the question of whether the reason for an employee's name change should even be a part of the consideration for breaking the policy... if the one particular reason is considered grounds for breaking the policy, then any legal name change really needs to be treated equally unless you want Operations / Systems managers to become Solomons determining whose reasons are good ones and whose are not.

I do feel that the name change should be a legal one however. Anyone that has gone to the effort of getting their name changed legally should be entitled to the benefits of that effort.

My opinions reflect the opinions of management (within my sole-proprietorship )

~thadeus

 

[CajunCenturion]

I agree with Thadeus. There has to be a reason why you'd refuse a name change. Depending on the reason the name was changed, not doing so could put the company on the defensive.

I would respectfully ask the senior for the rationale behind refusing the name change.

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[hjgoldstein]

If the manager who is changing their name is a signatory to any company documents and wishes to sign using their new name, I suggest that all systems must be changed to the new name.

There can really be no reason not to do this.

In any case, it it simply courteous to address a work colleague (or anyone else for that matter) by whaterver name they prefer, not only verbally and in written communications, but in system login/reference as well.

It is time for pacifists to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

 

[KenCunningham]

I think maybe you've misread the OP HJ?

The internet - allowing those who don't know what they're talking about to have their say.

 

[hjgoldstein]

I was thinking of asking the Senior member to site the specific business rule

Ken,

My point was that even if there is a "specific business rule" regarding changing a user name in this particular system, there are usually mitigating circumstances which dictate that a rule can be bent, broken or totally shattered.

My example of a signatory would suggest that even if the rule says "NO CHANGES TO NAMES" there can be a legal requirement to bypass the rule in the given situation. This could be gently communicated to the Senior.

Sorry, I should have been clearer and possibly not digressed onto my "courtesy bugbear"

It is time for pacifists to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

 

[traingamer]

If the windows team has already changed the id and the email, plead ignorance (based on that) and ask to see the business policy that spells any refusal.

On the other hand, we have (mostly) moved away from ids that are name based, and, instead, have user ids based on employee ids (which do not include names or even intials).

Greg
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard

 

[kwbMitel]

There are 2 aspects to your question.

1 - You have a disagreement on policy/rules
2 - The Senior End user needs to be given bad news.

If I were in your position, I would advise my supervisor that I was not comfortable in informing the Senior End User about not being able to meet their request and ask him/her to deliver the bad news.

This approach has 2 possible benefits.
1 - The supervisor takes care of things one way or the other
2 - the supervisor opens the debate about why you are uncomfortable.

Either way, you are in a better position.


*******************************************************
Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.

 

[stuckDuck]

Thank You all for the replies. That was great perspective.


I stated my reasons why I think its appropriate to update the user id and sent it in written form to my senior team member.

If there is still disagreement then I will ask the senior member to inform the user.

 

[Thargy]

or better still, step aside completely.

Once you have received your superior's response, if there's a reason for the refusal, inform the manager. If there's no reason for refusing the change, just inform the manager that you've bee instructed not to make the change.

Let your superior and the manager duke it out amongst themselves. Don't get involved. You've acted responsibly, raised the issue, and have conveyed the response to the relevant colleague.

Regards

T

 

[Sympology]

There could be a reason to not make a change. If for example you are using some old legacy DB where things have a habit of becoming hard coded in and people run reports against that, then a name change / deletion could break the historical elements.
Ironically we have such a system but we have a work around. We put in new name with (oldname) as a field. Bit of a kludge, but it works.

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.