My company has changed its methods of performance review to incorporate
the labor-saving (for those who matter) step of having employees
evaluate themselves. I know that many of you have had to wrestle with
this very issue, and because you are the smartest group of people
around, I know I am turning to the right advisors when I ask you: What
is the cleverest and most professional way of stating that you are doing
the work of three to four people, with fewer resources than were
available to you a decade ago, and therefore the fact that “the lights
are still on” is a testament to your ability and general staunchness?
First guess, if this is because of some “reorg” or whatever perhaps
indicate something like:
“Took on responsibilities x0, y0, and z0 of person 0.”
“Took on responsibilities x1, y1, and z1 of person 1.”
etc.
If these are tasks in IT (or other relevant fields) that are being
follows, perhaps explain how you have automated them (if indeed you did)
so that there is less manual work for you so you can waste more time
analyzing results, setting up more automation, or updating your resume.
–
Good luck.
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
show your appreciation and click on the star below…
Mary Wood sounds like they ‘said’:
[color=blue]
therefore the
fact that “the lights are still on” is a testament to your ability
and general staunchness?[/color]
So my response to Mary’s comment is…
Let the lights ‘go out’ once or twice. In the explanation why, tell
TPTB you have the job responsibilities of 3 or 4 people and sometimes
can’t keep up once in a great while. 
–
Stevo
If the lights NEVER go out, they will never appreciate you.
Quickly fixing a broken network is what makes an admin great.
Running a network that never breaks means the admin is not needed, not
that they are so good they keep it humming like a well oiled machine.
We admins know this is not true, but the accts dont.
On 10/23/2013 3:15 PM, Stevo wrote:[color=blue]
Mary Wood sounds like they ‘said’:
[color=green]therefore the
fact that “the lights are still on” is a testament to your ability
and general staunchness?[/color]So my response to Mary’s comment is…
Let the lights ‘go out’ once or twice. In the explanation why, tell
TPTB you have the job responsibilities of 3 or 4 people and sometimes
can’t keep up once in a great while.
[/color]
On Wed, 23 Oct 2013 20:20:22 +0000, Craig Wilson wrote:
[color=blue]
If the lights NEVER go out, they will never appreciate you. Quickly
fixing a broken network is what makes an admin great.[/color]
If the organization understands that.
I once worked for a company that didn’t understand that. Instead of
being happy that I was able to recover most of the data from a crashed
server (by calling in a few favors), they were angry that I “hadn’t told
them the backups were no good” (which actually meant “I hadn’t made them
listen to me when I said the backups were failing”).
Some companies do look to mete out blame when IT systems fail. Those
companies tend to not retain competent admins for very long.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10
Novell/SUSE/NetIQ Knowledge Partner
Jim Henderson hendersj@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote in news:0pW9u.351
$tt6.296@kovat.provo.novell.com:
[color=blue]
On Wed, 23 Oct 2013 20:20:22 +0000, Craig Wilson wrote:
[color=green]If the lights NEVER go out, they will never appreciate you. Quickly
fixing a broken network is what makes an admin great.[/color]If the organization understands that.[/color]
Most don’t. At all. A bad sign is the term “Hard Drive” referring to the
PC on the desk from Management, especially when it is your boss or your
boss’s boss.
[color=blue]
I once worked for a company that didn’t understand that. Instead of
being happy that I was able to recover most of the data from a crashed
server (by calling in a few favors), they were angry that I “hadn’t told
them the backups were no good” (which actually meant “I hadn’t made them
listen to me when I said the backups were failing”).[/color]
/Mumble
[color=blue]
Some companies do look to mete out blame when IT systems fail. Those
companies tend to not retain competent admins for very long.Jim
[/color]
I heard of an admin getting caught making errors he could easily fix.
Don’t be that person. Be the “Is there anything else I can do for you
while I am here” person.
Mary:
State it as directly as you stated it in your message. That’s how most
men would do it. Just because we’re women doesn’t mean we need to be
shrinking violets when it comes to self-evaluation. While we’ve been
taught as young girls that it’s not good to do so, we work in a still
mostly male industry. So you need to evaluate yourself just as a man
would evaluate himself - directly. You’ll still be more on target than
some men would be - some tend to have a higher opinion of themselves
than reality warrants, all present company excepted otherwise I’d have
thrown you out long ago, so your self-evaulation will still seem more
modest than other evaluations.
Feel free to use a phrase I used in my cover letter for a number of
years:
“I’m hesitant to let out a toot of my horn, lest in so-doing I come
across sounding like the entire brass section of the New York
Philharmonic, and I …(list all the things you did that weren’t done
by the person before you and probably wouldn’t be able to be done by
the person who comes after you).”
I was told by several managers, company owners, human resources people
that it was the best cover letter they’ve ever read. So feel free to
use humor. It works.
Susan
On Thu, 24 Oct 2013 08:57:33 +0000, Dave Taylor wrote:
[color=blue]
Jim Henderson hendersj@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote in news:0pW9u.351
$tt6.296@kovat.provo.novell.com:
[color=green]On Wed, 23 Oct 2013 20:20:22 +0000, Craig Wilson wrote:
[color=darkred]If the lights NEVER go out, they will never appreciate you. Quickly
fixing a broken network is what makes an admin great.[/color]If the organization understands that.[/color]
Most don’t. At all. A bad sign is the term “Hard Drive” referring to
the PC on the desk from Management, especially when it is your boss or
your boss’s boss.[/color]
I’ve worked for some that did - and they were great companies to work
for. It’s the ones that think technology never fails without human
intervention that you need to be extremely wary of.
[color=blue][color=green]
I once worked for a company that didn’t understand that. Instead of
being happy that I was able to recover most of the data from a crashed
server (by calling in a few favors), they were angry that I “hadn’t
told them the backups were no good” (which actually meant “I hadn’t
made them listen to me when I said the backups were failing”).[/color]/Mumble[/color]
I had a lot more to say about it than that. I’ve told the story here
before about that - I was scheduled for a sponsored trip to N+I that
year, and the employer was going to make me take vacation time for the
trip. The excuse given was “if the plane crashes, our insurance would be
responsible for paying out, and since we’re not paying for the trip, it’d
just be a mess to sort it out.” Yeah, because planes between SLC and Las
Vegas crash every other day. They had apparently never heard of a nifty
little legal thing called a “waiver of liability”.
So when they decided to suspend me without pay (for their failure to
listen to me), they pitched my ability to go to N+I without buring
vacation time as a “silver lining”.
So I went. I learned stuff. I then refused to use what I learned on the
job. Didn’t stay much longer after that - one instance of “Oh, you know,
I talked to 3Com at N+I about something like this, but I don’t remember
now what they told me.”
I was a lot younger (and far less wise) then. 
But it did feel good
to be able to say that (at the time).
When I left (over a different issue - a very poor manager to doled out
blame and grabbed all the praise for the team’s work), I left with
nothing to go to - and even though I nearly lost my house because of the
lack of work, having nothing to go to was an improvement in
circumstances. That place was “the underworld” to work at.
[color=blue][color=green]
Some companies do look to mete out blame when IT systems fail. Those
companies tend to not retain competent admins for very long.Jim
[/color]
I heard of an admin getting caught making errors he could easily fix.
Don’t be that person. Be the “Is there anything else I can do for you
while I am here” person.[/color]
Yep, that’s excellent advice. Those who could be identified as “Mordac,
the preventer of information services” tend not to last long.
Jim
Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10
Novell/SUSE/NetIQ Knowledge Partner
I used to have a Mordac cartoon taped to my door. Hehe.
“Jim Henderson” wrote in message
news:Fjjau.497$tt6.149@kovat.provo.novell.com…
On Thu, 24 Oct 2013 08:57:33 +0000, Dave Taylor wrote:
[color=blue]
Jim Henderson hendersj@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote in news:0pW9u.351
$tt6.296@kovat.provo.novell.com:
[color=green]On Wed, 23 Oct 2013 20:20:22 +0000, Craig Wilson wrote:
[color=darkred]If the lights NEVER go out, they will never appreciate you. Quickly
fixing a broken network is what makes an admin great.[/color]If the organization understands that.[/color]
Most don’t. At all. A bad sign is the term “Hard Drive” referring to
the PC on the desk from Management, especially when it is your boss or
your boss’s boss.[/color]
I’ve worked for some that did - and they were great companies to work
for. It’s the ones that think technology never fails without human
intervention that you need to be extremely wary of.
[color=blue][color=green]
I once worked for a company that didn’t understand that. Instead of
being happy that I was able to recover most of the data from a crashed
server (by calling in a few favors), they were angry that I “hadn’t
told them the backups were no good” (which actually meant “I hadn’t
made them listen to me when I said the backups were failing”).[/color]/Mumble[/color]
I had a lot more to say about it than that. I’ve told the story here
before about that - I was scheduled for a sponsored trip to N+I that
year, and the employer was going to make me take vacation time for the
trip. The excuse given was “if the plane crashes, our insurance would be
responsible for paying out, and since we’re not paying for the trip, it’d
just be a mess to sort it out.” Yeah, because planes between SLC and Las
Vegas crash every other day. They had apparently never heard of a nifty
little legal thing called a “waiver of liability”.
So when they decided to suspend me without pay (for their failure to
listen to me), they pitched my ability to go to N+I without buring
vacation time as a “silver lining”.
So I went. I learned stuff. I then refused to use what I learned on the
job. Didn’t stay much longer after that - one instance of “Oh, you know,
I talked to 3Com at N+I about something like this, but I don’t remember
now what they told me.”
I was a lot younger (and far less wise) then. But it did feel good
to be able to say that (at the time).
When I left (over a different issue - a very poor manager to doled out
blame and grabbed all the praise for the team’s work), I left with
nothing to go to - and even though I nearly lost my house because of the
lack of work, having nothing to go to was an improvement in
circumstances. That place was “the underworld” to work at.
[color=blue][color=green]
Some companies do look to mete out blame when IT systems fail. Those
companies tend to not retain competent admins for very long.Jim
[/color]
I heard of an admin getting caught making errors he could easily fix.
Don’t be that person. Be the “Is there anything else I can do for you
while I am here” person.[/color]
Yep, that’s excellent advice. Those who could be identified as “Mordac,
the preventer of information services” tend not to last long.
Jim
Jim Henderson, CNA6, CDE, CNI, LPIC-1, CLA10, CLP10
Novell/SUSE/NetIQ Knowledge Partner