What the CIO Wants You to Know (Part III)

"It's not my job to make you happy..." The CIO's words reverberated off the back wall, bouncing back onto stunned employees assembled for an MIS departmental meeting. I waited, thinking he might be using the statement as some sort of rhetorical device to get our attention. I pondered, "What about a happy employee is a productive employee?" While staff were still reeling from that unexpected blow, he followed it up with another: "It's not my fault if you always wanted to be a poet but needed to make a living and settled for working in an MIS department." Wow, I thought, he sees into my soul. No, I didn't exactly want to be a poet. (I did go through a period in high school when I wrote some very bad, dark poetry, conjuring the spirit of Edgar Allen Poe reincarnated as a southern, teenage girl. Even I could recognize I shouldn't pin all my life's aspirations on that.) Yet, I suppose I'd somehow imagined a Technicolor career and saw it unfolding in the various shades of safe, nondescript gray forms that a Microsoft shop is proud to propagate. Just the other day I heard one developer pine for a career as a nurse and another say she'd considered being a dental hygenist. But now that I was a manager, I had some notion of what he meant. It's bad enough to wrestle with your own doubts and discouragement. It's quite another matter when someone else plops theirs like a pile of steaming doo on your lap and expects you to do something about it. What do you do when an employee tells you he doesn't enjoy project management or interacting with coworkers...that he really likes solitary coding...but he'd been promoted several years back out of a straight coding position (and didn't want to accept the pay-cut that would be inevitable if you shuffled him back into his old position)? What do you do when an employee says, "I thought we could choose our own projects"? (Um, yes, we do encourage you to express your interests and we make an effort to accommodate, but sometimes certain (unpopular) work has to be done.) What do you do when someone says their passion is X [insert any sort of specialized work here] but even after being sent to multiple training classes, they exhibit no ability in that area? Some days, even as a manager over technology staff, you get an ear-full of complaints and requests: "Why can't we all have 21-inch, flat-screen, dual monitors? Why can't we get an automatic pay increase if we earn a certification? Can't you do anything about climate control? Can't you do anything about that annoying background hum? Why can't I have an office with a window? I have an office with a window and there is too much glare on my monitor." I can only imagine how many the CIO must hear, considering the multiplicative factor. The complaints are often legitimate. Should someone have to work while wearing an overcoat because they have the misfortune of working in an old building and no one seems capable of correcting the heating and air problem? Maybe some staff really do need dual monitors due to the nature of the work they’re doing. But by the end of that staff meeting, the CIO elaborated on his initial shock-statement further, and this is what he wanted us to know: "Don't bring me your problem: bring me your solution." "Don't expect your job to meet all your personal needs. You might be happier if you pursued some of your outside interests as hobbies." "Realize that outside factors (such as family problems) can sometimes affect how you feel in general, and you may be blaming it all on your job." "Don't act as if you have no choice—that you're being forced to do a job you hate. If you are truly unhappy with your job, realize you have the option to leave." The words might seem harsh. It should be noted that the CIO in question does take great pains to provide a climate where staff can enjoy their work by offering training opportunities, staying current with development tools and hardware, sending staff to professional conferences, offering flex schedules, hosting team events, etc. Yet, the fact remains that a job may not be what an employee expected, or perhaps the employee has aspirations in an area where no opportunity is immediately available. The CIO's words were a reminder that ultimately we need to take ownership of our own fulfillment.