Team Player or not? 10

[dennisbbb]

In the IT department, all staff are supposed to have their own position and responsibilities. Each does their own thing and in effect works as a team. However, some position overlapped and things get fuzzy.

My question in particular is between an Senior Admin and a Junior Admin, when would it be the drawing line when it comes to administering users and servers. The junior want to get all the brownie points by asskissing really hard and doing most Administration tasks whenever possible. Though the title is junior Admin, he acts as if there is no Senior admin. It seems disrespectful to the senior Admin when junior is trying so hard to climb over the top.

What is the drawing line? Is there a drawing line? Do you experience this in your department?

 

[Corran007]

Junior submit plans for a change in the network structure. Junior recommends new brand of network switches, cables, and NIC. Junior plans for "future capactity planning, disaster recovery, system documenation" all by himself and shows initiative to CIO directly, behind senior's back.

Now that is not team playing. Those are all things that should be done by the team, whoever that may be. in this case its both. But if junior is doing all this, what is senior doing? Senior needs to sit down with junior and state that all changes to equipment recomndations, capacity planning, disaster recovery ect need to be sent through him first to make sure that they are correct. i would never do that kind of work without checking with someone else to make sure its correct. junior isnt playing like a team in that situation. Junior is doing what is best for him, not what is best for the company. when it crosses that line, that is when junior is not being a team player.

 

[svanels]

Maybe the team consist of CIO and Junior?

Steven

 

[rosieb]

dennisbbb
From my perspective, this looks like two people in a competition which is sanctioned by management.

You say that both parties report to the CIO but that Senior has "some" supervisory control over Junior. However your other comments don't indicate any actual control as Junior seems to be operating totally independently.

This implies to me that either Senior is not exercising his/her control or that Senior has no real control over Junior.

What is Senior's actual control remit?

If there is no formal demarcation of responsibilities, then Senior vs Junior is merely a matter of length of service and/or nominal title - something which can easily change, to the detriment of Senior.

If Senior genuinely has a control remit, they should exercise it by directing Junior to the tasks that are an operational priority whilst concentrating on the strategic aspects such as "future capactity planning, disaster recovery, system documenation etc".

Alternatively, if Senior is not in a position to direct Junior, they should demonstrate their superior knowledge by producing vastly superior recommendations on these subjects AND on other matters of importance - such as corporate IT policies on security, email and Internet usage, data retention strategy etc.

Senior should also produce a document on operational requirements and responsibilities, specifying the necessary processes for all changes.

Senior needs to demonstrate to Management that they are "in fact" Senior by virtue of their skills and abilities - otherwise they may lose that position.








Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[SF0751]

Very well stated, Rosie.

Susan
"'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'"
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lost Road

 

[dennisbbb]

Very nicely said, Rosie. Thank you.

As I understand, ideally this should be exercised in every field. However, every situation is different.

Initially Senior had an "overseeing" supervisory responsibility over Junior. Senior has no real direct control over Junior, but served only as a reporter to CIO. Senior can pass tasks to Junior and Junior would follow as if they were directed by CIO, and also showed signs of team play. Junior also gained experience to equal that of Senior due to working cooperatively.

As time progressed, Junior understands the loose hierachy involved. Junior slowly bypass reporting any matters to Senior and deals directly with CIO. CIO welcomes any approach from any IT staff. CIO and Junior are not "a team". We are all individually A+ staff in the eyes of CIO, suggested by paycheck and praises. In the eyes of Senior, Senior and Junior are a D- team, due to Junior not bringing matters to Senior.

I asked forum reader to provide feedback if this has happened to them and where they would draw the line as to how far they would allow Junior to go on like this before attempting to bring up the matter. Junior is certainly welcome to shine, but not ignore the fact there is a Senior. Senior and Junior are not ignoring each other.

 

[DrJavaJoe]

How about the Senior take the first step and do away with the titles Junior and Senior and agree to be colleagues instead. After which both agree to meet daily to discuss the direction to take the department and who will do what. This acknowledgement that Junior has gained experience to equal that of Senior will most likely benefit all and accomplish seniors goal of communication and team work.


Two strings walk into a bar. The first string says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'll have a beer. u.5n$x5t?*&4ru!2[sACC~ErJ'. The second string says: 'Pardon my friend, he isn't NULL terminated'.

 

[rosieb]

It’s always hard to make judgements based on limited information, and the terms and phraseology you use suggest you are based in a very different culture from my own, so forgive me if I’ve misunderstood.

It sounds to me as if, in this case, seniority is really only defined by length of service. If your colleague now has a similar level of skills, the terms Senior and Junior no longer have any real meaning.

If there is no direct reporting line, then I wouldn’t see that taking suggestions direct to the CIO is wrong.

For me, team playing, is doing what is best for the organization. As a manager, I would encourage all staff to show initiative, and I have promoted junior staff over senior ones for just that reason.

I wouldn’t see the behaviour you describe as “working to dethrone” you, rather I’d see it as a natural progression of someone’s development. Perhaps you should see it as a compliment, your coaching has enabled them to develop the confidence and ability to contribute more to the organization.

DrJavaJoe makes an excellent point, the dynamics of the team have changed and you need to recognize that, or you will continue to feel unhappy with your relationship with your colleague. You have reached a stage where it would be impossible to roll your working relationship back to where it started.

I’d agree that regular meetings to discuss what needs to be done, and who will do it – couched in terms of “What are we going to do?”.

IT is a very broad area, no-one can be an expert in everything, so could you each agree to specialize in certain areas – that way both of you get an opportunity to develop your expertise without competing with each other, and the organization gains a greater depth of skills.

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[dennisbbb]

Thank you Rosie.

You basically summarized what has happened, as well as what Senior has to do to achieve a less emulous environment. Realizing that Junior has "grown up" is difficult at first, but I guess that is an irrefutable fact.

Thank you all for participating in this discussion.