The psychology of resignation

Post-resignation horse trading

You will notice in my notice of resignation to my manager, I made a few suggestions on how to handle my notice period. It so happens that my contract of employment stipulates that I give a calendar month’s notice.

The problem with that is the possibility of having to endure up to 8 weeks of not wanting to be where you already decided to leave.

In general, that should give your manager the impetus to arrange for a replace who would take over your duties in order not to precipitate a crisis when you leave.

However, in some cases, the boss busies himself in trying to frustrate your departure considering he possibly was instrumental in frustrating you out of the job in the first place.

The folly of that kind of attitude is the way it has the tendency to sap all available goodwill left to conclude the contract in the best possible terms.

Everyone who knows you are leaving are offered a forum to listen to every kind of unpalatable umbrage spewed out either by the manager or the leaver about each other.

Interestingly, I cannot suddenly have had a radical change in interest, commitment and loyalty which were in core principles on which my performance review was based without some extraordinary event of trail of events that have prompted my looking for greener pastures.

Our HR department can attest to a number of meetings where I expressed concerns about persons exceeding their brief, difficulties with effective communication and an atmosphere of indifference.

To this end, we have had an exchange of emails relating to the aftermath of my resignation without much progress on the part of my manager. They are listed below, however, with some analysis.

Letter 1 - To all parties with whom I am involved

Titled - For your information

Lady and Gentlemen,

I have formally notified the company of my intention to seek other career opportunities, I believe arrangements would be in place for someone or some function to assume my responsibilities at my departure which is by no means immediate [I have a notice period to serve].

Meanwhile, all already scheduled activities regarding Software Control & Deployment would run their due course to completion, the backlog of events would be cleared as much as is possible and practicable, neither would this development impact on the standard of service you are accustomed to.

It is however necessary to ensure any of your staff who liaise with my functions are duly informed, lest there be any information or service they might require before I leave.

Thanks for all the support and fruitful working relationship we have had.

My best regards

Letter 2 - To my manager

You will recall I suggested a possible negotiation of terms towards an agreeable end-date of my tenure with UPC.

I understand that you have to assess the workload and/or necessary handover processes needed to divest my responsibilities to your appointed successors to my function.

I have already informed all partners that use my services to ensure that they interface with me on whatever outstanding issues they might require my input for before I leave.

However, here are my proposals.

+        Fulfilling the 40 hour week over a 4 day week in the next month; making the end of that month my last working day.

+        Finishing at the end of the second working week of next month

I hope you can ponder these options and provide me a response today.

Thanks for your consideration and anticipating your favourable response.

Regards

Letter 3 - Manager’s response

Excuse the malapropisms, his English expression is not known for clarity

Hi,

I will assess the situation asap, but will not complete this before next week. This means current situation is expectation that you have to complete your work accordingly to your contract's terms.

From at least one of our customers I understand you yesterday have communicated directly to them and without a CC to your manager the re-planning situation for SC&D now undergoing.

Only positive effect from this was a longer list of urgent demands for SC&D actions communicated to me, if this was your goal - it was achieved.

Best regards,

Commentary:

This is a typical instance of making rules on the fly, I am not aware of any contractual obligation to copy my manager in on any of my correspondence as long as I am fulfilling my role and there is no particular need to escalate a situation for resolution.

As for the re-planning situation for SC&D, that is the first I have heard of any such plans, I have always suspected that one of the reasons our working relationship failed was because I am not clairvoyant, we cannot all be that talented.

Since this response given almost 2 weeks ago, there has been no movement on this issue since then.

Letter 4 - My invitation to a pilot leaving party

Titled - The long good bye project

Friends,

Since it appears it is going to be a rather looooong goodbye, I have decided I would first do a Pilot/UAT run before the Goodbye is accepted into Production, in the not too distant future.

This pilot involves putting succulent edibles in nutrition acceptance receptacles, masticating the inputs and ingesting the same after the momentary stimulation of your taste sensors.

Basically, it is cakes at 14:15 onwards today. Please join me in this test run.

Thanks and regards

Commentary:

This was really to make a mockery of the whole racket developing around my notice period. Also, since pilots have always been a luxury in my team before a major deployment.

This was an ample opportunity to introduce pilots as a standard pre-production step in a project.

Letter 5 - My response to my manager

I appreciate your response, even you said you were not surprised by my decision to leave and that my functions can easily be picked up by other personnel when you rebuffed my offer to come in to help in an introductory handover for anyone you might assign to take up my role. I could only assume you had already anticipated and pre-planned for this event.

My 2 years of service to you as affirmed in both my performance reviews should hopefully count for something to allow you consider my proposals more favourably and allowing us to part on usefully amicably terms.

Again, it is within your prerogative to hold me to my contract terms, it would not affect my level of professionalism and standard of service.

I have generally communicated with our customers with whom I have developed a good working relationship over the years and either of us would have had to inform them anyhow; the influx of urgent requests would have come anyway, either front-loaded to this time or back-loaded to my last few days.

What can be achieved would be achieved, the rest would have to be devolved to your appointed successors to my functions, the period of notice is to offer us all and good opportunity to handover effectively, not to suddenly try to perform miracles.

Best regards

Commentary:

My point exactly, we both have a responsibility to inform all users of my services that I would be leaving the company. If he had not made the about my role being easily picked up by others within the organisation, I would have been jumping the gun at informing people of my departure.

As a manager, if you decide to shoot yourself in the foot out of spite and ingratitude, I certainly would not be trying to save your face in order to inconvenience myself.

I want to give this job a clean break and move on, I do not intend for the regime of frustration to becloud me horizons no matter how much he now tries to redeem a failed situation.

Unfortunately, I have received no response to this reply. To fulfil all righteousness, I sent him a copy of the letter I send to our partners with a cover note. Also, by this time, my boss had still not informed HR that I was leaving.

Letter 6 - Cover Note

Hi,

This is the email I sent to the customers I deal with, it states that the already scheduled SC&D activities would be dealt with and the backlog cleared up as much as can be done.

I would be going off on holiday from Wednesday, I would like to know your decision on my proposals on Tuesday and I would be away till the first working Monday of next month.

Thanks and regards

Commentary:

No response. I do wonder when he would realise that I am not more affected by this immature "political" stalling attitude. In a masterstroke of acrimony, all this can eventually be forwarded to his manager the CIO.

Basically, if you cannot reason in a reasonable manner with someone, then all reasonable means of bringing reason to bear might have to be employed.

For now, I am exercising extreme restraint, after from the fact that I am off on holiday, nothing should mar the pleasures of rest, recuperation and preparation for the future.

Letter 7 - Before I left for a 2-week holiday

Hi,

I do not know if you have been able to assess the requirements and planning for SC&D in relation to my pending departure.

I am off on holiday from today and returning to work on the first Monday of the next month, you can contact me about your considerations by email and I would also be available on my mobile phone to discuss any new developments pertaining to this.

Thanks and regards

Commentary:

I am yet to receive any response to this after a week of sending this email. This also happens to be 4 working days after the next week referred to in Letter 3.

I suppose we only have to observe how this all plays out eventually.

Mind games numbing reason and killing feeling

I would suppose I have served due process and diligence in this matter, with my notice, my suggestions, my recommendations and patience.

I have offered him the initiative to dealing scrupulously with a situation that can deteriorate into a farce.

I do not intend for my standard of service to be compromised or deteriorate, but the simple decision to leave means I have lost all enthusiasm for that role, a last gasp at megalomania would not in any way improve this situation.

The only option left is compromise, for me, this is a dead duck manager who has run out of aces that could impact my future career.

Watch for a future blog reviewing my past managers.

A father and son

Overview

In some ways, I have always had a strained if not difficult relationship with my father. Where we have tried to make up, it was always been marred by circumstantial issues that introduce new strains rather than reinforce newly established communications.

Last week, I read with some poignancy the stories of growth-up men who wrote about how they would have liked to have a better relationship with their fathers whilst they could when their fathers were alive.

Immediately, I though about what things I would like to say, share and chat to my father about my experiences, my decisions, my life and obviously share of those things that have happened in his over the last 14 or so years. I still have the advantage of him being around and should make good use of it.

Similarities that belie differences

Many years ago, I thought my father and I were radically different and opposite people, whilst that may be true of some instances, fundamentally we are peas of the same pod.

Being born of African parentage, we have more of a patriarchal society where age plays significance in earning respect, proffering wisdom and complete deference no matter who have been wronged.

In terms of similarities, we are both the first born of our families, we could be quite obstinate, stubborn and resolute, all of which yields to a sense of pragmatism when dealing with tough issues, that at times is a fault, when more of a sleight of tongue is required other than frankness.

In areas where I thought I was more humane, I suppose that is because he is fundamentally African, strict and probably too straight-laced and principled compared to my more liberal European outlook with a bit of the English gentleman affectation.

Being the patriarch of the family, he has a force of personality that could be domineering, his charitable work is legendary, he has helped lots of elders, peers, siblings, extended families and he principally has been a village chief in all but name, long before he was honoured as a chief.

I am in those areas no match, my absence from that African societal structure means I do not have the angst and agony of living under his shadow or the aspirations to embark on activities I am not entirely equipped for.

In many instances, he is a first amongst equals and first amongst many, a very courageous man being whose life has been shared by his influence on many probably to the detriment of a closer relationship with us his children.

Contrasting my parents with my paternal grandparents, it is amazing how religiously tolerant my grandparents were.

At times, it appears the people of my parent’s generation who were probably the first to be educated and educated to a high standard simply had their prejudices and superstition accentuated and reinforced - it is an observation that fetches true conversing with my cousins.

For a meeting of minds

My father’s status has meant he has been deprived of the source of good advice concerning many issues he has had to contend with. His elders generally deferred to him, his peers probably envied him and listened more to him than recommended much to his favour, the younger ones just never did chat back.

It has meant that critical issues have not had the kind of scrutiny to make objective assessments where necessary, he has however, fared well regardless, he could have fared better in other circumstances.

My long held view about my father’s core competence which I expressed to one of his protégés almost 10 years ago, only really filtered down to him just 2 years ago, and he ruefully expressed the absence of advice from people who could have been more helpful.

Then I said, "My father is a brilliant accountant, but I have my doubts about his business acumen", such commentary can only in a matter of frankness come from a son, I suppose.

What I seek

There are a number of areas where we are at variance and those issues becloud the core aspects of just being able to communicate freely.

My father is well into his second marriage, it is unlikely that at 38, I can be persuaded of the benefits of a life-changing experience like marriage and having kids, when in fact, this kind of enterprise should have been embarked upon probably 10 years ago.

Bless him, he even suggested arranging one for me, I have never so clearly rejected an offer from my father as I did that one offer, even he was quite taken aback.

The African psyche suggests you are only a responsible and settled man once you are married and begin to have kids, well, I suppose if I were living in Nigeria, the pressure would have been unbearable to respond to what everyone expects, regardless of if that is what you want for yourself.

Basically, in Nigeria, you live what society expects of you, not what you chart out for yourself, at times, you might be lucky that those views work together.

Another area is where he wants to me to adopt his patriarchal mantle, whilst I am given to a modicum of magnanimity my sphere of influence is mainly in Europe and not in Nigeria, I do not intend to postulate and pontificate on what people should be doing in Nigeria, having not been there for 14 years.

Also, in the 19 years that I lived in Nigeria, it was rarely acknowledged that I was a native; I was mainly referred to as the boy who was born abroad. In fact, I am the product of 2 radically different cultures and I try to exhibit the best of both.

Many a time, I have been persuaded to get involved in some business venture, it is something I just do not have the mind for, I core competence is in computing and understanding how Information Technology can be used to help a business grow, beyond that, I have no clear career goal to become a trader, a manufacturer, a builder or even a free mason.

Once we clear away all this stuff by agreeing that our separate desires may not been subject to the compromises necessary to see them through in favour of either party, we can move on to the father and son talk.

I am proud of you

These are words every son craves to hear from his father, however, I have gotten to a stage where I am no more driven by the desire to hear those words.

However, I have those same words to say to me father, I am immensely proud of my father for his achievements, his sense of humour, his many community building activities, his stoicism and more so, his desire to reach out in the end to establish a relationship I have desired.

When my father was honoured with a chieftaincy title (equivalent to a status of deputy king, or something along those lines) last year, I felt he was most deserving of it than all his peers, I recognised all the work he had done in modernising our village, raising its profile, helping the people unto greater things in life and so on.

In a country where any megalomaniac with just 2 coins to rub together could acquire a chieftaincy title for a price, my father’s was a worthy honour bestowed out of gratitude and recognition for the work he had done over the years. I am glad that in those little windows of opportunity I have had to chat to him, I clearly recognised that honour to him.

Finally, we live in a world where many get estranged from their parents for so many reasons, causative or circumstantial, we however do not have centuries of life to live to be able to continue holding grudges for another one day, these people were once part of our lives by reason of their being our parents, they represent our roots, our pedigree and the source that creates our future.

If we can get nothing off our parents regardless of their failings, in the many areas where they have tried to be as good as they can be; that is not to say that some parents are not downright rotten, we should for once seek their blessings in many of our endeavours.

Blessings not in the sense that they have to vet what we do, but in the sense that they encourage and promote everything that helps make us just that much better at whatever we embark upon.

There is where I want to be with my father.

No Sir! We would not take the rap

Experiences at work

If you have been a follower of events on my blogs you would realise that my experiences in my soon to be concluded job have produced insight about the workings of management and staff that militates against due process and needed progress.

You will find in an example below a typical email I addressed to all concerned about an inordinate rush to implement a half-baked idea in order to gain kudos that would fade as the problems and cracks begin to show up just soon after it has been declared a success.

I would hope that my 15 years experience in IT would count for something, though I find it interesting also when my younger boss speaks in that kind of time frame, you’ll think he finished university at 13 - but then nothing is impossible.

The Background

As we had done many times before, the team I belong in has been a battering ram to impose, conquer and implement grand schemes of IT prowess. Some have been glaringly successful and others have just been nominally OK.

My boss is not a believer in collaboration; rather, all other existing implementations where we have been called to introduce change are discounted for what we can offer. The main thinking is, if we are not the ones implementing the idea, we are irrelevant and others would be called upon to do the job.

That, one would think is understandable for new projects, but surely, duplicating a process to see who gets there first or better in the same organisation is just wanton wastefulness but the stuff of internal political sophistry, presumably.

In this instance, we were to roll out a desktop platform with the attendant back-end infrastructure to co-exist with an already working setup, but without proper co-operation with the staff in that remote location.

When the boss sent the project team to consult with us about this, he also briefed them against me, saying they would encounter difficulty with me and they should railroad whatever I had to say.

Interesting situation, well, I ask difficult questions and I want sensible answers, I was employed to THINK - that is give expert advice - the day I stop thinking is the day my job is done.

The email below was written in December 2003 and the reply from my boss soon after, his promise to answer properly, the issues I raised was never fulfilled.

The email

Subject: The Project - Some truth explored.

Gentlemen,

After reading all the notes from Austria IT personnel and seeing the urgency to deliver impressed on us over the last few days; there may be one thing not accounted for in all the proceedings and possibly the one that could be at variance to all the political machinery brought into force to execute this project.

Everybody who has a technical interest in the project is doing everything to protect and highlight the quality of our profession judgment, expertise and standard of service we are accustomed to giving our customers.

It is the reason why we would test every facet before we sanction any action as delivered and the same reason they would want detailed insight into every process before they go ahead.

These interests would sometimes run counter to the management purpose because they represent realities closer to the ground than is available in executive overviews or project profiles, difficult to articulate but essential to resolve in order to fulfil all requirements.

This strata of the project is what project managers are supposed to have the responsibility of understanding, recognising and diffusing; serving properly as the communication channels and arbiters of the truth of the situation.

Where this is lacking, we (the technical interests in NL and AT) are called upon by our sides to manufacture excuses or half-truths that put a spin on reality and create the opportunity to be able to blame the other party.

You will all appreciate that we all want to deliver what works and if we are to take lessons we have learnt from the previous deployment; none of this is a turn-key deployment - too many parts are linked together to offer this solution.

Once it goes live we will encounter issues that can only be discovered in THAT live situation. {The problems I had to resolve yesterday evening regarding Office XP and the Anti-Virus are case in point.}

This is why even when everything worked in Region 1 and we cloned the scenarios to all the other 4 regions; they all presented different challenges and we would encounter some challenges with Austria no doubt.

Unfortunately, we have had no opportunity to fully document those challenges since we are still within the deployment phases of the present and have now picked up Austria.

What has not been articulated in this note simply presents food for thought regarding the way we have adopted high-visibility projects.

Regards.

The Reply

I will reply in detailed when ever more time is available, but can state I don't support several of the statements made.

Best regards

The Boss

The Analysis

I have planted thoughts of concern in the minds of about 8 people who received my email and what we get is a lame rebuttal, but carry on regardless of what was said.

Well, hardly 6 hours after my email was read, the outrageously ambitious but unachievable time table for the rollout was first moved back a week, then another 4 weeks within 2 days.

What I find amazing is the inability to marry desire with reality on the part of management, such that having a pilot for any project our team embarks on is considered a luxury.

In the end, we started getting information that this roll out was not as successful as it should be, but this is one time where after all we have done, and continue to do in a conscientious and professional manner.

The blame lies squarely at the feet of the boss for the way he politically mismanaged the issues that could have been better received and accepted if we were allowed to cooperate and collaborate with teams that provide support in the areas where we are introducing change.

Once again, No Sir! Technical solutions cannot make up for failed political and management issues.

I cannot dance to this din

Canary Islands

Having chosen the height of the low-season to visit the Canary Islands for a 2-week holiday, one can be forgiven for having much to comment about in terms of entertainment and activity.

There is not doubt that this time is the most affordable to visit the Islands, it is also the time that many of the businesses chose to take a holiday because business is a trickle rather than a flood.

Basically, the high season is the winter months from about the second-half of September to just after Easter. The signs you see around Gran Canaria in particular are first in Spanish, then in German and sometimes in English.

In German, not because of what I first thought was a Nazi invasion of the 40´s but because the whole of geriatric Germany makes an Exodus to the warmer climes of the Tropics without necessarily being in Africa.

The Canary Islands of which there are 7 mainly is a part of Spain, comprising of 2 states.

The smart thing about the geriatric years is exemplified in a comment made by a septuagenarian from England who said; during the winter months you are either at home trying to keep warm or out here doing every good activity and being utterly youthful with bonhomie. I agree most entirely.

Keep the mix, give me the music

Back to the main topic, I visited a number of clubs or bars which might be pseudo-clubs in the centre of Playa del Ingles which is in the southern tip of Gran Canaria looking for some entertainment or rather music to dance to.

I come from an era when music was a performance created by people doing things with musical instruments rather then chips and electrons cruising through wires and cables to the loudspeaker.

I have found it very difficult to dance to the music I hear in these clubs, because of the following reasons

1. None of the music sounds like what you get from the original singles
2. Neither is the music like what you see on the videos on MTV or the Box, where the performers do their best in formation dancing to sell the music
3. The music or din as it were averages 120 beats per minute, you almost definitely have to be on some drug to find the rhythm with which to synchronise or synchopate

In fact the reason why the whole experience is so alien is because of the advent of something called mixing, the fusion of the original music or sound track with a series of monotonous percussion sounds to create dance music.

Unfortunate as this might seem, I can understand that anyone without African blood probably does not know how to take the rhythm of any sound or original beat to relate effectively with their body movements to create an image of poise and prowess in dancing.

Anything, that deviates from the the formality of ballet through ballroom dancing to the Latin American styles is almost alien to the youth of today, the freestyle they adopt might as well be amateur puppetry with 2 left feet.

However, I have found that the Mancunians for some reason do know how to pick up the rhythm in original music, there is no need to inform they through the 120 beat per minute deafening din excited by pills of ecstasy.

To my memory, only one piece of atrociously bad music has ever been improved upon by this sordid mixing ordeal, that is Cher’s Believe, every other mix I have heard has murdered, depreciated, maligned and jettisoned the quality expressed the artiste in the original output.

The music industry disconnect

The music industry is now caught in a schizophrenic grip of trying to maintain music sales and satisfying this dance music craze.

Whilst, dance music is the rave amongst most disc jockeys, it is really a skill that has moved from an art to a science, and poor science for that matter. A DJ needs a good ear and timing to splice one track into another.

With original sound tracks, that is a literally impossible for people who have no inkling of how music works, however, this is easy if the underlying 120 bpm thing is the medium, persistence of hearing caused by the pneumatic effect of speakers that could bring down the building from the vibration makes it easier to switch tracks without too much of a honed skill.

Though, it can be argued that you have to skilled in a non-skill to be an expert in that non-skill - my view entirely.

Now, do does the music industry expect to survive, if what I buy from the shops and listen to on the TV is corrupted beyond recognition when I go out to the clubs?

The beats I listen to at home which in my mind create the feeling that makes me want to dance, are all muffled out by this viral percussion which is supposed to be my cue to dance - I am at a loss at the logic.

Oh! For a club that just plays the music as it is and DJs who know how to splice the music and keep people on the dance floor. It is a dying or dead art.

Addendum: What is referred to as dance music in this blog is better known as EuroTrash, I can add no better definition to this situation. Euro meaning it is European and trash speaks for itself.

Tolerance as a mindset of choice, prejudice and hypocrisy - Part 2

Finding an English School

One is yet to find a student of English from either Japan or China who has been taught English to secondary school level and been able to speak it fluently.

In Japan especially, where so much emphasis is placed of learning English as a language for greater career opportunities. Japan is an established and developed economy and nation with all the resources necessary to make that work.

One remembers years ago in secondary school when French was taught to us with the brutality of the cane bruises from a psychopathic teacher, it took the fun out of learning a good language and no one picked it up as well as could be expected.

Finding a decent Dutch course

The only people who have had the best induction into the Dutch society have been the foreign spouses of the ruling family, Prince Bernhard and Prince Claus from Germany and Princes Maxima from Argentina, then we have foreigners who are madly in love with their Dutch partners, then the persevering rest who just have to learn Dutch to bring the bacon home.

I am not aware of a cosy learning experience for a language made so difficult not by the tuition, but the by the inflexible practitioners who cannot seem to understand anything said that is not accent-perfect, word-perfect, grammar-perfect and just perfect.

Evidence of this fact also comes from the situation where they cannot understand sentences that mix 2 languages that they speak, it is rather bizarre.

Any learner, after the initial enthusiasm almost always gives up learning when all attempts to speak attract no encouragement.

Everyone switches to English, no matter how bad, we are all forgiving enough to accept what is commonly known as Dinglish - the direct translation of Dutch words into English maintaining Dutch grammar and syntax.

We the Dutch affrim that we are becoming less Dutch

This brings us to an original Dutch idea being promoted as part of the immigration-integration debate that is sweeping Europe.

Until recently, the Dutch and the Netherlands have been feted as the most tolerant Western society. This is not to say that the Dutch are still not tolerant, however, a vociferous minority purporting to convey popular opinion are being quite facetious about what to tolerate.

The brunt of this sweeping Dutch angst is the immigrant; or rather, the non-European, non-Christian, non-Dutch speaking, non-skilled nonentities that are diluting Dutch culture and turning the Dutch into other things but Dutch.

We all know that the argument that gay marriage compromises the sanctity of the institution of marriage is as unfounded as immigrants making the Dutch become more Arabic, Muslim, non-Western or some other inconceivable tosh. See Part 1.

Learn Dutch in your village

Anyway, in a masterstroke of genius, the Dutch have now decided that families from these improper areas cannot be united without mastering Dutch and the culture, that is understandable, only that they have to do this before they can emigrate.

The Dutch, having mastered the art of making money, linking up with foreign cultures, then profited bountifully from slave trade and pulled out before other slave trading nations saw that as a business, would now have the opportunity to set up Dutch assimilation institutions and schools in these nether lands.

Walk down a kasbar in Casablanca, you might happen upon a Dutch school, I am not quite sure of seeing that in the persecuted Berber heartlands.

The core analysis is simply the fact that the Dutch have surreptitiously created an almost insurmountable barrier to entry without clearly stating that a barrier to entry has been created.

Obviously, minorities from Japan, Australia or America are not affected by this barrier considering it might even be better to set up these schools in prosperous countries that can afford good teachers, provide the right amenities and having able and paying customers.

The world ain’t that fair, neither are the Dutch in this case.

Resignation?

The subject of resignation

In continuation of the previous blog I have chosen this topic to illustrate an interesting event that occurred just over a week ago. You can first read my letter and then the commentary that follows.

Dated

Sir,

Notice of resignation

First of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity you gave me over 2 years ago to execute policies for Software Control and Deployment.

Those 2 years have been eventful, interesting, sometimes stressful but very rewarding; they would serve as hallmarks in my career as well as pleasant memories of the responsibilities, the challenges, the successes and the people without whom none of those milestones would have been achievable.

However, everyman eventually has to conduct a radical assessment of their career development and prospects from which decisions of great personal significance have to be made.

In that light, I regret to notify you of my decision to leave the company to seek other career opportunities that align with where I believe my career is directed.

I understand that I have to give a statutory notice of a calendar month bringing my last day of work to the end of next month.

However, I hope you would look favorably on negotiating either an earlier end date or some facility that would allow me to begin an internship with my new deployment as soon as possible.

Also, if by the end of my notice period, no replacement for my responsibilities has been recruited, I would be available to provide an introductory session to help that person settle into the job at no cost.

Once again, thank you very much for the opportunity to work for you and for the company.

Yours sincerely,

Signed

Commentary

During the job market depression of 2002, the only jobs available were in the long-term employee sector; having been a contractor/consultant for 7 years, one had resolved that a number of things would have to give; status, remuneration, and a possible decline in the standard of living one had always been accustomed to, by reason of reduced remuneration.

Just as the days of being paid appearance fees at my old contract waned, I was recommended for this role which offered a stipend, a promise of worthless stock options and a career opportunity of a lifetime. Even one can be forgiven the opportunity for being fooled.

My take home was halved in one stroke.

Wading into the political quagmire was an interesting experience, never had I seen more competition amongst the departments of a company, or rather the pettey tyrants that head these departments than with our competitors.

In fact, by some miracle the company has survived a huge debt burden and Chapter 11, if only the energy spent in useless politicking were pooled to take the company from average to outstanding - I have my hopes and it is possible, I believe in the product and principle, but I wonder about the middle layer that keeps thwarting every new opportunity for self-interest and self aggrandisement.

Anyway, the reasons for my resignation stem from the following events:

1. Last August, I asked to attend a course to improve an area of skill I thought needed more development. It was immediately approved, but once the invoice landed on the manager’s desk, it vegetated, and despite every entreaty to move it on, it just did not happen. In the end, I could not go on the course. Question: How do you get a course approved and still not get to go on it? There were no urgent issues at hand to prevent my attending.
2. Notification of the performance review was sent out by HR in November and this was to take place in mid-January, the seemingly lackadaisical attitude to career development was demonstrated in the fact that the manager as it were forgot to send out the preparatory notes till just 48 hours before the meeting with the lame apology of being busy. The meeting is covered in this Blog, the results would be discussed in a later blog.
3. Having discussed elements of career development especially the fact that my role had settled into routine and the mundane, the boss was still of the inclination that my job provided amazing opportunities. However, I was interested in taking a Masters course in IT, to which he responded completely negatively, offering no support, no encouragement and a grudging recommendation that explicitly said the company was offering no financial assistance or time off for my study. Typically, the cult of the overbearing manager should at times read the policies that accompany statements that make. I was instead advised to take the short courses on Skillport rather than a Masters degree. Looks like this ia s dead-end job, for as long as I have this man as my manager.
4. I made 3 attempts to demonstrate my vision of the Software Control & Deployment for my company which in fact has an enterprise environment. All were presented to my boss for his assessment and apart from minor modifications which he presented to the CIO in October 2002, the structure was distributed, modular and hierarchical. A meeting we had in early May challenged all those plans with a myopic centralisation idea which was completely contrary accepted business practice. One comment he made was I had said what Microsoft would do, hey! it is a Microsoft product. Basically, after a rapid torrent of expletives and threats to our jobs amongst other unpalatable statements of subjective analysis, with the fact that he was not listening to anything 3 consultants and the project manager was saying, my marketing literature was out on the job boards.

It was the very last straw.

In the end, a good opportunity came, wherein; I was interviewed for a senior support role and ended up offering advice on how to build up the team. I was offered the job at the interview, there and then.

Playing with irony, I asked for a meeting with my manager on the topic Career Development through his PA who found ample free time for this meeting, he however rescheduled it for the next week, probably because the career development of his staff is off no particular significance - that would make me rather overly cynical.

In the end, I put the letter on his table. For the first time, he had the initiative take from him and his reply was that he was not surprised that I decided to leave and he attributed it specially to points 3 and 4 of my reasons for resignation - how perceptive.

For once, I almost thought I was deliberately frustrated out of the job because of blatant indifference and a lack of candour. See my blog on respect.

Any other boss would say, they are sorry to see their staff go and wonder what could have been done to ameliorate the situation, I suppose, it would take all the man out of my boss to descend to that position of weakness.

He stuff is about slapping people down, superiority by deprecation, not borne out of earned respect, the vision thing or leadership - however, that is just one opinion, mine.

The offer I so clearly made to help my successor through an induction period at not cost was rebuffed as there is enough expertise to take over my role - that is spite, if I ever saw it.

So, whilst I have tendered my resignation, he is yet to get to the point of resignation understanding that I have resigned all because he could not be bothered to be my manager, or maybe I had set too high standards for the my expectation of my manager.

Even I am only human.

The man and his institutions

Developing routine

It has been quite a while since a log has been blogged, herein lies the problem of developing a routine. Whilst a man’s life requires a modicum of routine to help create some stability, the moment any situation turns into routine, the fight begins to introduce change.

Well, that is the story on my existence, change turns into routine which creates the need for another change- the circle, rather than being vicious is a welcome experience of the ability to chart one’s destiny despite the machinations of the petty tyrants who overlord us and thwart every act of self-development.

You will recall my continuous diatribe about change and irrelevance in December/January, well, we are at the point of change that would most certainly maintain relevance for the future.

Great Expectations

A few months ago, one met with a circumstance that clearly indicated one was in a dead-end job. At least that was the view of the boss when we had a meeting about career development.

Unfortunately, much as the boss is a young and very successful political hound, one is at pains to recognise any mentoring acumen towards others apart from himself.

Basically, with the incessant promotions of the boss have come responsibilities that have created a tyrannical tendency to overrule every objective assessment presented for his approval.

That is all at an end for me - I resigned for a better opportunity where people would take advantage of my 15 years experience and expertise, the same experience that was used in considering me for an online Masters degree with the University of Liverpool.

A culmination of mismanaged resources

It is without doubt that one’s departure would be the first of many for the one or many of the following reasons:

• For a long while, the litmus test of any project has been predicated on a political point scoring match between all VPs and if it brought any glory to them - the interest of the company or implementers never features.
• All gratitude and thanks has only ever been passed down from the CIO, never has it come from the manager himself.
• All information being given to the manager in confidence ends up being used as bargaining ammunition no matter how underhand and unscrupulous - this however, is presented as being frank and honest.
• Consultants are employed to provide expert opinions and should be treated as such, in our case, our opinions count for little in relation to what scheme the manager has doggedly decided to adopt irrespective of the logic or commonsense approach needed to aopt new policies - basically, he no more listens.
• There is no managerial oversight for any action taken, creating empires of political megalomaniacs who are always involved in squabbles that undermine the interest of the company, wasting resources on duplicating projects because one team wants ascendancy over the other.
• No one project has been undertaken with a positive pep-talk, rather, the sceptre of our jobs being on the line has been the motivational force bestowed by the boss.
• Career enhancement is stunted by vindictive performance reviews used to air opinions of conduct which have no bearing on performance or review and should have been addressed in other forums. It boils down to a salary increase of about 4% delivered in a letter by Father Christmas, who happens to be your boss.
• The greatest indictment is the lack of mentoring skills, no one person in the team that increased from 9 to about 200 persons has received promotion apart from one who had been promised the job by the manager’s predecessor. Every new opportunity requires a new face, because the boss has not had enough time from feathering his nest to develop management, responsibility and leadership skills in his current staff.
• The job market is looking up and people would only endure this situation for so long before each person’s degree of masochistic endurance is exhausted.

The Man and his Institutions

The Economist featured a letter addressed to the editor comparing psychopaths to sociopaths when deploring the personality of companies.

Whilst for now, one does not have access to the specific words, it goes without saying that the company, organisation, church, establishment or institution comprises of people who create the persona and mien of that group.

The people who have some influence in creating policy or executing policy are the company in varying degrees from the owners, to the board, the management, the middle managers, the departmental supervisors, the team leaders and then the general workforce.

Each subordinate level relies on the level they report to in understanding the essence of the company, its goals, its vision, its mission and its values.

In any case, the people who make up the grouping called an institution [I use institution as a catch all word] sometimes are sacrificed for the survival of the institution. Noble as this might seem, we forget that traditions, cultures, institutions and so on were made for men and not men for those things.

Unfortunately, institution almost always wins in the battle against the self-same people who make up the institution and hence the need for mission statements and voluble policies which appear to give the institution a human face. A face is not enough without a heart - I would develop this in a further blog.

Non, Je ne regrete rien

My old company, for which I should still serve a notice period offered a lot of promise and that is all it offered for my career, development, remuneration, future and gratitude. Even promises have a use by date, cynicism tempts one to confuse promise with lies.

I have done my bit, I can look to my future with a sense of achievement and great expectations - I am on more than speaking terms with my bosses over the last 14 years, I wonder about where it would end with this one.

We probably are both at fault, HR however, is ever so pragmatic about this, if I do not dot my Is or cross my Ts, I have been less than scrupulous.

That said, I am only human, I wish people were just a little more human and less sociopathic, leaving wounded people all the way to your peaks can only have you gravely wounded on your way back, without help, without support and without friends - it is a strange world we live in, but it is still a very beautiful sunny day in Gran Canaria.