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How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?
4

How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

(OP)
Now I have a problem.

Just assigned to work on a new project. Started already and now almost at full speed.
I realize many department were staffed by green engineers many of them have been relocated from abroad to absorb the increasing workload. I integrated the idea, fine. my thinking was just : move on.

Now I have a problem with so called very Senior guys from other displines who do not have a clue of what they are doing. Yes unfortunately, they exist. Consequence of that is, as you can imagine, huge amount of rework, rework and again rework. No clue means have not done it before, or have done something similar once - now are called "expert". Very dangerous.

Project management seems happy with that, they let it go. At the end big frustration. Typically document are not reviewed with the right level of knowledge and experience/expertise. Big confusion in a daily manner. Communication also becomes extremly difficult.

More recently, as consequence of the overall frustration and the communication struggle, same the senior engineers are exhibiting strange even agressive/violent behavior at the workplace. Management still doing nothing while the work atmosphere is now obviously toxic/unhealthy let alone the non professional way of working.

At the end, of couse, the good guys also got the thing back, so now they are suspected to lack of inclusiveness towards the incompetent Senior guys.

This is an old problem I know.
My question is : how do you deal with that? Any strategy to get ahead and have the work done ?
Start sending resume is one option. No doubt.

Thanks

"If you want to acquire a knowledge or skill, read a book and practice the skill".

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

There is a saying I will paraphrase: Have courage to change the things you can, the patience to accept the things you cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

You can only worry about your own area of responsibility and try to get it correct the first time. If you are getting frustrated about the amount of rework caused by others never forget you are paid by the hour (hopefully!).

Find an ally in the project management group and suggest some team meetings where the "communications gaps" can be sorted out. Do you have a group manager in your discipline that you can discuss this with?

As far as the aggressive behavior perhaps this is a cultural related character attribute. I am in the USA and almost no company would accept this type of behavior.

Hang in there, and if all else fails, double the resume efforts.

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

Everyone hires the occasional 'senior/expert' incompetent, or more politely, someone who is not perfectly well equipped for the work at hand.

Only incompetent managers allow them to stay for more than a few days.
... unless they are related to someone powerful, which is a possibility that you might not have considered.

I have tried the 'nose to the grindstone' approach, just doing my stuff; the rework continues, and increases. In the meantime, you run out of things that you can do within your expertise, and are labeled surplus and discharged. I have the t-shirt.

I have tried making a fuss; it didn't end well for me.

I have tried quietly buttonholing a manager and having a private conversation about the problem. ... that didn't end well for me, either.

The person at the top of your local food chain gets paid a lot of money to find and fix problems like those you're seeing, and that's not happening. Pointing out the Big Boss' shortcomings, even ever so politely, is a Career Decision.

There isn't a damn thing you can do to fix that outfit.
Focus on getting another job.
Now you know some of the bad omens to look out for.






Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

rotw,

Do you have a time sheet or time card reporting system with comment fields that you can fill in with things like, "Rework due to...Additional rework due to..."? Or even an internal scope change process? If so, try that. Any project manager who ignores one or two of those will inescapably be revealed as an idiot. If it costs you your job, or threatens to cost you your job, you have a written record of the truth that you can take to HR for their perusal before you engage legal counsel.

And, in the end, the only thing you will have done is truthfully, morally, and ethically communicated how you have spent your time on the job.

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

You just suck it up and get the job done and try not to give yourself a heart attack. Unfortunately it usually means work 10 or 20 hours a week for free to make up for other's shortcomings.

It sounds like we work for the same company (as an aside, I'm at my present position due to four acquisitions since 1989). As an ex-PM (partly by choice and mostly because I don't know when to shut my mouth)I can tell you that in larger companies a PM has become nothing more than a financial babysitter - you watch the budget, send out the bills, and bug the client to get paid. The work gets farmed out to departments or discipline leaders - their first responsibility is utilization - and as PM you hope they honor their commitments.

I know where you're coming from; you care about the work and your reputation but you sometimes it seems like you're shoveling $#!+ against the tide. Last year I finished an assignment as structural lead on a major bridge rehabilitation project; most of the time I had more people than I needed and some were oblivious to the nature of the work and some simply didn't have a feel for bridge rehab work (it's an animal unto itself). I would try to find work tasks that they couldn't F--- up too badly. I didn't one person who knew how to prepare a bar list or wanted to learn.

Unfortunately when you combine utilization and management's perspective of certain people, you can't win. The management knows there's always one or two people who will pull it together.

I suppose I wasn't much help; probably too much ranting ut it's been going on too long. As for me, I've decided to move on.

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

(OP)
star for Mike.

Snorgy, what is possible in the timesheet is to assign to the hours a certain type of activity code. I can think about it and see! anyway thanks for the advice.

"If you want to acquire a knowledge or skill, read a book and practice the skill".

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

If your company has a formal peer review/QA program, you can try this. I had the same situation with a particular discipline lead, so I put a bug in the PM's ear that So-and-So (very good, experienced sr. engineer) would be perfect for a QA reviewer for the Loser, based on having just completed a similar project. In my company, the PM could make that happen, and he made it happen (in fact he appreciated the input). Sure enough, the reviewer quickly picked up on what we already knew, that this guy was ignoring all kinds of client requirements, had drawings rife with errors, etc. and the reviewer not only made the Loser fix them, but put the word up the line to the dept. manager. In about two months the Loser was out on the street. Note that this had no chance of coming back on me, so it was risk-free and a "win" all around, for us, the client, and the company.

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

machinegun

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)


RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

That works too, Mike!

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

(OP)
RossABQ,

This is a good idea.

Not sure resources will be allocated for that; since at the end, when I hear your story, I think it succeeded because your PM was quite responsible / competent in his role, in a way or another.

Anyhow I want to keep your idea as it is a good weapon.
Thanks for sharing.

"If you want to acquire a knowledge or skill, read a book and practice the skill".

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

Just to be clear, the PM was NOT competent, he was as bad or worse than the discipline engineer. But he was malleable.

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

(OP)
fair enough

"If you want to acquire a knowledge or skill, read a book and practice the skill".

RE: How to deal with incompetence supported by project management?

2
Having beeen through many projects, good and bad, I am reminded of the old adage-

"There is never time to do it right, but always time to do it again.

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