... continued from [Pt. 1]
Middle management suffers. First, in their defense, they are worked incredibly hard and do not receive just compensation. On-call rotations are murderous to these ranks and to the upper ranks of analysts who participate in said joy. A five minute discussion with one of these individuals will show a tired, unhappy patron of the Blackberry-ball-n'-chain. They will admit, behind closed doors, that they grow tired of answering questions from call after call of analysts who HAVE NOT completed their due diligence and appointed troubleshooting basics. On the other side of the coin, however there are those who push back on experienced analysts as if their response to inquiry was chiseled into stone and is used on all as a template -a robotic spewing of disrespect, in many ways. Immediately after this, meetings will be held to ensure that employees know they are to respect their superiors - effectively a ScriptPro tea party in the making.
During my tenure, I did not put up with this treatment when it was administered to me. I may say with honesty that it did not happen to me, namely, often enough to generate much anger; but can simultaneously say that there are an exacting multitude currently employed who are literally afraid to speak up for fear of being eliminated for having an opinion. Case in point, an employee in a management position was purported to have been eliminated because his style did not "fit". His style - also rumored - was that of a free-thinking individual seeking to change things for the improvement of his group. That is incredibly sad.
Next, I come to pay/salary. Because I am not a person to place all stock in material things, I will not linger here with this point long. However, because I am a very realistic person who knows that money (not promises) provides for families in this world today, it will be covered thoroughly enough to get the point across. I do not purchase bread at the grocery store with a smile and a promise. For several years, I received small, but regular raises. This was expected. My performance was middle-of-the-road to high as conveyed by my direct managers at the time. This was reflected in pay increases, steady but small. I was contented. Next came a few years of hardship for the company, again, not a deal-breaker in and of itself. The promises began. If we work hard, we are rewarded. I am a proponent of that system. It did not, however work this way. New employees can be hired in at levels above current employees who have more experience/training/education than them and the experienced employee is kept at the same salary for several years concurrently (effectively, a decreasing salary) simply because he/she does not speak up. If you don't make waves, you're liked. If it's at the expense of your well-being, isn't that reason enough to make yourself heard?
Lastly, I cover a specific problem the CS department endures. This is the aspect of clearance for the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice. This requires background checks and money to cover sponsors. Those with clearance are berated day in and out by analysts and management who do not enforce the idea that the entire group shares the load. What is impossible to work without clearance can be saved for the analyst who does, however the basics are always the same and must be addressed. The customer suffers in cases where this does not happen. The company does not have the backbone to demand help getting more analysts clearance if the need for additional world-wide remote support grows; nor will it supply adequate funds in the same regard.
