On Being a Tough Manager
July 29, 2008 at 10:26 pm | In Management, Musings about Work | 6 CommentsTags: Management, slackers, soft management, tough management
I’m currently undergoing some huge stress at work because of a project extremely vital to the company. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very smooth today when I imposed a 2 hour deadline on one of the employees to finish something. The employee responded, by email, when the 2 hours elapsed, that he didn’t know how to do it and that he’s sorry. Now that employee, in particular, is very hard working and loyal and he loves working with me, but he just can’t handle pressure (this is not the first time). I ended up doing the task myself and finishing late. I hate working late.
Was I too tough on that person or was he too soft? And who’s the one who wasn’t able to handle the pressure, was it him, or me? He’s just a developer after all…
Hi is a Two Letter Word
July 18, 2008 at 6:30 pm | In Musings about Work | Leave a CommentTags: conflict management, dear, emails, hi, spam
How hard it is for people to put the word “Hi” in the beginning of the email? It makes the whole email much more friendlier. I receive emails with just my first name (where probably the other person thinks that s/he is professional for doing so), or with Dear my first name (which I think is very lame, most of these people probably have never seen me, how on earth can I be their Dear?).
Is it too much hard to say Hi in the first of the email. It’s light, it’s nice, it shows friendliness, it doesn’t promote a non-existent affection, it’s perfect. I cannot see a better word than this to start an email.
Emails, by their nature, do not express our feelings, so an email that we think is very normal, the other person might think it’s offensive or you’re passing subtle meanings, or… That’s why we should be careful when writing an email, and trust me, when I’m frustrated with someone, the last thing I want to see the email starting with is my first name or Dear my first name. I really want to know who is this idiot who promoted the Dear thing in the email. It was the Dear word that probably made some people revolt and start the email with the first name.
Even the spammers say hi or hello when they start their: “I’m a 25 year old lonely girl living in your area…” email.
Start your emails with Hi, and your days will be brighter.
Friday Afternoon
July 4, 2008 at 8:53 pm | In General Project Management | 3 CommentsOK, here goes. I had an just had too much of PM goodness.
Craig Brown writes about Project Management 2.0 saying that the focus in PM 2.0 will be on Agile Development, I think Agile is part of PM but it will never be PM. My personal opinion is that PM 2.0 will lean towards PPM. Ummm…
Thomas Cutting talks about the Falkirk battle (between the Scottish and the English, where some of the Scottish nobles betrayed Wallace) in a PM context. Thomas said:
Treat everyone with respect, even the difficult ones. I’ve been asked to be a reference for people I did not enjoy working with. Evidently they were clueless that I couldn’t stand working with them.
Well, I beg to differ. Such people know that you can’t stand them (and probably they can’t stand you), but they also know that you’re a professional, and subtly blackmailing for being one…
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