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There are several Simon Legrees in my career history, Ken.
*STORY 1* â Lessee, there was the newly-drafted publishing team "manager"
at a Deloitte-(mis)run project for the State of CA. Having done his thesis
about Thurgood Marshall (likely plagiarized from the 'net somewhere), Dr.
Kevin had never heard of CMOS. And he had the gall to attempt to teach our
experienced team how to write, a one-off session during which one member
got up and walked out (I'd given serious consideration to doing the same).
All we were handed was a thick binder of spec sheets to document the
non-existent SW. No one had an inkling how to proceed, so a couple of weeks
elapsed while everyone got "onboarded" (or found a better gig in the case
of another person), My assigned SME couldn't speak English, nor did she
seem to have any clue how anything worked. Thank God I (unofficially) found
someone who was sufficiently generous with his time so I could begin to
conjure a way forward. As often happens, angels then provided the *aha!*
moment, such that I could help guide the team.
When deadline time arrived, I was the one whoâwithout being askedâperformed
the final edit of our 700-pp. deliverable. (One member had a penchant for
sprinkling "particular" before almost every noun.) When my contract ended,
Dr. Kevin wouldn't give me a Linkedin recommendation, citing that I had
been an upstart (his know-nothing sponsor/boss had countermanded many of
the publishing team's decisions, and I later learned she
hadâ*thankfully!*âblackballed
me from future Deloitte projects).
~~~///~~~
*STORY 2* â Years later I had really had enough with agencies and their
recruiters, though I had recently come off a decent agency gig in NorCal
where I had worked with a terrific Aerotek recruiter. Now in upstate NY, a
Teksystems recruiter had found my name and invited me to coffee. 'It's just
coffee,' thought I. Now battle-worn and highly skeptical, I informed her
*exactly* what it would take to recruit me and about situations in which I
hoped to never again find myself. (Hah.)
Months passed when, out of the blue, Rayma was desperately seeking to fill
a seat with Xerox State Healthcare, it having been awarded a state contract
to overhaul and run its Medicare system. Exhaling with a long sigh, I
informed her that the proposed rate wasn't sufficient to entice me and
named a number. Soo-prise! A week later Rayma had that number approved. (I
later learned that XHS was *contractually obligated* to fill seats or face
a fine.)
The newly-minted pubs manager (where have I heard that before?) was very
excited to have me join her team. But she had zero experience in the realm,
knew nothing about agile methodologies, and thought that "managing" meant
we all dress formally, don't speak to superiors unless spoken to, and make
sure we're in our seats from 8 to 5 every day. Some weeks would find
Yolanda sequestered in a meeting room by herself, piles of paper
everywhere, while she *frantically *attempted to learn her job and its
requirements.
Meanwhile, XHS ran a *very *outdated SharePoint suppository (that's what It
looked like on the inside, no one having any idea how to manage that). A
"communications manager" was in charge of that, as well as several other
things, but that person couldn't begin to answer any of my questions.
As time went on, I learned that Yolanda ostensibly ran a wedding planning
business (though I learned that it, too, was a Keystone Cops-style
operation). And unlike us who were required to stay until 5, she'd
regularly disappear after 3:30. Ultimately I learned that her sole job
qualification was having been a sorority sister of her manager.)
After many weeks of inventing things to while away the time, we finally
learned that we were to create a document review system equipped with our
bailing wire, chewing gum, and duct tape. I refer you to the bottom middle
entry here, https://www.isntthatwrite.com/innovation-at-work-case-studies,
whereby my foreknowledge of the ages-old OLE saved the day. (No one else
knew anything about that.)
Yolanda alerting us to an upcoming do-or-die meeting with another overseer,
I found a convoluted, multi-step way to enumerate the documents our
department had touched in the four weeks I'd been there. This I showed to
Yolanda that Friday morning, well ahead of her meeting. 2:00 came and went,
during which Yolanda suddenly appeared, dragged me into her cubicle and
demanded I show her the process again. But I hadn't memorized it, so wasn't
quick enough for her. Meanwhile the overseer waited for the justification
of her team's existence.
In a state of visible duress, Yolanda began reprimanding me, at which point
I dared utter, "And frankly I'm a little put-out." She blew a cork and told
me to take the rest of the day off. (Smart move, in that I was the only one
among her team who could drive the program forward.) Come the following
Monday, I was met at the door by an interloper who had me collect my
personal stuff (most of which I already taken home), surrender my security
card, and escorted me past the main security access point where Yolanda and
her sorority sister boss stood, arms folded, glaring at me.
For some more history, XHS had already failed in similar programs with
three other states before making another run in NY. Ultimately it couldn't
deliverâsurprise! It's a tale of another company desperately needing to
reinvent itself in the mold of HPE (nee Compaq, nee EDS...)ânever mind
Deloitte, Accenture, IBM, et al.
Chris Morton https://linktr.ee/IsntThatWrite
â Substantive Editing â Technical Writing â Proofreading
â B2B/B2C â Marketing Expertise â Mentoring
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