a year ago i was working at one of those investment banks that got swallowed up due to the financial crisis (not that hard to figure out which if you really want to know). part of my job was to create reports and scripts for various managers of business units.
i'm at a different company now, but couple days ago i got a call from one of those business managers asking about a script i had written for him. he needed a small change made and was trying to get the consultant that had taken over for me to make that change. problem was, no one could find my script, as most of the guys had left or been let go in.
we talked for a bit about how we were doing, then i told him the server and the directory they should look in. couple hours later, he called back saying the consultant was still having problems and would i mind replying to an email if he forwarded it to me.
looking through the email thread, i notice the consultant had thrown in this bit:
Systems are usually documented, and technology managers are usually all over the younger guys to make sure that anyone can find information easily. Unfortunately, this was not the case with this set of jobs
ticked me off a bit, since
a) it was documented, just probably lost after the mass exodus of personnel
b) our directory structures were very logical and made documentation was almost unnecessary. file naming conventions were also very logical.
c) i gave you the directory to look in and the probable file name. there were probably no more than a dozen scripts in there, and each script was probably no more than a hundred lines. not that hard to figure out.
d) i worked with this guy when i was there. he ought to have known how things worked and where to find them.
anyways, maybe it happens all the time.. where people try to pin their incompetence on departed coworkers. another real world lesson i guess.
i'm at a different company now, but couple days ago i got a call from one of those business managers asking about a script i had written for him. he needed a small change made and was trying to get the consultant that had taken over for me to make that change. problem was, no one could find my script, as most of the guys had left or been let go in.
we talked for a bit about how we were doing, then i told him the server and the directory they should look in. couple hours later, he called back saying the consultant was still having problems and would i mind replying to an email if he forwarded it to me.
looking through the email thread, i notice the consultant had thrown in this bit:
Systems are usually documented, and technology managers are usually all over the younger guys to make sure that anyone can find information easily. Unfortunately, this was not the case with this set of jobs
ticked me off a bit, since
a) it was documented, just probably lost after the mass exodus of personnel
b) our directory structures were very logical and made documentation was almost unnecessary. file naming conventions were also very logical.
c) i gave you the directory to look in and the probable file name. there were probably no more than a dozen scripts in there, and each script was probably no more than a hundred lines. not that hard to figure out.
d) i worked with this guy when i was there. he ought to have known how things worked and where to find them.
anyways, maybe it happens all the time.. where people try to pin their incompetence on departed coworkers. another real world lesson i guess.
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