I'm one of two people who deals with our website at work. The other is older than me, grumpy, and believes the world revolves around him. Plus, he is Always Right.
Last year, I stopped doing web work after he kept criticising what I was doing - excuse me for not being able to read your damn mind! So I left him to it. Then, before Christmas, my line manager suggested I do more, just for the kudos at work. So I asked my ultimate Boss (and Grump's boss) for more, and Boss gave me my own micro project.
I was absolutely shaking on the day I had the first meeting about it - I knew Grump would be utterly critical, decide what I should do and tell me my ideas were rubbish - his were so much better and I should obviously do that! One of Grump's colleagues was in the room while I was panicking, and she apparently gave Grump a complete bawling-out - he was absolutely lovely in the meeting and didn't say a word all of last year about the site. (I gave her a very large bar of chocolate when I found out).
So he didn't say a word...until this week. I've pretty much finished the first revision of the site - content's in, pages are up etc. So I sent it to Boss and Grump (who, unfortunately, I have to involve as he's the other web person).
Boss asked for a few minor changes - I agree with all of them, so absolutely no problem. Grump, on the other hand...
- Make it look more colourful
- Can you make the design more attractive?
- There's a lot of text. Can you do something with that?
*grumblegrumblegrumble* NO I CAN'T YOU DUMBASS!
We don't have access to the Design tool, which means any colour or design changes are going to be in the HTML - yuck, and a pain in the arse. We are also using a hacked-about CMS, which doesn't implement a lot of HTML - as in it literally strips the code when you implement it. I have no idea why, we can't change it and it is really getting on my nerves. So I literally CAN'T do fancy stuff - the code simply does not work.
Plus, when I first started working on the web stuff, Grump said to me:
"The most important thing is that this all has to be simple. We don't want to have to have someone with a complete knowledge of HTML to be able to change the site." Which is entirely fair, we're a Library not a tech company, and they got lucky with me.
So, dear Grump: I can do simple, or I can do snazzy. Pick one!
Argh. Thanks for letting me rant And I have been documenting everything, my line manager is lovely at backing me up, but the major problem is that most people don't understand the details of what we can and can't do - and so it ends up being a head-to-head between me and Grump. BAH.
Last year, I stopped doing web work after he kept criticising what I was doing - excuse me for not being able to read your damn mind! So I left him to it. Then, before Christmas, my line manager suggested I do more, just for the kudos at work. So I asked my ultimate Boss (and Grump's boss) for more, and Boss gave me my own micro project.
I was absolutely shaking on the day I had the first meeting about it - I knew Grump would be utterly critical, decide what I should do and tell me my ideas were rubbish - his were so much better and I should obviously do that! One of Grump's colleagues was in the room while I was panicking, and she apparently gave Grump a complete bawling-out - he was absolutely lovely in the meeting and didn't say a word all of last year about the site. (I gave her a very large bar of chocolate when I found out).
So he didn't say a word...until this week. I've pretty much finished the first revision of the site - content's in, pages are up etc. So I sent it to Boss and Grump (who, unfortunately, I have to involve as he's the other web person).
Boss asked for a few minor changes - I agree with all of them, so absolutely no problem. Grump, on the other hand...
- Make it look more colourful
- Can you make the design more attractive?
- There's a lot of text. Can you do something with that?
*grumblegrumblegrumble* NO I CAN'T YOU DUMBASS!
We don't have access to the Design tool, which means any colour or design changes are going to be in the HTML - yuck, and a pain in the arse. We are also using a hacked-about CMS, which doesn't implement a lot of HTML - as in it literally strips the code when you implement it. I have no idea why, we can't change it and it is really getting on my nerves. So I literally CAN'T do fancy stuff - the code simply does not work.
Plus, when I first started working on the web stuff, Grump said to me:
"The most important thing is that this all has to be simple. We don't want to have to have someone with a complete knowledge of HTML to be able to change the site." Which is entirely fair, we're a Library not a tech company, and they got lucky with me.
So, dear Grump: I can do simple, or I can do snazzy. Pick one!
Argh. Thanks for letting me rant And I have been documenting everything, my line manager is lovely at backing me up, but the major problem is that most people don't understand the details of what we can and can't do - and so it ends up being a head-to-head between me and Grump. BAH.
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