[geeks] documenting the environment

[hike]

On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 12:29 AM, Dan Duncan <danduncan at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 8:30 PM, hike <mh1272 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I do not document anything except for personal use.
> >
> > No company that I have worked for has paid me for documentation and used
> it
> > properly.  If they ask for documentation, it always ends up being a
> "ding"
> > at performance review time.  Errors can always be found and if the
> manager
> > wants (even the upside-down dot over the "i" or the backwards crossed
> "t"),
> > she will list that as a negative.  Like the United Way and ISO9000,
> > documentation is a trap used by manager to make you compliance and
> > submissive and screw you over.
>
> I'm sorry your experience has been so negative, but it doesn't mirror
> mine.  I try to document everything I create or fix.
> It's not for recognition (although it doesn't hurt):  I don't want to
> have to wake anyone else up in the middle of the night (and assume
> they don't either) and I don't want to be the sole holder of any
> knowledge because I don't want to be paged in the middle of the night
> when they're losing 99.44 furlongs per fortnight of revenue and I'm
> not on call.  My sleep is worth writing some documentation and making
> sure it gets published to the group.
>
>
> --
> Dan Duncan
> _______________________________________________
> GEEKS:  http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks
>


Dan,

Please do not project your feelings onto me.

My career has been very successful and prosperious.

Unfortunately, managers have their own agendas and employees are typically
pawns or tools used to reach the next rung on the ladder.  There are
exceptions and I worked for 15 years at such an exceptional company.  It
quite a bummer to work for the average company.  Management is mediocre at
best.

After you reach a certain age ("old"),  you will probably realize the crap
management throws at employees.  The younger sysadmins don't recognize what
is happening (as I didn't the first couple times around the block).  They
are inexperienced and think it is great stuff; it does smell strongly.  I
side-stepped most of their crap and demand that managers do their  jobs.
The young guys and some of the managers are quite puzzled by my actions and
demands.  I get the job accomplished--ridiculous deadlines are meant on a
regular basis plus, as an added value for the company, I leave managers with
a better understanding of what they should be doing.  Managing managers is a
pain but if upper management won't do it, the employees are left with the
responsibility of training managers.

If managers would do their jobs and let employees do their jobs, the company
will accomplish what it needs to accomplish to survive and expand.