Call the bully's bluff (WAS: Oppressive SMEs)

[George Mena <George -dot- Mena -at- ESSTECH -dot- COM>]

To The Embattled Lady TW:

Your bully of an SME is an incompetent fool masquerading as a technical
professional.  It's time to expose her professional incompetence, and
the sooner the better.  Call this bully's bluff.

Her "full editing" of the book you're developing tells me she doesn't
pay attention to detail and probably doesn't even know what she's doing.
This is why she's acting the way she is:  she's trying to cover the
tracks of her own ineptitude.  Nail her to the proverbial cross with her
own screw-uppery.  The advice on creating the large paper trail
comprised of her own previous markups is good advice.  Keep up the good
work there.

Related war story:
*********************
Once upon a nightmare, I had to develop a procedure that told line
operators how to properly run and maintain a lead attach soldering
machine, complete from changing the pinwheel to cleaning the
electrically-heated soldering bars.  The OEM manuals for the machine
were in the Engineering library, so I borrowed a copy, wrote up the
procedure and sent it out for review.

The engineer for this product line gave the procedure to his line
technician for review.  While the tech knew his stuff, he didn't have a
copy of the OEM manual to refer to that I did.  Naturally, since he was
the tech, he automatically assumed everything I'd written was wrong.
When I showed him copies of the manual's pages I'd been drawing my
information from, he wound up hunting for a copy of the manual himself.
Things he'd initially deleted magically wound up being put back because
they were from the OEM manual.  Amazing.  I'd even talked to the line
operators and asked them to review it (the horror!  Asking the end user
to review a procedure!  You can't do that -- NOT!).  :D

But he hadn't done his job thoroughly enough, and it showed.  Still,
when I'd confront this guy and raise additional issues with him, he'd
say "the operator doesn't need to know that."  I knew he was wrong, I
told him so to his face and I told him why.  When I finally asked him
what he thought I was missing, he just sat in his chair and refused to
speak to me.  I could easily see the hatred he had for me in his eyes,
but I persisted anyway.  Being the wimp he was at heart, he continued to
act like a spoiled brat and keep quiet.

I later learned this tech had taken it upon himself to do some shameless
self-promotion as the one man who could turn the production lines
around, given the free rein to be the big truck-flattened roadkill.  He
did this mostly at Executive Staff meetings, even though he wasn't a
member of the Executive Staff.  Some of his rantings also included his
idiotic blathering about how *I* was to blame for some of the woes, even
though the engineering manager (whom we both reported to) knew
otherwise, along with the heads of Manufacturing, Die Fab, Wafer Fab,
Assembly and a few other people.  Nothing like this guy making an ass of
himself in front of people who'd have a direct impact on his future at
the company.  A true egomaniac suffering from delusions of godhood!  :D

Our Line Maintenance chief, however, was also in the review cycle, so I
ran the procedure past him.  Not surprisingly, he said everything I had
was right and that line operators did in fact need to know everything
I'd written.  In the end, I had to have our engineering manager convene
a document review meeting to discuss this procedure, complete with a few
engineers, our QA director, Line Maintenance supervisor and the
recalcitrant tech.

When the meeting began, the tech quickly found himself put down hard by
the engineering manager when he tried to launch a personal attack
against me.  Sufficiently muzzled immediately, the procedure was found
to be 98% sound and that the tech was to provide me with the missing 2%
input by a specific calendar date.  Naturally, being the crybaby he was,
he didn't.  HE wound up leaving about three months later.  I ultimately
got the procedure released without him and we all lived happily ever
after. :D

***************

You've said you're in your mid-30s and that she's a good 10 years
younger than you.  Sounds like she's the one who's fresh out of college.
She's covering up her own insecurity when she asks you in front of
others if your current job is the first job you've had out of college.
Most people who know you know this isn't the case and should be able to
see right through her smokescreen of bullshit.

No SME has any business ignoring your schedules.  Engineers and TWs have
to work together to get the product out the door, period.  Maybe it's
time you let the schedule slip at your end and NOT finish the project on
time.  Move on to another project and tell everyone why you're doing it:
lack of support from the SME.

When people ask you why, tell them you're not getting any support from
this idiot and have your list of open issues ready.  Make sure you share
this information not only with your boss, but with your boss's boss, HER
boss and HER boss's boss and with HR and, if necessary, with the CEO.
Nobody's going to put up with an engineer that refuses to do her job
right the first time, not in the long run.  NEVER put your health at
risk.  Put your SME on the hot seat and make her explain herself.

Your boss also sounds like an idiot.  For him to say "as long as things
are going well, I don't need to know what's going on" is a scathing
indictment of his own lack of professionalism as well.  Most managers
want to know what their subordinates are doing, whether they're going
well or not.  That's what managers are there for:  to make sure the work
gets done.

Always talk to your boss, both when things are going good and especially
when things are going to hell.  If he claims he "here to help" with
resolving problems, it's time he proved it by listening to you, backing
you up and doing his job.  A hands-off manager is not a manager, he's a
slacker.

Bullies are like child abusers: they only get away with their crap in
secret.  Exposed to the light of day, their numbers are up.  Tear down
the drapes, open all the doors and let the sun shine in as much as
possible.

I see you have several freelance projects due next week.  It may be past
time to not only get those out the door, but to also get more freelance
projects in your hands -- enough so that you can be your own boss and
actually make your own way in the world!  :D

In closing, remember that happiness is seeing your office in your rear
view mirror. :D

George Mena, Tech Writing Consultant
(with special thanks and prayers of gratitude to Lew Jr., Art Jr.,
Brian, Charlie, Don, Loran, Dewey and Catfish, wherever you are.)


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=