Got to love outsourcing

[Daksidhe]

I just have to add my 2 copper to this.

Axe, if you think some of those comments could be aimed at you and re-orgs, try reading them from a PM point of view...

I have to agree though that there are way too many pm's out there that shouldn't be, or at least in the wrong field. It's one thing to know how to create a timeline but a good PM should know how to roll with the punches.

I've been in IT for quite some time, but stopped touching the actual technology itself a few years back as a network architect and now concentrate primarily on business cases and project development. Zhaa is actually one of my vendors I get to yell at when I need to vent

I can't say how many times I've been in meetings with other PM's who throw out "Well I'm not technical" when they get into trouble and blame staff. Or how many times I've phased out in board room meetings wondering what wrong turn was it I made that got me from happily bartending 20 years ago to having to shut up and smile at someones "brilliant" plan for a more efficient service offering that is doomed to fail.

[Axecleaver]

> there's enough whining most days to keep me entertained.

My job is basically unlicensed psychiatry now. I have four directs who manage the other 58, but it's too much for them - my busiest manager has 18 people and travels 3 weeks a month to client sites. I'm about to pitch another layer of middle management to my boss, which should take a lot of pressure off them. I asked to put this in place 6 months ago but it was viable then - he needed to see the problem and not just have me predict it.

But honestly, I hired well and now my job is fairly easy. I just need to be organized and able to predict the future well, which I do. There is very little day to day stress.

I have a reputation for caring about every one of my employees and extending my protection to them in an otherwise faceless bureaucracy. If you take care of your people, they take care of you. My message to my people is, I want my job to be stress-free and simple. They work hard to deliver that for me. As a result I really don't have a very hard job.

>  Zhaa is actually one of my vendors I get to yell at when I need to vent

One time, Zhaa let me die in arena and then our team went on to win. I wanted to yell at him but then I realized he had the big picture in mind. Maybe it was the same kind of thing for you.