who sat me down for a “serious talk” after our last online banking recommendation committee meeting and told me that the entire IS department was talking about the disrespect I showed to the orgnization due to my vote for a java plaftorm, and how everyone knew that the only reason I voted for a java platform was so I could pick up some java skills.
My first reaction: “my god, I didn’t mean to offend anyone…I’m really sorry.”
My second reaction: a call to my boss – “did I offend you, if so I’m really sorry.”
So my boss gave me the lowdown on the System Architect: he’s a complete sham. He speaks in IT lingo of tecnology he has no practical experience of. Nobody can understand what he says, and he’s unable to clarify any of the statements he rattles off. Unfortunately, our CIO seems to be blinded by the dazzling display of vocabulary this guy can crap out. Apparently, everyone in IT knew this but me.
So, fuck you SA, for stringing me along in this stupid mentoring role you’ve given yourself for the last year. Fuck you for confusing the hell out of me, and making me feel stupid for not understanding you. Also, fuck you for talking in circles and then when I confess that I don’t understand what you’re saying at all, telling me you’re trying to “teach me to think”. Fuck you for never doing any work you ever promised to do, not because you were too busy as you claimed, but because you don’t have the skills to do it. Finally, fuck you, you insecure prick, for trying to bully me into stopping my requests for clarification during meetings. Fuck you for trying to bully a vote out of me that I don’t believe in.
I am completely boggled that a person of absolutely no substance can get to the career level you’ve achieved.
Also, fuck your stupid stories of sexual prowess, and how you looked like Tom Cruise in high school.
Well, what else are you supposed to think of someone who spouts drivel like, " You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here. "
He’s not a middle-aged man with the name of Jam** Ch****, is he, ouisey? I only ask because he was the IT manager for a company that I worked for some years ago, and James’ M.O. was exactly the same. Nice guy, sure, but didn’t know what the heck he was doing. Also liked to brag on himself and his dubious successes in the past.
Months after I left the company, he did, too. Twice he called me up: once to work for him as the head IT guy for Cleveland Chiropractic College, and the second time for some other company whose name I can’t remember. The first time I said “no” because it was a chirporactor’s college and because I no longer wanted to work for him. The second time I declined simply because I didn’t have any interest at all working for someone who could put both our jobs in jeopardy, especially if the company viewed me as being “his hire.”
I always figured he was still floating around Kansas City somewhere–and wouldn’t be surprised if he bullshitted his way into your area.
Very early on in my career I theorized that anyone who couldn’t explain a complex technical idea to me in a way that I could understand probably really didn’t understand it themselves. So far, the theory has held up splendidly. I suggest you adopt it yourself.
This MO is extremely common. There are tons of guys like this out there, usually lurking in larger companies that can afford the wasted human resources.
There’s a saying: “If you can’t dazzle with brilliance, baffle with bullshit.” And when you’re surrounded my managers who think they’re qualified to make technical decisions, it works very, very well.
This is funny. I have a colleague who is an electrical engineer with a specialt in RF systems, and can bluster with the best of them. The kicker is that his first and last initials line up as BS…
You don’t happen to work for Verizon Wireless do you? Sounds like our Systems Architech. For 2 months our Program Manager has been requesting a system architech diagram, and the guy said you aren’t getting a picture. (He doesn’t even know how to use Visio)
Plus the guy has it in for anyone that is of the female gender. I was on the phone with him one day, and told him which file servers we had in production and what their IP addresses were. He pretty much called me a liar on the account that he got the information from one of our male DBAs that had it in a database. Of course the database was over a year old. He finally had to eat crow and explain to our director that two of the IP addresses he had were “development” boxes not used for our project.
