I Get A "Recognition"

I have been trying not to write about work recently, mainly because it would turn into one long rant about the utter idiocy of our IT department and its outsourced support. This is a major, major bank which does not officially provide or support Oracle, Business Objects and SAS. About which I have spoken.

Our section had an Awayday recently, in the Seven Dials club in Covent Garden (they don't seem to have a website.) It was the usual mixture of "here's how the numbers are" and "bonding by fun" which usually has me reaching for the phone to call in suddenly ill, but this time was actually reasonably bearable. I got to meet a number of the new guys on the team who are due to start soon, and scarily young and bright they are too. As well they should be.

Modesty forbids me to describe the spontaneous round of applause that greeted my presentation on business-as-usual activities in the management information team, but then I did tell a good story vividly.

At the end of the day there were some "recognition" for people who had done above and beyond the call of nine-to-five, and for once I found myself agreeing with the choices: all went to people who were good soldiers, as such things should. Except one. Which went to me, for finally getting all that software to work on the Bank's machines. Which I did not do as a good soldier, but bitching and moaning all the way (which come to think of it, is how good soldiers behave, if Generation Kill is as accurate as they say).

Given that I was in the doghouse a year ago, this isn't bad. My appraisal for last year was "Met Expectations" which is better than it has been for a while. The thing is this: I'm still the same old me. I'm doing pretty much what I always do. It's the managers that have changed. Now they are giving me stuff that can be done, instead of the mission-impossibles that the previous guys came up with.

Here's the take-away: if you set your people up for success, they will probably succeed; if you set them up for failure, they will surely fail.