I am not sure why either because either a) he doesn't really go into it or b) when he does go into it there is a certain amount of text speak I do not understand and could not even repeat, so I just nod and say, "I am sorry baby," in a sweet and loving voice.
His company has sort of ballooned up the last couple of years, and he went from being the guy in his division (as in the only one) to the guy in charge of his division by way of here have a helper and hey you should hire another to where he is now. But he doesn't do well at delegating. He is far more likely to just solve a problem when confronted with it rather then take the time to pass it along to the person who ought to be doing it, as long as it is a pretty easy fix. Although since he made up half the stuff they do at his work it is much easier for him to see the fixes than anyone else, so almost everything is something he does. Now, he has been given the go ahead to hire a new person or two (and I think he did just hire someone), but he hates training people and he doesn't like looking for people because it never seems to go his way. So he tends not to do it in advance of the need, he will only get to it when the need is so great his ability to function as a human being is getting strained.
That is where he is about now. Plus because his department is backlogged, the people who need there work tend to get hysterical at them. Although I guess some of them avoid doing things in advance as is the prescribed way of going about things. Anyway somehow there is a system where crankiness tends to get rewarded which encourages people to be cranky if not to him than to his underlings which he hears about. On the other hand apparently his underlings aren't ones to take crankiness lying down, so then he hears about that too.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that he is kind of maybe getting an ulcer? Well maybe not. It may be something else, but it is likely that his health problem of late has been worsened by stress if not entirely caused by it. Poor guy.
Although, several people have been hired at his job to a) do some of the work he does and b) play enforcer to some of his decisions, so once those types get all trained up and functioning I predict at least a period of more happy times with him.
I hope. He deserves it.
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I think that his bosses will be very relieved to discover that. They are worried they broke their very first ever full time employee who they kind of look after like a little brother or cousin.
Not to suggest that Sam's deficient or anything, but perhaps he's not suited to being a manager (I'm certainly not; I'd rather just write my code and solve the problem without having to deal with the paperwork/personnel issues), and maybe he should think about relinquishing that portion of his job whilst still being the Chief Technology Architect (or title/responsibilities to that effect).
That way he can focus on doing his job whilst still being able to lay down the law when he makes a decision.
I suspect he would think that suggestion brilliant. However, I don't know how he would get from here to there in his work. Although they just hired a CFO and it seems that one function of his job is to lay down the law (as you say) for Sam.
Boy, do I remember when it was like that for Dave. There's a certain stage in any small company's growth when it just doesn't matter how many people you are hiring, the guy in charge of tech is doing all of the work because he's too busy to do the interviewing and hiring and training and anyone he has hired is still on a learning curve and so is actually adding to the burden rather than lessening it.
In Dave's case, it was also a really great CFO who helped him get out from under the piles of work and bs. So there's definitely hope for Sam.
Also, why was I not listed as being part of your fun 4th of July? Given that we had breakfast together? Or was breakfast not actually as fun as I thought it was?
Not listing Sally as 4th of July fun was a major oversight, but I suppose that was because although it was the most fun part of my Independence Day it was not particularly ascribed to Independence Day.
I apologize Sally. It was fabulous seeing you. In fact Chris and I both said that just the other day.
I was just being snotty. I figured you had too much else happen between our time together and your posting. It kind of felt like its own day, if you know what I mean.
It absolutely felt like its own day. Not helped by the fact that I did so much else that day.
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