Igor's Computer Blog

All of us get to a point where our boss (*) gives us more work than we can handle.   With more work than we can handle one of three types of conversations will occur: Type Time Conversation B : too Busy When task assigned I’ve got too much on my plate, what can we take off to make this fit? F: I Failed/We're F@#$'d When task becomes a failure I couldn’t get this done, now we’re screwed what would you like to do. Q : I Quit When burned out I haven’t seen my family in weeks, my fish died of starvation - I quit! Even if you're not yet in task overload think very hard about which conversation your boss would rather have.   If your boss would rather conversation F or Q, you need to find a new job(+). I'll assume after doing the previous mental exercise you're not out looking for work, so let's ponder how to have conversation B. Clearly your boss didn't give you a task because she was bored, she needed the work done.  Bring your boss your current ...

Recently I became a developer lead.  In case your company uses different titles, a developer lead is a software developer who has software developers reporting to her. Since I became a lead, I've realized the different roles in an organization see the world differently. The table summarizes how different roles see a problem. Role Says Thinks Developer We have a Problem F@!#$ one more thing to fix, how am I going to get this done Lead We have a challenge Something isn’t the way we want, we’ll get it fixed Manager (Lead of Leads) We have an opportunity My competent teams will solve this. Director Of Development (Lead Of Managers) We have a functioning team You think that's a problem? Ha ha, you'll fix it. You should see what i have to fix. I'm not sure if this is brilliant, or just funny. Maybe it'll become the career choice acid test :)