Compromise

I had an ex-friend get fired from Macy's the other day. That brings to mind a joke by Dennis Miller about Izzy Stradlin getting kicked out of Guns and Roses. Saith Dennis: Exactly what the fuck would you have to do to get kicked out of Guns and Roses? Saith GOC: How badly would you have to fuck up to lose an $8 per hour job at Macy's?

But GOC, I hear you ask, you're a real butthead. Haven't you ever lost a job for insubordination or just being a dickhead? No. I haven't.

I have discovered that the amount of shit you're willing to eat is directly proportional to how much money you're making and how much you need the job. The amount of shit you're willing to eat is inversely proportional to how much power you have, how financially secure you are, and how much the company needs you.

When I was in the Navy I was not a very good military sailor. I've had problems with authority all my life. During electronics school and on my first ship I was OK. Never got into any trouble and I was never insubordinate. On my second ship, the USS Iredell County, LST-839, I was OK (mostly) until the other Electronics Technician got out of the Navy and was replaced by an ET who couldn't fix anything. I could fix everything on the ship.

So now I had power. Most of the officers, including the Captain, liked me. I don't know why. Maybe it was because I was good at my job and had also learned how to be a Radioman when the Radiomen were shorthanded. I started standing radio watches. It was more fun than standing radar watches which I used to do. So, here was I, a person who could do three different jobs: ET, Radarman, and Radioman. Plus I was the only ET who could fix anything. As a result, I was given some leeway in little things.

I hated wearing a hat. We were supposed to wear a hat outdoors. When I was on the ship I seldom did. I got away with it. Little thing, but nice. I also had an E5 Radioman put me on report for insubordination. He was an asshole, the XO knew it, and he talked the E5 out of putting me on report and had him tear up the report chit. I had some runins with an E6 Signalman. He always lost. He was an idiot and the Ops Boss knew it. I got this guy chewed out on three separate occasions.

What I'm saying is the officers made some compromises to keep me happy. I made some compromises (learning how to do multiple jobs and do them well) to make them happy. I always got good performance reviews. The downside of this is I did not get a college cut (get out early to go to college) because I was "too valuable". They did not let me go until I was replaced by two ET's.

What about IBM? How did I last 31.5 years there?

Same philosophy. When I started off as a Customer Engineer, I only worked on typewriters (The TANG memos were fake. Take it from someone who worked on the typewriters of that era.)and dictation equipment. Within two years, I was trained on everything but copiers. My manager wanted to train me on them also, but I talked him out of it. At that time a new copier had just come out and it was a piece of crap! Plus, I really didn't want to be the only one in the office trained on everything. I was not the best technician in the office but I was thorough.

A young Office Products CE (and many old ones) had a tendency to fix machines quickly. On some problems, you could do a fast fix and be done in five minutes and on to your next call. Unfortunately, you would have to go back a month later and fix it again. There was one particular problem that drove me up the wall. I would go into an office, pull the history card out of the typewriter and see 10 calls where the CE had done the same five minute fast fix. To fix it right took another ten minutes. I would fix it right. Therefore, even though I was not the best technician, if I fixed it right the first time, I would cut calls in my territoy.

The bad thing about working in the Mattel Office Products Division is that half the CE's and almost all the managers were incompetent. It was a Mickey Mouse organization run by a bunch of Goofys. I didn't develop an "attitude problem" until my last year in the organization. I was tired of having to go into other territories and fix things right. Since my territory was a low call territory (Fix it right the first time), I had to shag a lot of calls in high call territories. My reward for doing good at my job was more work. That's always the way. The work gets done by the people willing to do it. The better you are, the more work you get.

How did I get branded an "attitude problem"? I made the mistake of giving the manager who ran the service organization a true answer as to why morale was so low. Bad move. Managers do not want to hear the truth. They have a tendency to shoot the messenger. Tell them what they want to hear. I didn't make that mistake again until my career was almost finished.

Once you're an "attitude problem" your career is dead unless you can get a new start somewhere else. They couldn't fire me because I was too good at what I did and I was not insubordinate. What they did do was move me to the worst territory in the office. The call volume was over 70 calls a week. For the previous two years they had incompetent CE's in it. It was behind on PM's(Preventive Maintainence inspections. Most of the territories, with the exception of the territory they moved me from and a few others, were). Within three months I had the call count down to 50 a week and had it almost current on PMs. It's hard to fire someone who performs like that. Once again, I was only an average technician. I just took the time to fix it right the first time. It's amazing how pleased customers are when you do that. They have this tendency to call or write your manager telling them what a great person you are.

I was lucky enough to have a friend in the Field Engineering Division. He pulled some strings and got me out of the Mattel Office Products Division and into the Field Engineering Division. My previous management told the branch manager that I was gonna work for that I was an "attitude problem". He responded that he knew how to handle people with an "attitude problem". Y'know how he did it? Would you believe treating me like a professional and acting like a professional? Plus they paid me a hell of a lot more money. Went from $12K a year to $20K a year in my first year (1978). In my 8.5 years in the Field Engineering Division I never once had an "attitude problem". I hardly had to eat any shit. They paid me well and managed me professionally. No compromises were required. I take that back. I did work 5.5 years on 3rd shift. I did some sleeping and my manager knew it. He also knew that everyone else hated 3rd shift. As I only worked at one account and I only slept when nothing was down, to keep everyone else happy, I was allowed to catnap. He pretended he didn't know. Compromise.

In 1985 I went to work as a large system hardware instructor here in Atlanta. Once again, with minimal exceptions, I did well. I was willing to teach any piece of hardware they wanted me to. The more versatile you are, the more you can get away with. This became clear, when I taught myself MVS.

When I became a programmer, I was still teaching. I helped develop and teach one class, then I wrote and taught another, then helped develop and teach two more classes. There were two years that I was delivering the teach days of a full time instructor and doing the work (with no backup) of a full time systems programmer. Because of this, I got away with dishing out some crap. I became somewhat of a prima donna and management compromised and let me get away with crap because of my superior performance. This was when I started to become a Grouchy Old Cripple.

I realize that no one is expendable, but at this time, I was the only person who could teach two classes that brought in a lot of revenue. Smart managers know how to make compromises and deal with someone like me. The only people I was pissing off were a few instructors that I supported and one manager. I got away with it. The important people, our customers, the students, loved me.

My last six years at IBM, I had to work for the CDSM©. This guy was a consummate bureaucrat (and a major league asshole). The solution to every problem was a meeting. In my first year working for this butthead, I went to more meetings than my previous 25 years at IBM.

In spite of the meetings, this was the best job I had at IBM, since I got out of doing full time teaching while also doing full time programming. Two full time jobs, that I was paid very well to do (I worked for a manager who took care of me. I worked my butt off, he paid me for it. He gave me an award every year and fantastic pay raises.) had gotten too much for me and I was having health problems. I had to slow down.

For my first three years in this job, I compromised. I ate a lot of shit because I was close to retirement and I didn't want to be downsized out of a job.

After I hit 55, I was bulletproof. So now, I was not willing to eat as much shit. I was making good money and I was guaranteed full retirement. I was financially secure. I was able to tell management the truth, not what they wanted to hear. I became an "attitude problem" again. Now, my CDSM© had to make some compromises. He didn't want to downsize me, because I was a valuable member of his organization (which allowed me to be a butthead) but he could drop my performance rating (which he did) and not give me any more raises. Did I mention that I was financially secure?

My last two years I was working 6 hour days. Because of what I knew, the guy who eventually replaced me wasn't able to do the same amount of work as I did in 6 hours. As I told my team lead and the CDSM©, I was really just sticking around for comic relief.

When I announced last year that I was gonna retire in December, they offered me a plan to retire at the end of October (almost one year ago)and they would give me three months pay. Where do I sign?

I did get one parting shot. They were not planning on replacing me. When the instructors I supported found out, they told their managers and their managers raised such a stink that they had to hire a contractor to take my place. Heh! Heh! Heh!

So ya see, sometimes I had to compromise, when I needed the money, or wanted more money and sometimes management had to compromise, by allowing me to be a prima donna and an asshole, but they got superior performance from me as a result.

That's what life and work is all about: Compromise. What are you willing to do to keep a job and make money? What is management willing to do to get above average performance and a lot of bang for their bucks?

Because of compromises I wound up working 31.5 years at IBM and became a SRF©. Life is good.

Posted by denny at October 27, 2005 12:55 PM