.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

I don't often talk about my work, or my job, just where I am and what I do outside of work.

A while ago I quit my job, I couldn't stand it any more, there were many reasons why, some I might go into here some I might not.

One of the main reasons was a project in Saudia Arabia, Riyadh to be exact..for the duration of 3 months. Now I'm not awfully fond of the location and the timespan..is way way way too long for me to take. Especially for what I'm getting paid..

I don't get some super-fantastic salary, I am accorded no 'expat' benefits, I am treated (and paid) exactly like a local. Actually in someways underpaid...according to market rate.

Anyway the consistent mis-management, complete lack of client expectation handling and lies through-out the upper tier of management have become too much to bear.

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Sometimes bad management is a pain in the ass, literally, figuratively and whatever other -ely you want to add..

People skills, soft skills, the hardest things to quantify, why is the Dilbert Principle still so predominant?

Companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management, in order to limit the amount of damage that they're capable of doing. In terms of effectiveness, it is related to a band of gorillas choosing an alpha-squirrel to lead them.

And well yah it happens, in Asia it also tends to happen because of who knows who, not who knows what.

Sad but true.

The worst thing you can do to your employees is tell them you need something by tommorow on pain of death so they work till 2am to do it pouring blood sweat and tears into it..

Then look blankly at them the next day and say what thing? No nothing is happening, no rush..

Same things for longer terms...make someone work every day till 2am for 2-3 weeks to finish a project...then when the deadline passes, nothing happens, no action is taken, the final result just sits there.

People get demoralised, they stop working hard, they stop caring about the company and the outcome of projects.

The whole ethos of the company can change, everyone stops respecting deadlines and responsiblities for what they are because the management doesn't follow up and they don't mean what they say.

So why bother listening in the first place right?

It has a knock on effect, it makes everyone unresponsive, even to each other, you have to fight to get things done, even when it is important..because of bad management.

Thankfully most people with brains learn to quantify and assign priorities to tasks so they do get done within reasonable timelines.

Not the timelines given by the incompetent managers..

But still, it ends up with a big mess..