[SERIOUS] Passing the buck...

[RobDog888]

Dont you just hate it when someone on a project passes the buck to avoid getting in trouble?

[Rant]There is this person from a third party company whos coordinating a project with my client and Boeing Aircraft. This person dropped the ball and didnt get our FTP account setup for 3.5 weeks. Our commitment was mid may but the account wasnt setup until the end of May and then the account info was incorrect and couldnt login. After almost another week delay I got in touch with the lead FTP technician and figured out that they gave us the wrong casing on the username. The server is a unix box so that means the username needed to be lower casing. Idiots!

Now this person is corresponding trying to cover her tracks and attaching emails showing my commitment but not noting that they were 3 weeks late after that even If there part is not in place in time then how the hell can I get may part into production! Oh just wait for my reply and attached emails and screen shots of related info showing my part is complete and still waiting for them to approve and even look at it. its still sitting on the FTP server exactly where they requested it to be placed. You guys remember the "Do you c0d russian roulette style" CC thread. I finished with 1 minut to spare according to their servers date/time stamp! I'm ready to blow off this freaking project and take a loss of several thousand $'s.

My client knows that this person is way out of line and that they are in the wrong but that doesnt mean that Boeing will see things the same way.

Should I play her games and call her bluff and forward all the correspondance between my client, the third parts technical lead and coordinator, and her?[/Rant]

[thegreatone]

Do you know where she lives? *cracks knuckles*

[thegreatone]

No seriously, i'd see what Boeing say, they may see it as not your fault and the fact you managed it should make things ok. But i dunno.

[sevenhalo]

Yes.

But not right away. I've played this game a couple of times. Right now, she is in that "best defense is a good offense" mode and it's going to expose her very quickly. If no one is complaining right now (as in, you're not getting a serious amount of heat from Boeing), let her keep digging her own hole. The more she struggles, the more attention she draws to herself from the buzzards circling over the project. After she gets a nice flock and people start showing interest, mention the truth once and send the emails once. The last thing you should do is play her game at her level. It will look like a petty quarrel and reflect horribly on both of you.

[space_monkey]

i would think that the important thing here would be to remain professional, you wouldn't want to get into a fight with these idiots infront of Boeing. Find a way to point out that you delievered your product on time, in such a way that this third party looks like the bunch of bumbling idiots they are but at the same time you don't look like an *** for pointing it out.


7Halo's suggestion sounds good btw.

[RobDog888]

I just received a call from the big cheese of my client. We are going to have a conference call tomorrow with the third party contact, Boeing, my client and the big cheese, and myself. We are trying to get the FTP technical lead in on this too. Should be a very interesting meeting.

The big cheese said he has met her before and calls her "A loose cannon"

[space_monkey]

sounds like things will work out then

[space_monkey]

doing a project for boeing must be pretty cool.

[RobDog888]

Yup, but I just dont like it when I deliver and someone else trys to blame you for thier shortcomings. She is getting allot of heat on this as its a very high visibility project and we are for the most part a beta site testing out Boeing new procedures. My client does major business with Boeing at a few of thier sites across the USA.

My program is the central hub of their bar code shipping labels for boeing and I have several other companies bar code shippers integrated in it too.

Edit: Big cheese called me right now trying to set up conference call for right now without her .

[sevenhalo]

Whatever you do in this conference, don't talk to her. For the love of God, don't talk to her. If she's as trigger happy as she sounds; I wouldn't put it past her to try and have showdown on the phone. If she makes a point you want to comment on, reply as if you're talking about it to Boeing, not her.

[RobDog888]

doing a project for boeing must be pretty cool.

Actually its for a big company that manufacturers the aircraft part for Boeing. It really sucks as their specifications are like NASA trying to put a man on the moon. 47 page pdf technical document on just the format of the bar codes. Specific wavelength, ratios, size, position, format of encoded data, label size to the 0.001 of an inch, validation of bar code printout, etc. Its a nightmare to say the least.

[sevenhalo]

Edit: Big cheese called me right now trying to set up conference call for right now without her

Ok, I missed that when I replied.

Sounds like she's already destroyed herself. It was only a matter of time. Sad thing is, they never learn. And they never leave their guns. If this gets brought up 2 years from now, it'll be as fresh in her head as it is today. You know the old saying; "believing in a lie until it becomes the truth?" These people make a living from it.

[RobDog888]

Whatever you do in this conference, don't talk to her. For the love of God, don't talk to her. If she's as trigger happy as she sounds; I wouldn't put it past her to try and have showdown on the phone. If she makes a point you want to comment on, reply as if you're talking about it to Boeing, not her.

Actually the call today is trying to be set up with out her for that particular reason and she even approved her absense in the call for wahtever reason. This makes me wonder what shes up to.

[RobDog888]

Maybe shes afraid of being shown up and figures if shes not there she can defend herself by saying that she wasnt included? Shes 2 hours ahead of us as we are on the west coast and she is in Kansas.

[sevenhalo]

She probably thinks you're being reprimanded.

[mendhak]

That's interesting, we're doing a project for Boeing too. Maybe we're going to bring this company down together.

[RobDog888]

Then wouldnt she want a front row seat?

[RobDog888]

That's interesting, we're doing a project for Boeing too. Maybe we're going to bring this company down together.

Whats your project froggy? Ours is an "Advanced Ship Notification" project for all shipments going into Boeing.

[sevenhalo]

Then wouldnt she want a front row seat?

Naww, people like that preffer to reflect on the idea and not the actuality. Everyone has that person in their office. Likes to gossip and get people in trouble over the pettiest of things, but keep face as if they were doing the right thing all along. You can practically see their aura of self-inflated egoism. They take pleasure in the act, not the outcome.

[RobDog888]

Sounds like you must be working in the cube next to her

[sevenhalo]

"She's" been at every job I've ever worked at.

4/5 jobs, her name started with "L" too.

[mendhak]

A triple redundancy software for the 777 turbine.

Tell us how the call goes and above all, stay cool and collected during it. Be honest with what you did and you've got nothing to fear.

[RobDog888]

Oh thats the engine on that huge 777 jumbo jet. Sounds like a cool project to be on. Dont you just love Boeing specifications?

I have nothing to fear as my code is already running on my test database. I only have a couple of very minor issues to tkae care of for when I migrate the code to the production database and go live, but thats understandable and been noted as an assumption in the rollout.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Maybe shes afraid of being shown up and figures if shes not there she can defend herself by saying that she wasnt included? Shes 2 hours ahead of us as we are on the west coast and she is in Kansas.

She's not in Kansas anymore Toto!

[RobDog888]

She has left the building...

[capsulecorpjx]

Everyone makes mistakes. But its the people who won't take responsibility that makes most managers mad. Also, it is the managers who won't stand up against the people who try to "pass the buck" that makes most employees mad.

Let whoever is in charge your situation in a calm manner.

[grilkip]

**** streams downhill right? Just keep passing the buck, until someone you don't care about holds it.

[yrwyddfa]

From what I gather she hasn't lied, she has omitted the truth. If that's the case, I think, that your best option is to agree with her, and then ask her a question about her latency in actually responding to your requests.

This removes the spin, deglosses her self-protectionist lines, and the locus of attention will be firmly in her lap (oo-er missus)

Remember, though, to be absolutely right in what you are saying, avoiding all exaggeration. Keep it short, and keep it to the point. Embellishment is evil (tm)

[RobDog888]

True, I have additional info on this now. They provided me with old revisions of the technical documentation. When I called the tech guys yesterday they said "Oh, that field no longer mapps in that format. We have changed it and this is how it needs to be."

I made the updates and sent a test file to them via email and they liked it and are processing it for parsing this morning before our conference call (it was moved to today as there were time conflicts).

I have the errors in revisions, emails with documents attached that they sent me, emails on when the FTP account was finally setup on their server (3.5 weeks to set it up), provided the logon credentials (invalid and caused almost another week delay), email of the conversation of phone call made by me to the technician who corrected the logon credentials to my client and CC'd the techs, etc.

Now they have the nerve to say that I am blaming them because my code is not ready. Its been ready since the 1st as it was held up by their FTP account and other delays.

Its going to be a colorful conference call but I am going to only state facts that I can prove, remain professional, and try to settle this project so I wont have to deal with this crap anymore. Oh, and also so I can finally get paid.

[mendhak]

When is the conference call?

[RobDog888]

11 am PST

[mendhak]

If only Superman were around, he could speed up the Earth's rotation so that we can fast forward to your call's results. At least he's returning this summer.

[RobDog888]

I should use Windows Media Encoder to brodcast the call to everyone on VBF

[mendhak]

You'd get mauled beyond recognition by the Linux c0dders for doing that.

[RobDog888]

They shouldnt mind if they have nothing to hide.

Time to get some sleep so I can be sharp and ready for tomorrow (3:11 am).

[RobDog888]

Just got out of the conference call and you could have cut the tension with a knife 5 people on the call and things were brief and proffessional and to the point.

I will be migrating my code to the live production database tonight for shippments starting tomorrow morning, first thing. They had a couple of more changes but were minor. Why dont they document these "other" changes from the beginning? Hopefully there will be no more modifications.

Friday is the main shipping day so thursday is just a live trial run. All should go well and will be time to drink allot of beer in celebration of the completed project!

* Should get my first big check in a couple of weeks from Friday *

[mendhak]

That's it? Nothing happened? Not even some childish name calling? You disappoint me, as usual, Robert.

[RobDog888]

Just wait, when I get paid then I will call them up and give them a piece of your mind.


Tick, tick, tick... Counting down til 10:00 am (~3.5 hours from now) when I have to have the code migrated over to the live production database.

[mendhak]

Don't give out too much, my head may implode.

Erm... can we stop being serious now?

[RobDog888]

Sure.