Comments on: Mr Angry’s Top 5 tips for becoming the grownup who runs things

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:19:03 +0000

edarrel: I’ll take your word on dealer, not my scene Plus the Freakonomics guys are pretty switched on. On point 2, AKA the Peter principle, this is more deadly in IT than most industries in my opinion. Very good IT people can stumble so badly when moved into management it really isn’t fair to make them think they “have to” do it. Only those who truly want to and get truly excited by the idea should go to management.

By: edarrell

edarrell — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 05:06:37 +0000

1. Stephen Levitt’s book, Freakonomics, suggests on the basis of some interesting studies that drug dealers make, on average, less than minimum wage. It’s worth a thought.

2. One of the most difficult things to do in an organization is avoid the promotion from the job you love to the one that will kill your career, or you. More than one successful enterprise has been started by someone fired because they rose to a level of incompetence in their previous organization, and they couldn’t convince the organization to lett them start being successful again, in their old job . . .

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 20:36:04 +0000

Barney: to be fair, I’ve had managers who weren’t liars, my current one is quite good. But stay where you’re happy, not everybody has to go into management

By: Barney

Barney — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:10:54 +0000

Range said:”Every manager that I have had has lied to me or to my coworkers. ”

If that’s true, then to join the managerial ranks and fit in with them you MUST lie. Good reason for me to stay in IT. Of course I’d make less money, but drug dealers make more money, too and that’s not an attractive option for me, either.

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:32:51 +0000

Thanks Vaspers, send me a link to the Techrepublic piece, I’ll be interested to see how you develop the ideas

By: electrica

electrica — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 18:44:29 +0000

PS — “electrica” is the secret WP code name for my more popular nomenclature: Vaspers the Grate.

By: electrica

electrica — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 18:42:28 +0000

I love this article and your insights. You are so right about all this. I’d like to quote some of this in my TechRepublic blog, Revolutionary Army of the Infant Blog.

One thing I recall is how IT departments several years ago were all gung ho on all the new enterprise systems and doodads, but companies spent a lot of money on them, and did not get the ROI they expected.

There is some kind of disconnect between management and IT. For companies to allow the pampered employees to forward frivolous political humor and other emails, open attachments, visit malware sites, shop for shoes online, etc. to “boost morale” is stupid.

I side with IT against management in most cases. IT is the fortress and strict policies need to be enforced. Most IT problems are User Error due to sloppy training and unenforced policies or not even having a written official policy on net and computer usage.

Socializing with executives is tough. All they want to talk about is sex, booze, sports, and money.

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 05:41:34 +0000

You may well be right darell, I was focusing on my experience in IT although I don’t doubt it has wider application

piglet: yeah, I often consider myself the translator

By: dailypiglet

dailypiglet — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 04:32:30 +0000

Hip! Hip! to #3, VITAL for IT folks. In my previous life, I was undercover as an IT person within a major corporation. I was IT “bi-lingual”. Good times.

By: edarrell

edarrell — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 03:07:51 +0000

Do you think this advice applies only to IT? Is there any area to which it does not apply?