Odd Work Situation



  • Just started a new contract (2 weeks) and have run into a really odd situation.  I'm working on a data warehouse project with two other people (BI analyst and ETL developer).  I'm tying the whole thing together as a BA/PM.  The ETL worker has been there for 2 months and has no idea what he is doing.  The manager asked me to sit with him to learn the environment, every question I asked the developer retorted "Go ask the manager.".  Then proceeds to peruse CNN.com and call his wife on the phone (speaks another language) while I'm trying to go over the environment and process.  No docs, no modeling/design (which is not unusual) but he can't explain simple things.

     Thought maybe he was just having a bad day, but he won't accept any meeting invites from me, he won't return any emails, he won't forward any emails when talking to the team.  The boss keeps asking me to "help" him and is aware that the guy is a dud.  The BI analyst gets the same thing from developer, blames her and questions her hourly to call the finance analysts.  The data he put together is incorrect, he continues to make manual adjustments to the data to make the reports work but blames the BI analyst and even the finance analyst when things don't work.  I've got 15 years experience, I can tell the guy is over his head.  I've tried to offer to help or to talk about things, but he refuses to acknowledge me. 

     I've gone over all this with the manager (as has the BI analyst) and the manager confided that this guy will be gone (but don't know when).  In the meantime, he's gone as far as to sabotage some work I was doing to help the BI analyst. It makes us all look bad.  I'm starting to get a lot of anxiety being at work.  The ETL developer has now started walking by my office (other side of the building) whenever he sees my Sametime is off or "Away".  It's somewhat psychotic. 

     



  • I don't know what ETL and PM mean. Does BA stand for Business Analyst? Other than that, bi analyst sounds like something kinky.



  • PM is project manager.

    ETL? Extra Terrestrial Lifeform? 



  • PM=Project Manager

    BI= Business Intelligence

    ETL=Extract Transform Load 



  • @MaximaMan said:

    ETL=Extract Transform Load 


    I'm going to hazard a guess and say he can be replaced with a shell script (sounds like his job can be automated) but if you have to work around him due to his sabotaging just use a source control that he does not have access to, he doesn't seem to be productive so he probably won't notice that you aren't using the same repository.



  • Heh, my thought exactly. :)  I requested that the boss get me access to another schema on the host and CVS account. 

     I think some of my anxiety is from self-imposed standards.  I could get this working, if I had X, Y, Z.  In this case, I don't have what I need but have talked to the boss about it and gotten agreement.  He's just to busy right now to get some of those things in place.

     
    ETL developer is going to be replace (I'm told) but don't know when...at the very least his contract is up in February.
     



  • @Lingerance said:

    I'm going to hazard a guess and say he can be replaced with a shell script

    A very small shell script. 



  • And what does "speaks another language" have to do with it? You suspect he's a terrorist?



  • No, not at all.  I just thought it rude to pick up the phone and make a phone call while I was trying to interview him for some work related issues.  I assumed by his tone and that he chose to make the call in his native language that he was annoyed with me and did not want to participate.  That could be just an incorrect assumption on my part, but over the course of the last few weeks the guy will not return any communications from me.  When I do stop by his desk (at his request) he chooses that time to make a phone call in his native language.



  • You should just quit MaximaMan.

    Getting involved in office politics isn't worth the effort of getting out of bed  in the morning. You have skills? Then get another job.

     

     

     



  • I just left an even bigger bureaucracy.  The BI Analyst is more than competent and has excellent skills in managing the infrastructure and documenting requirements.  The manager is also very qualified, its just this one guy.  I get the feeling I was brought in to replace him anyway, they have plans to bring in someone else and get rid of this guy...but it will be very difficult until he is gone.



  • You have 15 years experience, so I assume you are mature enough to handle this situation like a man.

    You have to counterattack man. Guerrilla style. Don't let him see them coming.Don't let him rest. Joins forces with the other Acronym Guy that you say is cool, and make him run to the hills.

    I'm pretty sure you could find some neat tactics on msn.com (see!? See how I didn't say google it!?) but here are a few out of the top of my head.  

    - Buy a little toy horse, and chop it's head. Then put the head under a handkerchief in is desk.

    - Send him emails with a lot of CAPS and EXCLAMATION!! in chinese. Then sign "See you in hell" and put a link to the "Tail of the pink dragon Triad" homepage. (if he is chinese try using japanese and change Triads for Yakuza, or maybe russian and change Triads for whatever russian mobs name is.)

    - Call him and put a mixed recording of the most violent Tony Montana's quotes. You can add a few of GodFather's and Goodfellas aswell.

    OK, that's engough free advice. If you want more we can arrange a meeting to give you a quote for my consulting services.

    P.S. Come alone.

    P.S.2. Make sure no one is following you.

     

     


     



  • [quote user="Renan "C#" Sousa"]Other than that, bi analyst sounds like something kinky.[/quote]

    That would certainly make my resume a much more entertaining read.



  • @milmin said:

    And what does "speaks another language" have to do with it? You suspect he's a terrorist?

     

    Or even worse - Mexican. 



  • @MaximaMan said:

    PM=Project Manager

    BI= Business Intelligence

    ETL=Extract Transform Load 


    God I wish I never learned what ETL means...the truth is it's mostly brain dead development that somehow still manages to elude most of the people I work with who are supposed "ETL experts".



  •  

    You have 15 years experience, so I assume you are mature enough to handle this situation like a man.

    You have to counterattack man. Guerrilla style. Don't let him see them coming.Don't let him rest. Joins forces with the other Acronym Guy that you say is cool, and make him run to the hills.

    I'm pretty sure you could find some neat tactics on msn.com (see!? See how I didn't say google it!?) but here are a few out of the top of my head.  

    - Buy a little toy horse, and chop it's head. Then put the head under a handkerchief in is desk.

    - Send him emails with a lot of CAPS and EXCLAMATION!! in chinese. Then sign "See you in hell" and put a link to the "Tail of the pink dragon Triad" homepage. (if he is chinese try using japanese and change Triads for Yakuza, or maybe russian and change Triads for whatever russian mobs name is.)

    - Call him and put a mixed recording of the most violent Tony Montana's quotes. You can add a few of GodFather's and Goodfellas aswell.

    OK, that's engough free advice. If you want more we can arrange a meeting to give you a quote for my consulting services.

    P.S. Come alone.

    P.S.2. Make sure no one is following you.

     

    LOL!  :)



  • @fatdog said:

    You have 15 years experience, so I assume you are mature enough to handle this situation like a man.

    You have to counterattack man. Guerrilla style. Don't let him see them coming.Don't let him rest. Joins forces with the other Acronym Guy that you say is cool, and make him run to the hills.

    I'm pretty sure you could find some neat tactics on msn.com (see!? See how I didn't say google it!?) but here are a few out of the top of my head.  

    - Buy a little toy horse, and chop it's head. Then put the head under a handkerchief in is desk.

    - Send him emails with a lot of CAPS and EXCLAMATION!! in chinese. Then sign "See you in hell" and put a link to the "Tail of the pink dragon Triad" homepage. (if he is chinese try using japanese and change Triads for Yakuza, or maybe russian and change Triads for whatever russian mobs name is.)

    - Call him and put a mixed recording of the most violent Tony Montana's quotes. You can add a few of GodFather's and Goodfellas aswell.

    OK, that's engough free advice. If you want more we can arrange a meeting to give you a quote for my consulting services.

    P.S. Come alone.

    P.S.2. Make sure no one is following you.

    You forgot the part about wearing full camouflage to work.



  • @savar said:

    @MaximaMan said:

    PM=Project Manager

    BI= Business Intelligence

    ETL=Extract Transform Load 


    God I wish I never learned what ETL means...the truth is it's mostly brain dead development that somehow still manages to elude most of the people I work with who are supposed "ETL experts".

    I looked it up, and sniggered. Watching "data warehousing experts" is greatly amusing - it's like watching small children figure out how gravity works by falling off things.



  • I think you've stumbled into a common situation that occurs with FTEs (Full Time Employees) when a consultant is hired.  Many have been wildly pampered by weak bosses (your manager sounds like one), and they become hostile and unprofessional.  He is probably hiding the docs, and in some cultures, it is seen as appropriate to be aggressive if someone is threatening your turf at work.

    I sugest cornering the vile snake and saying "I now what you are up to, Cowboy.  If you don't start playing ball, I will call your wife and tell her that you are having an affair with that cute DBA.  And then I will tell your manager's boss that you made a sexual advance at me  (this is regardless of his gender -- they will always at least have to investigate).  Finally, if you ever, ever make a personal phone call again and start speaking in a foreign language while we are having a meeting, I willl ram that handset up your behind so far that you will be pulling RJ-45 out of your tail for 6 months."

     That type of approach usually works for me, and I've been consulting/contracting for 15 years. 



  • LOL

     

    This guy is a contractor too. He's only been there 2 months which seems like odd behavior to me.  This company doesn't have an 18-month rule (which is common here) so he is only hurting himself by not playing ball. 


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