Computerworld Offers an IT Recipe for Getting Fired
September 13, 2013
I read “Fatal Distraction: 7 IT Mistakes That Will Get You Fired.” I thought Harvard and MIT churned out top notch information technology managers. I may have to revise my thinking about business insight and what organization is the leader in advanced business thinking. The Computerworld article provides a recipe for getting fired. In today’s economy, this recipe will be an instant hit on the stand up circuit or an example of hard hitting analysis from one of the world’s leading publishers.
I don’t want to reproduce the seven ingredients for instant termination. Please, consult the original article for the full list.
The germ of the write up seems to be expressed in this statement:
Everyone messes up at some point. But some screw-up’s are almost always fatal — to jobs, if not entire careers.
The big reasons for getting fired include:
- Failure to meet obligations for “digital assets”. I wonder if Computerworld or its owner has ever worked this idea in reverse. The write up does not say.
- Abuse “vast powers”. I assume this is a Snowdenesque reference but perhaps it applies to administrative personnel who muff a bunny.
- Speaking up. Well, speaking up may generate a lawsuit when large outfits don’t want certain information disseminated.
- Snooping on a superior. I assume that generalized snooping is a lesser offense. I worked at an outfit and watched a senior manager flip through papers in employees’ cubicles. I kept quiet and recalled the adage, “Clean off and lock your desk.” I assume email content processing is an alternative in some organizations.
- Costing the outfit money. Yep, in today’s economic climate, an employee who misses targets for revenue, profit or cost control is likely to get an opportunity to become an expert in analytics, search, or content processing.
That’s just the introductory paragraph. What are the really big actions that will cause instant termination?
Here are three which were incisive thoughts for me here in rural Kentucky:
First, covering up a crime. Okay, I must admit it never occurred to me to commit a crime at work. I am not sure what the frequency of crime is in the data sample which Computerworld tapped, but it must be significant. Perhaps some people just work for criminals. If that occurs, the discussion point becomes, “Should an employee commit a crime against a criminal employer?” Point of view will play a role in the answer.
Second, creating a disaster. I found this an interesting assertion. Since about two thirds of information technology projects fail, why are some information technology managers employed. If the 2/3 failure rate is accurate, information technology must be a revolving door of turnover. I can think of some pretty interesting failures which left the senior information technology person employed. The outfit terminated were the service provided and sometimes an unlucky consultant.
Third, speaking the truth. As I approach 70 years in age, I have worked in a number of settings in which the boss wanted the facts. The people who did not deliver facts were terminated. Nice was not what these managers wanted. Sure, in public a happy face was like a white shirt and blue tie. Behind closed doors, facts were the common currency.
Do these Computerworld assertions reflect the real world, a bizarro world, or a journalist’s world? My hunch is that the write up reveals more about the source than it does what goes on at a successful local business called El Nopal, the Mexican restaurant which is doing a land office business with “good enough” technology. I would title the write up “Fatal Abstractions.”
Does a McKinsey Award loom for the author?
Stephen E Arnold, September 13, 2013
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