Advertisement
Published: December 14th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Turkish Coffee
I loved the set for my Turkish Coffee at Angora - Frank's going away dinner The last few weeks have been extremely difficult at work.
I've been engineering manager for less than a month and I've already let two people go from my group. Am I a tyrant? These guys have a 3-month probation period - pretty hard to screw up in a company and a region where we really need people. Somehow they still managed to do it! While I'm still short on geologists and engineers, I think those that remain are incredible. I really like our team and I hope to expand it in the coming weeks.
The first guy was a geologist who apparently could not be trained and did nothing from as far as I could tell. So, when his visa run came up I said we needed to have a talk when he returned to discuss his work. He said if I didn't like his work, I could let him go. So I did.
The other guy was the creep who hit on me. I barely knew this guy - it's one thing if you work with someone over time and get to know each other and know that you actually DO like them. I was already questioning
Beautiful goat ears
So strange. I'm sure the beautiful goat was dinner that night though... his contribution to our team, specifically how he dealt with clients, when he did this. It was not only beyond creepy, it showed me that he had no idea how to communicate with others and had no respect for me as his manager. This shocked me coming from someone who studied and worked in the US for 7 years - you can't tell me he didn't work with women or know what "sexual harassment" was. If there is a female engineer or PM at a client meeting that we have, could I trust him not to bother her too and drag our name through the mud? We have a new young female PM starting this week - I have to warn her about these weirdos. I spent 10 days walking around my house muttering "f**king creep" every few minutes until finally, we let him go. Still am muttering actually.
The other difficulty has been our volatile relationship with one of our clients. I don't know why there is a mentality for some people who come here to work to treat others like dogs, but I will NOT have it. We have been working long days and nights trying to
get this project done, even though the client has mostly been the roadblock. We've tried. And tried. And tried. And I'm not saying we are perfect and have never made mistakes, but we certainly have been working hard and obviously so. Even still, the client feels the need to talk to us like dogs at every weekly meeting and have deliberately trying to put on paper that WE are responsible for all the delays. Hell to the no. So. We walked out. I have never done that before and I hope to never have to again. At least it made a statement. I told my boss and they wound up having a meeting with their boss. We have now hit a "reset" button apparently. We'll see. The funny thing is: we are doing really good work! I just don't need this crap.
I also came down with the worst cold I have had in ages this week. I was completely down for two days. Unfortunately, here that means that i am basically working in my pajamas. I answered emails, phone calls, text messages, etc all day long. Better than nothing, but I got no real rest. Finally, four days
Grand Hyatt
Geotechnica conference charity dinner later, my cough is just a minor annoyance and I mostly feel ok. As long as I feel good on my trip, I don't care.
So, I have planned a break for a few days. Since Qatar National Day falls on this coming wednesday, I'm taking Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and going to Vienna to have an early Christmas! I have already scheduled seeing The Nutcracker at the State Opera House - looking at my ticket booking, I have an incredible balcony seat! I'm so excited! I bought a new dress in Dubai. Is it sad that I'm going to take myself on a fabulous date? Maybe a little. But I am so looking forward to it!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0531s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I can understand your frustration having been there myself...
I worked for an A/E firm, which had more work than it could handle. This presented an opportunity to review our clients to see which ones just were not worth our efforts...like the one you have...and culled the list. As for non-performing employees, you have to do this. Although I think I'm a kind person, somehow I was assigned workers who needed to be removed, and it fell to me to do so. Have fun in Vienna...fellow TBers Dave and Merry Jo will also be there at Christmas/New Years.