As I said in the previous post on the blog, we are having some minor issues with the security team and if the truth be told the systems admins as well. After thinking about this and having had a couple of small libations, I’ve decided to put up a second post on the matter – something not done before on this site! I’ve actually met the people mentioned in this post and face to face they are both really nice people, however when the work that we are doing together falls outside the frame of reference that they have – some thing happens to them. The security guru mentioned in the previous post has it is true caused us some problems, he has it is true to say managed to upset almost everyone from the UK that is involved in this process. It would be true to say that he has become the Vuvuzela of the IT world, just an annoying drone in the back ground and I don’t even watch footy! The comparison here is that just like Herr Flick he may be menacing and threatening, but when dealt with the right way he will be completely impotent.
The thing about people who have a very narrow focus on the job, is that they often fail completely when it comes to seeing the overall picture. Now when you have a problem with colleagues there are really only a limited number of ways of dealing with it, a quiet word (not likely to work in this case), the more direct approach (fatalities at work are frowned on), or some compromise (really sticks in the gullet but prepared to give it a try) or finally dump on him from a great height (my favoured option)!
The problem that we have is that the project manager – aka B.I.C., which I’m assuming stands for Brave Irish Colleague but I may be wrong. Is about as useful as a punctured condom in a convent, so there’s no chance of any help on that front. Still we have room for manouver, we may be able to “play the game” the European way. If the objective is considered – that is relocating all the systems to the European systems, there is a significant risk that this may not be accomplished by the deadline if we have to meet the security considerations, especially those being rigorously adhered to by Herr Flick.
When it comes to the actual systems admins in Europe we have an other problem, the warm fuzzy feelings seem to vanish. This isn’t meant to be a reflection on the systems admins, they too I’m sure have had excrement dumped all over them. But again there is an element of inflexibility that makes you want to choke the living shit out of them, which won’t win you any friends in the health and safety arena. Especially as they seem to always fall into line with the security team, what would you expect after all when the security team seem to have them by the short and cur lies! I’m sure that things will get better, especially once this project gets into full swing – it’s just that I can’t see it getting into full swing until we kill some of the European team. This may not be the Pan European approach that we were all looking for, but the sensible approach that the UK business desires is from my point of view a happy compromise. I’m sure that the UK powers that be would be happy if we achieved the desired result, but perhaps the Europeans have other plans – that are more devious than the plan hatched to hide the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies.