1/26 I asked my two managers (why do I have two? for double the work!)
\_ Go one manager up and get one of your managers fired.
Sounds management-top-heavy: "too many chiefs, not enough
(American) Indians." Managers are essentially overhead.
to hire another sysadmin to help with the workload they
are forcing on me. I asked for an SA with experience and
who knows some Perl. Am I being unfair to expect an SA to know Perl?
They are trying to get me to accept 3 internal candidates of
which only one even knows bourne shell programming. I feel
they are trying to dump someone on me which will only make
my workload worse. They refuse to hire someone external.
How do I convince my boss(es) of the validity of my concerns?
I have one meeting with them tomorrow (Monday) before they decide.
\_ I can't really help you with convincing pointy-hairs about anything,
but I'd be surprised if any mid to high-level sysadmin didn't
profess at least familiarity with perl. On the other hand, if
they're a decent shell programmer it won't take long to pick it
up. -tom
\_ They will be paid $80K/year. Is that considered
low or mid level nowadays?
\_ In this climate, probably mid level. Can you make the
economic case for it? Perversely enough, even pointy hairs
with poor analytical skills tend to buy well reasoned
arguments when it comes to money, provided you walk them
through slowly. Something like this:
a) You are overburdened.
b) This is costing your company money.
i. There are a fair number of studies that show employees
are more productive when they are not scrambling to
smash too many tasks into their day-- find one. In the
worst case, you quit, and they incur the cost of hiring
a replacement, which some HR wonks claim this runs as
high as 25% of hiring salary (presumably your salary
is greater than that of the new sysadmin they will
hire/transfer)
ii.There are other arguments you can make to support the
idea that overworking you will cost your company money
in the long run. Just make sure you don't end up
threatening to quit unless you're willing to make good
on it. And don't shoot yourself in the foot by somehow
making it look like it's your fault that you are
overburdened.
c) Thus, you need a junior or co-sysadmin
d) If the new sysadmin has any holes in his skill set, then
it will obviously fall to you to train him. Training
the new recruit adds to your overburdened status, and
though it benefits the new guy, it takes away from time
that both of you could be doing productive work that
benefits the company at large.
And on that note, I may be looking for a job, I know perl,
and have references that can vouch for this. If you do end
up looking outside your company, and you'd like to chat
further, drop me an email. -dans
\_ In this climate i'd say someone already there for the last
year who is making 80K would be "mid-level". You can
definiteley hire "senior level" sys admins in this market
for 80K. You CERTAINLY should be able to get someone
who knows at least some PERL. Also, if this was 1 year
ago, i'd tell you that you should quit any place that
doesn't let YOU as the only Unix admin, have a pretty
damn big say in hiring another one.
\_ For 80K they should write perl while juggling hot spares
on the main file server and hand-crafting packets to get
them through the shitty router... Call me. I'd love to
do just a little perl on top of mid-level SA stuff for
80K. --scotsman
\_ Starving people are always willing to do whatever while
they're starving. You'll quit the moment the economy
improves. Desperate people stink of it.
\_ Um. 80K for midlevel SA is far from starving.
hell, it's about average for a senior, non-manager
admin.
admin. --scotsman
\_ Missing point: he's desperate to work for 80k now
\_ ...and he's a sysadmin. enough said.
\_ So he gets to manage liquidating capital
equipment?
but will quit the moment the economy turns around
in the slightest.
\_ when the mean goes up to, what, 81k? if i
like the position, i stay. the job i have now
was out of sheer desparation, and for a while
it was hell, and i would've taken the first
opportunity that came up. Over the last 3
months because of changes in management and
raises, it's gotten much better and I'm happy
to stay. Avg. salaries don't rise as quickly
as you seem to think. Certainly not enough
to risk my livelihood at "the moment the
economy turns around in the slightest."
--scotsman
\_ You still reek of desperation. Sorry, but
if it shows on the motd, you're not making
it through an interview until you mellow.
\_ i agree. he should call em up and say
"let me hear you beg, bitch."
\_ Dude, you work for a company that pays inflated
salaries in a down market. Don't act so smug.
\_ Missing point: he's desperate to work for 80k now
but will quit the moment the economy turns around
in the slightest.
\_ I bet you were one of those bitches who bragged
about the six digits they were making in the
boom time. |