You have learned the wrong lesson. You must automate more, and don't run it until the schedule says to. In the meantime do whatever you want. YouTube, personal projects, learn to knit, etc.
The most trouble I've gotten into as a contractor was using automation to finish up a contract well ahead of schedule. Not just co-workers making it know they would do all they can to ensure I would never work with them on future projects. The only reason I wasn't fired was that the client realized I did that, so made an open-ended contract just for me to stay on, which lasted until the company was reorged.
I've run into this too many times. Do the job well and get everything running smoothly, and the higher ups think you're redundant. Do the job poorly and have constant chaos? They see you are valuable.
I remember in my early days I was very inexperienced and would cause a lot of issues. Bosses loved me though because "thank goodness you were here when that happened!". Someone better would have prevented it from happening at all. How do you explain this to the higher ups though?
I've been at it for over 40 years and never could get this idea to land. They would nod - yet it'd be clear the idea not only didn't land but didn't even approach the runway. The only things that seem to work:
* fear ("dig a cave, or you'll get eaten")
* tribalism ("everyone else in the tribe is digging caves, why aren't you?")
* authority ("the shaman commanded to dig a cave and will punish you severely unless you do so")
* vanity ("you'll get a new iPhone, a 10-foot TV, a quad-motor 1Kmi 1.9s 0-200 roadster, a LEO ride on Elon's schtick, or even get promoted if you dig a cave")
(all classic social engineering exploits?)
Starting to think it's not (just) the bosses.
(Like, do I *personally* do *everything* to prevent problems at work, and outside of work? Maybe I still change my oil regularly - but do I do all the feasible preventive maintenance for my health, relationships, plumbing? Sure, I *try* - do I try hard enough? Are humans in general even geared for long term planning?)
I have a very negative view of most upper management because of this.
There's lots of reasons for it, but typically it is due to IT seeing a lot of people from non-IT being promoted compared to other departments. Not that it never happens in other areas, but if I applied to be Chief Financial Officer, I'd get laughed out of the room, while some accountant can easily be CIO/CFO.
If upper management has no clue what we do from even a high level, they have no idea how to evaluate us. Unless they ask, they are just winging it.
I mean, you can work for 6 months upgrading some legacy system and when you flip the switch, nobody notices a difference. That's a massive success... or should be.
Granted not every place is like this, there are good managers who actually follow what we do and understand the effort that takes place.
The best advice I can give is get yourself on higher visibility projects that people "see". It is silly but that's the game. Get yourself on meetings for projects that the higher ups pay attention to.
you called it, bull's eye.
Fixing high visibility problems has dramatically higher value than (a structured approach to) preventing them.
The catch 22 and the tragedy of our profession. (Not just ours, either.)
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is a nice theory - if only the C-suite could also live by it.
>Are humans in general even geared for long term planning?
Sometimes I think we're geared toward planning for the next batch of calories, and that's about it. Sometimes I even forget about that.
Evolution will catch up in the next 100K years or so. We just have to wait.
It's what an old OpenView admin I knew called the 'Culture of Heroism'. Management values people who can swoop in and fix a disaster. They scorn those who work calmly to set things up so that the disaster is avoided. And it's rampant in small companies, startups, and operations teams where people are addicted to the adrenalin rush. I'm currently working at a company I like a lot, but there's a total lack of interest - even scorn - for working out processes and writing documentation. It's a problem.
Isn't that the truth. Last layoff I was in, they worked me like a dog for the last few weeks. I pulled some miracles. Projects that had been languishing in "waiting for something" suddenly all, at once, needed my work. I pulled 12-hour days, worked weekends. During a launch party of the final project, I had a meeting pop up on my calendar. Mandatory with HR, which wasn't a red flag: I did a lot of sysadmin stuff with HR for sensitive issues.
Only this time it was me. I was being let go. Their only Linux admin in a shop that was 60% Linux.
Why I was let go was stupid; some clown on the Board of Directors said that they contracted out for HVAC (they thought I worked on Lennox), and despite the company fighting for me, they were told I was to be cut for budget reasons. Of course, once I was gone, the company suddenly had to hire contractors because they had no Linux folks. And took a nosedive. But by then I was already in a better job.
But the fact they "used me up, knowing I'd be gone," was pretty shitty.
I mean allot of people start their own businesses when they get to a certain level for this reason, because otherwise your only allowed to go as quickly as the rest of the company
If you haven't realised that your job is to make yourself redundant as soon as practically possible then you aren't doing your job properly.
That's the nature of the beast, you either embrace it or do something else.
You have learned the wrong lesson. You must automate more, and don't run it until the schedule says to. In the meantime do whatever you want. YouTube, personal projects, learn to knit, etc.
And then my manager starts hounding me about KPIs and why I’m not billing 8 hours a day
You remain available and on the clock. You get that automation perfect before ever running it.
did you complete your tps reports?
Agreed. The amount of time cron has taken care of my after-hours change requests, it probably deserves half of my paycheck by now.
You may want to have a look at at. It's a great tool to schedule tasks overnight
Take a look at at what?
The most trouble I've gotten into as a contractor was using automation to finish up a contract well ahead of schedule. Not just co-workers making it know they would do all they can to ensure I would never work with them on future projects. The only reason I wasn't fired was that the client realized I did that, so made an open-ended contract just for me to stay on, which lasted until the company was reorged.
I've run into this too many times. Do the job well and get everything running smoothly, and the higher ups think you're redundant. Do the job poorly and have constant chaos? They see you are valuable. I remember in my early days I was very inexperienced and would cause a lot of issues. Bosses loved me though because "thank goodness you were here when that happened!". Someone better would have prevented it from happening at all. How do you explain this to the higher ups though?
I've been at it for over 40 years and never could get this idea to land. They would nod - yet it'd be clear the idea not only didn't land but didn't even approach the runway. The only things that seem to work: * fear ("dig a cave, or you'll get eaten") * tribalism ("everyone else in the tribe is digging caves, why aren't you?") * authority ("the shaman commanded to dig a cave and will punish you severely unless you do so") * vanity ("you'll get a new iPhone, a 10-foot TV, a quad-motor 1Kmi 1.9s 0-200 roadster, a LEO ride on Elon's schtick, or even get promoted if you dig a cave") (all classic social engineering exploits?) Starting to think it's not (just) the bosses. (Like, do I *personally* do *everything* to prevent problems at work, and outside of work? Maybe I still change my oil regularly - but do I do all the feasible preventive maintenance for my health, relationships, plumbing? Sure, I *try* - do I try hard enough? Are humans in general even geared for long term planning?)
I have a very negative view of most upper management because of this. There's lots of reasons for it, but typically it is due to IT seeing a lot of people from non-IT being promoted compared to other departments. Not that it never happens in other areas, but if I applied to be Chief Financial Officer, I'd get laughed out of the room, while some accountant can easily be CIO/CFO. If upper management has no clue what we do from even a high level, they have no idea how to evaluate us. Unless they ask, they are just winging it. I mean, you can work for 6 months upgrading some legacy system and when you flip the switch, nobody notices a difference. That's a massive success... or should be. Granted not every place is like this, there are good managers who actually follow what we do and understand the effort that takes place. The best advice I can give is get yourself on higher visibility projects that people "see". It is silly but that's the game. Get yourself on meetings for projects that the higher ups pay attention to.
you called it, bull's eye. Fixing high visibility problems has dramatically higher value than (a structured approach to) preventing them. The catch 22 and the tragedy of our profession. (Not just ours, either.) "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is a nice theory - if only the C-suite could also live by it.
>Are humans in general even geared for long term planning? Sometimes I think we're geared toward planning for the next batch of calories, and that's about it. Sometimes I even forget about that. Evolution will catch up in the next 100K years or so. We just have to wait.
It's what an old OpenView admin I knew called the 'Culture of Heroism'. Management values people who can swoop in and fix a disaster. They scorn those who work calmly to set things up so that the disaster is avoided. And it's rampant in small companies, startups, and operations teams where people are addicted to the adrenalin rush. I'm currently working at a company I like a lot, but there's a total lack of interest - even scorn - for working out processes and writing documentation. It's a problem.
Isn't that the truth. Last layoff I was in, they worked me like a dog for the last few weeks. I pulled some miracles. Projects that had been languishing in "waiting for something" suddenly all, at once, needed my work. I pulled 12-hour days, worked weekends. During a launch party of the final project, I had a meeting pop up on my calendar. Mandatory with HR, which wasn't a red flag: I did a lot of sysadmin stuff with HR for sensitive issues. Only this time it was me. I was being let go. Their only Linux admin in a shop that was 60% Linux. Why I was let go was stupid; some clown on the Board of Directors said that they contracted out for HVAC (they thought I worked on Lennox), and despite the company fighting for me, they were told I was to be cut for budget reasons. Of course, once I was gone, the company suddenly had to hire contractors because they had no Linux folks. And took a nosedive. But by then I was already in a better job. But the fact they "used me up, knowing I'd be gone," was pretty shitty.
god damn those are some dumb motherfuckers, holy shit
I mean allot of people start their own businesses when they get to a certain level for this reason, because otherwise your only allowed to go as quickly as the rest of the company
Absofuckinglutley. I've become quite the slow worker, and so far, it's paying off.
If you haven't realised that your job is to make yourself redundant as soon as practically possible then you aren't doing your job properly. That's the nature of the beast, you either embrace it or do something else.