@My Last Job — Diary of Bad Management — Part 1:
A diary of watching bad management at work, and learning how NOT to do things.
DISCLAIMER: This series is not about my literal “last job.” To protect others, I have changed some names, places and other details. But rest assured, the core essence of the series will still be about what to do when you find yourself at the right job, but under the wrong management.
I love my big brother for many of the obvious reasons. Because he was the first sibling, I got to stand back and watch him endure unknown territory on my behalf, often times stumbling through situations while completely botching them with his childhood antics. Basically, he was my living example of how not to do things.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not making fun of him. After all, practice makes perfect; a statement which implies that one has to endure being imperfect before they get it right. Most importantly, my big brother taught me a huge life lesson: That there is as much to learn in watching a wrong example at work, as there is in watching a right example.
Enter the managers @ My Last Job.
“There is as much to learn in watching a wrong example at work, as there is in watching a right example.
Enter the managers @ My Last Job.”
My story begins with the day my managers told a team of graphic artists that they were going to become game developers. Almost overnight.
No. Really. They came into a shop of graphic art and Adobe experts, and told them that game engines were “just like Adobe Flash,” and that it should be easy for artists to learn how to use it. Even the programming part…
Yeah... If you’re laughing out loud right now, you’re realizing already that the managers @ “My Last Job” were terrible. Just terrible.
Anybody that’s worked with Adobe’s software will know that it’s nothing like using an actual game engine. Sure, Dreamweaver requires some programming for websites, and Flash used to have something called ActionScript. But neither of these things matches the complexity of knowing and leveraging computer game languages. Not to mention the feat of mastering entirely new software that doesn’t operate like an Adobe program.
In essence, my former managers were demanding their artist staff become software engineers in a rather short period of time, without proper training, and without an engineer’s pay raise for that matter; a sticking point that some of the staff would later state to be part of management’s “actual plan.” — Get engineering work for artists’ pay.
Is that legal even? Some of our staff asked that very thing in the years to follow. But it turned out most of us overlooked a particularly adverse line on our job descriptions: “Other duties as assigned…”
“Other duties as assigned…”
When I signed the job description agreement, I envisioned this line meaning taking on a few extra, but relatable duties that are part of being a graphic designer; moving stacks of paper around, or taking ink inventory for the printer. These kinds of things. But apparently, in the hands of a less than stellar management, this line is license to creatively pivot an employee’s entire career, regardless of employee input. So, we were stuck to dancing to management’s tune… And management knew it too.
“If you don’t like it, there’s the door.” Is what my then manager would come to say in a not-so-subtle display of power, especially after enduring several meetings in which we had to explain that we were behind schedule (make that way behind schedule).
The manager’s reaction to our struggles? “So? I’ve programmed modules before. Therefore, I know this is easier than you’re saying. You lot just need to stop being lazy!”
Lazy. That is what the manager’s opinion of us “lot” was. That we were simply being “lazy.”
When we attempted to explain the difference between a few lines of CSS in Dreamweaver versus the swathes of background logic done in C# or C++ (advanced computer languages that many people dedicate entire undergraduate degrees too, mind you) the manager simply waved the “excuses” off before dropping that final line: “If you don’t like it, there’s the door.”
That was it. We were in our place. Our expert opinions meant nothing. Though before the end, this very line would come back to haunt that manager…
Now I understand that managers are also human beings; people who suffer from their own blind spots and ignorance. So it’s not a good practice to assume maliciousness is afoot. But if there’s nothing else that you take away from this article, at least know this:
Trust must be a two-way system between managers and employees. Any time the system becomes a one-way road only, it’s only a matter of time before that road meets with an eventual dead end.
- Employees must BEWARE a management staff that could over-leverage an “Other duties as assigned” clause.
And…
- Managers have to TRUST their team of experts if someone says something is amiss. Even world-class CEOs seek feedback, after all…
In my case, I’ll never know for sure if my former managers were actively aware of what they were doing; whether they really were consciously setting out to get “engineer work for artists’ pay.”
What I do know for sure, is that former management was actively ignoring their graphic artists’ struggles and complaints about learning to make computer games in lieu of websites.
Either way, “fun” times were ahead of us — More specifically the type of “fun” that begins with a capital “F-U.”
Repeat Disclaimer: Again, this article isn’t literally about my “last job.” But the core essence of the story is the same; I found myself up a creek one day, a graphic artist who was going to have to learn how to code and create in a game engine, because my managers actually thought everything operated the same as Adobe Flash.
If this article has been helpful to you, or otherwise interesting in any way, please drop me a line in the comments below :) I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
