A Contradiction
April 1st, 2009
Ever want to ensure your ass is covered but also gain the added bonus of messing with someone without actually planning the latter? Yeah, that happened to me yesterday. It just kinda feel into place.
The curmudgeon assigned me this project (the irony of this is that I don’t actually report to the curmudgeon yet he feels entitled to tell me what to do. Mental note: might make for an interesting blog post) which left me a bit irritated. Usually when he works on “big projects,” he brings in outside consulting firms. That’s obviously probably a good thing because here’s a guy who thinks Web 2.0 and social networking is a “waste of time…I’ll just pick up a phone if I wanna talk to someone.” (Granted, the guy *is* a dinosaur.) </digressing> I really think he brings these firms in to cover his ass (actually, not a bad thing, of course) and learn a bit from them so he can regurgitate and share what he’s picked up from their years of knowledge in a couple of minutes to us “I-D-10-T’s,” immediately making him an expert on VoIP, layer 3 switching, virtualization, etc.
Now, the project I’m working on is rather heedy, to say the least. That being said, I suggested we consider a consultant just in case something goes wrong. Granted I’ve backed everything up and documented a rollback plan. However, I admittedly never worked on this type of project before and would feel a little more comfortable with some expertise to fall back on. Of course the curmudgeon didn’t see it that way to figured “we can do it ourselves.” That being said, I went to the big boss and mentioned this to him just to ensure my ass is covered. So, for the most part, I’m safe.
Where does contradiction #1 come into play? The curmudgeon and I had lunch with a couple of colleagues from a neighboring entity yesterday. When he mentioned our project, they looked at him and strongly suggested we look into a consultant. ”Hmmm….that’s probably not a bad idea,” states the curmudgeon. I just grinned inside my head. After all, it was *his* idea.
But wait! It gets better. After our lunch, we headed back to work where we met with the big boss who the curmudgeon had previously told that he didn’t feel we needed a consultant for this project. ‘Lo and behold, the curmudgeon changed his mind (go figure) and told the BB that, “perhaps it’s a good idea we look into a consultant.” Oh, the irony of not only having my ass covered but witnessing the curmudgeon digging an even bigger hole for himself in front of the BB.
Ah, the sweetness…
