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Old 02-18-2021, 05:18 PM   #5326
f4phantomii
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So many of these today.

Early last year I specifically asked for a person, by name, to assist with a project. My management agreed, budget allocated. Then we were told this person couldn't be available until Nov 2020.

Of course didn't get that person, but they offered to provide other people. Except those people don't have the skills need for the tasks.

Beginning of this year we repeat the same exercise. Have this person's manager and director on the call along with my director. We make the request, and they make it clear the person is 100% off limits until April.

Fine. Knowing it takes time, I start getting this person the software they will need, working out licenses, etc. That has to involve his manager, who then tells him "My understanding was not until the end of this year, certainly not April."



This is also a group that goes ape***** if I don't include them in every little detail. They insist on being involved, but are too busy to participate.
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Old 02-18-2021, 05:48 PM   #5327
f4phantomii
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Another one that ground my gears today.

I wrote a doc. A specific doc for a specific purpose.

Someone else decided they wanted to do something similar. But the circumstances of what they are doing require an entirely different type of document. There can be legal ramifications if things go badly, so its important things be done correctly.

But the other person apparently decided they could shortcut it by changing the title of my doc and adding one line to the end.

I told them NFG. Can't do that. Not in this instance.

Usually the guy is very detail oriented and extremely well organized. Much more so than me. So this was odd behavior for him. So I'll cut him some slack.
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Old 02-22-2021, 06:42 PM   #5328
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So we converted our broadline supplier.

Back in October I gave our Director of Purchasing & the new supplier a spreadsheet with everything we used to buy from our prior broadliner - all 1300 items with manufacturer information, historical velocity, etc. In other words, from my perspective, everything necessary to source the replacements.

Time passed and not much action was taken...when I brought up that list it was "too big to manage".

We were then a month away and I had maybe 100 new bids to add...in other words nowhere near enough. So I raised the alarm.

The reaction was to ask for a "what do we need now" list. Sure, no problem. I gave 'em all a new list of the roughly 300 different items we'd need in the next two weeks.

Of course that only lasted two weeks. The emails started flowing in asking for more stuff. They asked me for another two weeks of purchasing needs. Again sure, no problem. Here are roughly 300 more new items.

We are now about a month post conversion and the Director of Purchasing is starting to get really frustrated with this constant trickle of needs from the units. The "I can't find X" is starting to make him crazy.

"Reciprocity, can't you just give me a list of everything we need?"

...like the list I gave you in October? The one you said was too big? The one you said we don't need to source completely? Every single item that's been requested has been on that OG list my man. You (and the supplier) decided to kick that can. Now that can is kicking back.
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Old 03-01-2021, 03:08 PM   #5329
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Reciprocity View Post
So we converted our broadline supplier.

Back in October I gave our Director of Purchasing & the new supplier a spreadsheet with everything we used to buy from our prior broadliner - all 1300 items with manufacturer information, historical velocity, etc. In other words, from my perspective, everything necessary to source the replacements.

Time passed and not much action was taken...when I brought up that list it was "too big to manage".

We were then a month away and I had maybe 100 new bids to add...in other words nowhere near enough. So I raised the alarm.

The reaction was to ask for a "what do we need now" list. Sure, no problem. I gave 'em all a new list of the roughly 300 different items we'd need in the next two weeks.

Of course that only lasted two weeks. The emails started flowing in asking for more stuff. They asked me for another two weeks of purchasing needs. Again sure, no problem. Here are roughly 300 more new items.

We are now about a month post conversion and the Director of Purchasing is starting to get really frustrated with this constant trickle of needs from the units. The "I can't find X" is starting to make him crazy.

"Reciprocity, can't you just give me a list of everything we need?"

...like the list I gave you in October? The one you said was too big? The one you said we don't need to source completely? Every single item that's been requested has been on that OG list my man. You (and the supplier) decided to kick that can. Now that can is kicking back.

sounds like my place. I'm in R&D and I swear, we have to spoon feed everyone.

Last edited by legacy_etu; 03-02-2021 at 02:09 PM. Reason: spelling
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Old 03-01-2021, 05:43 PM   #5330
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When stuff like that happens to me, I start sending emails with some simple leading questions. They usually require clear and unambiguous responses stating something they believe to be a fact, but which is totally wrong.
In effect, I act as the unexpected dialog box that pops up to make sure that's really what you want.

One of two things happens:

1. The person has enough brains to wonder why I asked such a question and actually stops to consider their line of thought and perhaps do some additional fact checking before they respond.

2. The person has such a hard-on about something they immediately respond, usually with a false statement about something they should have known about if they were doing their job.

For people who respond in category #1, they either get their facts straight via others, or give me a direct call and we have a short dialog about the perils of what they are asking and jointly decide on a path forward.

For people in category #2, once I receive their hastily and ill-considered response in writing, I diplomatically and politely include their boss(es) with either a correction of their incorrect statement, or making it abundantly clear I'm proceeding as directed per their explicit instructions. This is usually worded in such a way that their boss(es) wonder why I'm being so explicit and clearly creating an email record of their decision.
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Old 03-02-2021, 01:24 PM   #5331
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One of the guys I work with regularly gets cryptic emails from the owner:

"You where on with me on your computer. I believe it was grvvl ap1. You point at top. You guys are in IT."

"Why these not approved emails"

I don't know why, but these emails kill me. Like he thinks he's saying some profound **** but it sounds like a caveman being angry with the "magic box".
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Old 03-02-2021, 04:02 PM   #5332
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TIL that doinkmobb started working with Lag.
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Old 03-02-2021, 07:24 PM   #5333
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DoinkMobb View Post
One of the guys I work with regularly gets cryptic emails from the owner:



"You where on with me on your computer. I believe it was grvvl ap1. You point at top. You guys are in IT."



"Why these not approved emails"



I don't know why, but these emails kill me. Like he thinks he's saying some profound **** but it sounds like a caveman being angry with the "magic box".
I too have a coworker that does this, but thank goodness I don't get many emails from her.

She'll send emails asking a question with zero context, using sentence fragments and run-on non-sequiturs.

"Talked to John. Trying budget numbers. Can you help? Also thought maybe lab would need some help and maybe we could have those ready before their latest trying to decide if we can Thursday?"

I never reply to her emails. It's easier just to call her.
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Old 03-02-2021, 07:31 PM   #5334
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Communication "transition mediums".

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Old 03-02-2021, 10:12 PM   #5335
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Me; Receives email forwarded on from a VP asking for data.

Someone in my group: Responds to forwarded email - "We got that data...I've seen it..how does tomorrow sound to review?"

Me: "#1 - Bitch please... I'm the one that put that data together and this request makes no sense. #2 - The data I have is old so don't go promising bull****. #3 - This is going to take me hours to get this formatted the random way this individual is requesting"
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Old 03-03-2021, 11:41 AM   #5336
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I fixed an old laptop for someone who primarily works offsite and is close to retiring, hence why they haven't requested a new one. I'm not supposed to touch anything that's older than three years, and this thing was two years beyond that. I let her know I'd do it just to get her up and running but keep it on the q.t. since I'm really not supposed to spend any time on old systems. Fixed it, returned it, made her happy.

So happy that she sent a kudos email telling two guys four and five levels above me what a great job I did fixing her five year old piece of crap, who then copied my entire management chain on it.

Gee, thanks, lady.
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Old 03-04-2021, 01:28 PM   #5337
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Ah yes, good old performance review time. Let the games begin!

We have to self rate in numerous categories, along with a few paragraphs citing specific examples or other support of our rating.

Our bosses then repeat the exercise.

My old boss and I were always pretty aligned. In fact he usually ranked me slightly higher than I did myself. But he got promoted and this was my first under the new guy.

My raise was pretty much what I expected. I wasn't unhappy with the score he gave me. But I started looking thru his ratings and comments in more detail today.

For the most part we had the same rating, but one he rated me lower, and one much lower than I rated myself.

In both cases he just rated me "Meets Expectations".

But his comments don't match the ratings.

"f4phantom's personal leadership produces results that disproportionately exceeds expectations for his budget, resources, and authority. This was a strong characteristic that compelled the organization to promote him last year."

"This is an area where f4phantom excels and takes a great deal of ownership. He consistently identifies areas where application of new technologies would improve our products, and then seeks out those technologies and suppliers. He leads both internal and supplier teams to execute complex and highly integrated demonstrations in order to mature those concepts for inclusion on future products."

Yeah...both of those sound like someone an average employee who does the bare minimum to meet expectations. .

Now, I realize this is all a game. He has an overall score and lookup table of merit raise % he has to adhere with, and still stay within his merit increase budget for the group. So my score is effectively pre-determined more or less independent of my actual performance. And he has to tweak the ratings to get the score he has to hit to stay within his raise budget.

But I plan to give him a good natured ribbing next week about those just to see how he responds.
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Old 03-04-2021, 02:56 PM   #5338
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He's got high expectations!
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Old 03-04-2021, 04:33 PM   #5339
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It’s possible he had you higher and got pushed to give you a lower number.
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Old 03-04-2021, 04:56 PM   #5340
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Gotta love year end performance reviews. My place forces the managers to rate everyone in their department on a bell curve. Therefore even if they have a group full of rockstars they can't give everyone an awesome rating and corresponding bonus/pay raise. More corporate BS to minimize cash outlays.

Lesson learned for folks at my place is to start looking to transfer to a different group if they get into a group with high performers; otherwise you'll get the shaft every year.
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Old 03-04-2021, 05:01 PM   #5341
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Quote:
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It’s possible he had you higher and got pushed to give you a lower number.
In a manner of speaking, yes.

While they claim to "pay for performance", its really salary management. There is a table that HR forces everyone to use. X-axis is perf score. Y-axis is you current salary delta from the "midpoint" of your pay scale. Intersection of those is your % merit raise.

It's designed such that if you are already getting paid more than 100% of the midpoint, you get a lower raise. Your perf score tweaks it slightly, but is a much smaller lever.

The merit raise budget for our group is fixed at a percentage. So he's required to stay in that bucket. Shaving 0.25% off my raise lets him reward some of the younger guys (who are all doing great work) with a much more generous percentage.

HR imposes a min % they *have* to give everyone, regardless of how crappy their performance was. Note, I received the min allowed even though my perf was near the top.

I'm sure he did my review, then got near the end of the stack and was out of his budget. So he probably went back to me and a couple of others and lowered our ratings to the min allowed so he'd have enough to get through the whole group.
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Old 03-04-2021, 05:23 PM   #5342
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That's a ****ty system.

We used to have a convoluted system where one needed to hit this and that to get the full bonus. It was unpleasant.

Nowadays as long as you're at "Meeting expectations" for the year or above, you get your FTE-equivalent of the whole bonus. That's the one criterion, meeting expectations.

The bonus, in turn, is dictated by operating performance. They have the discretion to withdraw 5 or 10% from the total pool that's then split for department reserves but didn't this year, so just passed through our profit, more or less.

Simple and more satisfying, and uniformly applied.
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Old 03-04-2021, 05:25 PM   #5343
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Originally Posted by legacy_etu View Post
Gotta love year end performance reviews. My place forces the managers to rate everyone in their department on a bell curve. Therefore even if they have a group full of rockstars they can't give everyone an awesome rating and corresponding bonus/pay raise. More corporate BS to minimize cash outlays.

Lesson learned for folks at my place is to start looking to transfer to a different group if they get into a group with high performers; otherwise you'll get the shaft every year.
This.

And yeah, the guy that sat beside me was in that *exact* situation. Was in fact told that in most other groups, he'd be the rock star.

So last year he started quietly talking to other groups about transferring over. They were going to open a req for him at the next level up and have him apply.

HR swooped in and put the nope on that real hard.

Left with no other options, he left voluntarily for a competitor.

And our jobs are not ones that are easy to fill. We have reqs that have been open for years with almost no applicants.
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Old 03-04-2021, 05:29 PM   #5344
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That's a ****ty system.

We used to have a convoluted system where one needed to hit this and that to get the full bonus. It was unpleasant.
If you are manager or above, that's the system you are are on.

Base pay + a tiered percentage as bonus depending on if you are manager, director, VP, etc.

If the company has a bad year, it has the option to whack a small percentage off you incentive bonus. In 25 years, I've never seen that happen. If you achieved 90% of your goals for the year, you get 90% of your bonus.

Nobody puts down goals they can't make.

Which is hilarious in and of itself since they tell us "If you are hitting 70% are your goals or better, you aren't challenging yourselves enough."

Last edited by f4phantomii; 03-04-2021 at 05:58 PM.
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Old 03-04-2021, 05:34 PM   #5345
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Its a money issue.

At least in my company, you were competing against your team members and different teams, even though you had no interaction with them.
End result is that, while many got excellent reviews, the department only had enough exceeds to give out, which in turn would net you a better raise/bonus.
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Old 03-04-2021, 08:40 PM   #5346
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This.

And yeah, the guy that sat beside me was in that *exact* situation. Was in fact told that in most other groups, he'd be the rock star.

So last year he started quietly talking to other groups about transferring over. They were going to open a req for him at the next level up and have him apply.

HR swooped in and put the nope on that real hard.

Left with no other options, he left voluntarily for a competitor.

And our jobs are not ones that are easy to fill. We have reqs that have been open for years with almost no applicants.
Yup, corporate stupidity biting them in the ass. They’d rather lose a valuable guy than reform their system to reward people based on their true performance. Such short sightedness.

Like I learned in my contractor days, the best way to crank up your salary is to move every year or two to a different company.
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Old 03-04-2021, 09:20 PM   #5347
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Yes, but if I'm looking through resumes a guy changing jobs every year or two isn't worth the effort. Why can I convince them to stay if nobody else has?
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Old 03-04-2021, 10:55 PM   #5348
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Quote:
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Yes, but if I'm looking through resumes a guy changing jobs every year or two isn't worth the effort. Why can I convince them to stay if nobody else has?


Going through this with a coworker now that I like a lot. He’s on the cusp of a new job but not patient enough to wait for it. I’m done trying to convince him to stay.
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Old 03-04-2021, 11:38 PM   #5349
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At some point you know someone is a lost cause. Better to just let them go than put off the inevitable. I've had some really good people (friends even) move on and in the end they're happier. On the flip side one guy left in fall 2019 and now is looking to come back. No hard feelings so we'll probably bring him back.
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Old 03-05-2021, 07:00 AM   #5350
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We have over 150 open reqs right now. It will literally take years to fill those, and we'll never really fill them all.

We have had 3 people who left voluntarily last year ask about coming back. But I believe that is 100% due to the fact that they never had to move. They work for a competitor in another state but worked from home. So it's very simple for them to job hop back...and likely get a fat raise.

A coworker just got an offer from a startup. Signing bonus was 1 full year's salary. He would have pulled almost $750k that year had he taken it.
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