Cogito ergo scribo

And so i'm supposed to be here for the induction programme of the new joinee. Yet there are so much outstanding (and rather urgent) work awaiting me that i gotta take care of the work first and asked the new joinee to wait. In fact, i didn't manage to cover half of the programme for the first day, and i gotta catch up within these few days.

Then as if this isn't bad enough, i was informed yesterday about a serious issue on a task that i had assigned to the under-performed staff.

Basically, there is this system integration work that needs to be done between the financial system my team handles and the operation system that ex-little boss handles. We have done this integration for many other countries and there is a new one that needs to be done as the operation system is being implemented in one of the Asian countries. We are not part of the project team for that implementation and was not kept in the loop of any project timeline or discussions, but we do need to handle this integration work since it involves the system we handle.

Our team was informed of this task as early as back in March, and the actual work of development and testing started at around May. With the departure of the technical guy, and the rest of us were tied up with other work, i handed this task to the underperfomer, thinking that it would not go wrong since the work only requires testing and follow-ups.

So, none of my consultants or myself actually monitored this closely at all, which i do admit that it is definitely an oversight on my part - for trusting him in getting the work done with minimal supervision, just like how the other team members would do.

Then yesterday big boss suddenly asked me about the status of this task. It was then i realised that it was still pending at our side, when the project is now at the crucial juncture of making go-live decision (in three days time!). I was simply flabbergasted, and so i sent the underperfomer into the project meeting that big boss was having, and told him to answer to the project team himself (i didn't join the meeting). It may seem as if i'm being a lousy leader in doing this, but i felt that i should not continue to be his cushion anymore. Sometimes it's best for him to get the shock himself to understand the urgency and importance.

After that, i checked with him on the reasons for the delay and he timidly replied that he was waiting for replies from various parties. I asked him why he did not follow up more closely and he told me that he was doing other tasks. Well, i've actually heard comments from my consultant that he seems to have problem in multi-tasking, and i guess this proves it - he works in DOS mode and not Windows mode. Darn!

Then today, ex-little boss casually asked me why it took so long and this task is still incomplete till today. I seriously had no justifications for it at all. Being a team lead, i gotta take the responsibility for not following up on the work and leaving it entirely to a person whom i already knew requires constant monitoring.

So the important thing now is to get the work done first. I will have to take over whatever shit and clean it up. But with just a few days left, i seriously do not think i can make miracles happen. I only hope that even with this task incomplete, we will not be the cause of any delay to the project go-live.

And the best part is this - the underperformer is going to be on leave for the rest of the week. He is taking leave to study for his exam for MBA (yes, he is taking Master's degree. Go figure!). I will have to do the work myself, not really knowing what he has or has not done. This also means that i may not have time for the new joinee at all. In fact, i have been working just now since i came back to the hotel room at around 7pm.

I'm really tired, pissed and sianz.

Labels: rant, work