Humble Yourself — Redundancy Awakens

Never been made redundant? This is the article for you.

With the chip in my shoulder being hacked out with a battle-axe, I was ready for my next project.

ROAARRRRRRRRR

I was awesome, you could hear me roar! Head of Department, I had a legion of developers building lots of awesome software. I was responsible for ALL the customer facing applications. Working for a FTSE company, being paid well, life was good.

Measuring my worth on the number of “resources” that fed into me, I was on top of the world. People listened to me when I spoke. I’d been a developer for most of the applications that I now ruled over; I knew them all very well technically. I could jump into the code if I needed to, but I didn’t because I was too important.

This was my dominion.. HEAR ME ROAR!

My time then came. I got made redundant, tossed out with the rest of the garbage. The only thing that company hated more that its customers was its staff. I was too arrogant to believe I was an exception to this.

Still, with a massive chip on my shoulder, I entered the market for a new job. I had one interview and was told that I was over qualified for the job. At this point I think my head could have burst with my inflated sense of self-importance.

I landed a new position at a London Consultancy. Being in London, it was finally a real job, worthy of my skills. I would get to demonstrate how awesome I was. Once again people would HEAR ME ROAR!

Project Number One

My first client; I’d be heading up four scrum teams. The organisation was a bit new to this agile malarkey. Luckily their saviour was just around the corner. I was going to quickly gain control, get them all whipped into shape and impart my years of wisdom and best practice onto them. Ram it down their throats if needed. It was a probation goal to ensure that these teams became fully Agile.

Fast forward a few weeks and my responsibilities were:

• Weekly Report on how the teams were doing
• Approving Holiday for the off-shore devs
• There was a lot of holiday to approve, so I’ll put it here again
• Help triage bugs (but I left that for the test manager to do)

Ouch.

I wasn’t roaring, more bleating. HEAR ME bleat a bit like a newborn sheep.

No one on the client side really listened to what I had to say. The product was completely new to me. I didn’t really have a relationship with the stakeholders. I was the guy hidden away in the background, that popped up once a week to deliver his inane weekly report.

If I was questioned too deeply my manager would step in, rescuing this sheep of a person. Who, despite having a good CV, interviewed well, seemed to fail at the most basic of tasks.

I wasn’t part of that team, I was sitting on the periphery as an observer.

I could have humbled myself, I could have tried to be helpful in any way I thought possible. Someone in the kitchen offered me advice, “if you see a report – offer to do it”. Back then I didn’t realise that this was a role that I would have to grow into. Not something where I start out with a bucket load of responsibility.

When it came to downsize the team, I was an obvious choice to go. Get rid of the weird weekly report guy that approves holiday.

With the chip in my shoulder being hacked out with a battle-axe, I was ready for my next project.

Project Number Two

Central London! Finance! I was hanging out with the major players.

My responsibilities were:

• Copy support emails from Outlook into Jira
• Assigning said Jira issue to a person
• Some Minor BA work for a report (defining fields etc)

I was mainly interested in eradicating the first task with a gentle support desk and some light automation. $10 a month type thing. No one cared about that in the slightest.

Four weeks later and I was out of there as well. I didn’t speak enough in a meeting and needed to work from home two days a week being the main contributors. This was before the great plague.

Feeling more like a sheep that had half of its fur ripped out; I was barely able to muster a simple “baa”.

The third project rolled around, and I was starting to fear for my position in this consultancy. I knew I had to make this project a success.

My roar has well and truly been subdued. Any sense of arrogance that I had was long lost in some field of dreams somewhere.

Project Number Three

I was a project manager! I had a team of developers, a tester and a BA. All of which were excellent people. There were milestones. I hit my milestones!

This lasted about 8 weeks. The client wasn’t paying their bills so the whole thing got sacked off.

Once again, I was keeping that bench very warm.

Just when I thought I was out; my self-worth was returning; the dying sheep pulled me back in.

MOAR PROJECTS

At this time, things were starting to feel very critical. I really needed a long project and I needed to be successful.

Project four was some light Business Analysis duties. I don’t really consider myself to be a BA, I’m pretty sure there are far more competent people than myself. I’m really a developer at heart.

However, I needed to humble myself. I helped wherever I could. Emotionally, it wasn’t always an easy ride as I wrestled with my new and changing identity. Maybe I had peaked in my career previously? I had failed to my potential?

After six months the contract was concluded.

I had humbled myself and the impression I left was.. “This person is clearly competent. Maybe, not a perfect fit for this work. But definitely an asset to the organisation.”

Like Indiana Jones in the “Breath of God” challenge. Only the penitent man will pass. The penitent man is humble.

My humility and my hard work paid off. Without that experience, I wouldn’t have been recommended for my next engagement.

Passed GO and Collected £200

My current project is a dream. There’s a great team that I work with and people once again come to me for my opinion.

People once again value what I have to say.

Once again I am of use!

But this time things are different. Gone is the arrogant chip. Where it was is covered up with a massive plaster. I will no longer take things and people for granted.

My journey is more about learning and trying to help people. Rather than the accumulation of resources and titles.

I may slip up sometimes, but never again should you hear me roar.

Thank you for reading this article! Please leave a comment below if you have any questions or feedback.

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Chris Sheldon is a Project Manager for DataArt Ltd. DataArt are a global software engineering firm that takes a uniquely human approach to solving problems.

In his career Chris Sheldon has been a Software Developer, Scrum Master, Development Manager and more. He’s decided that people are harder than process, so this is where his attention is now targeted!

Chris graduated in the UK from Reading University with a degree in Electronic Engineering and Cybernetics.

A bit of a Agile enthusiast, productivity nerd and Wantrepreneur Chris really needs to decide what he wants to do in life and focus.

You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or by visiting his website, ITsChrisSheldon