Awakening, 2nd edition by Ray N. Kuili Read Free Book Online

bringing me your stuff without verifying it first?”
    “But Paul, this isn’t hopeless—”
    “Isn’t hopeless?! Who said I need something that ‘isn’t hopeless?’ Leave ‘isn’t hopeless’ for your girlfriend , or your wife , or whoever you’ve got! I need cr isp, I need bulletproof, I need excellent! That’s what I need . That’s what this project needs. And not the kind of ‘isn’t hopeless ’ crap you’ve been bringing to me! You show up with something like this again and you better start looking for a new job. Is that clear?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    Paul gloomily watched the door closing. What an idiot! And they ’re all like this. Out of nearly two hundred people , no more than thirty are worthy of something. It’d be so nice to get rid of those mediocrities, keep just the core team of trusted pros and hire some new blood. But no. You have to play this stupid game of respecting the company’s past. You have to think about P-E-O-P-L-E. Never mind that the last time these people had used their brains was at their college finals. And even that was highly questionable.
    The phone rang demandingly. Paul gave it a heavy look. Who the hell is that now?
    “Yes.”
    “Paul?”
    “Steve . . . What’s up?”
    “I see that you’re in a great mood. Again.”
    “I’m good.”
    “Yes, I can hear that. Listen, stop by my office now, will you? We need to talk.”
    Having stepped into his manager’s office, Paul plunged into the soft , spacious armchair that only a few visitors had the courage to try out , and sourly stared at the ceiling.
    “What is it now?” enquir ed Steve, watching this habitual pantomime.
    “Same as usual.”
    “Let me guess. Your people?”
    “Bingo.”
    “You’re once again not satisfied with their performance.”
    “Can you drop your HR speak for a moment? What’s there to be satisfied with? They suck! They don’t think. A good half of them can’t think! Why did you guys have to give me this bunch?”
    “Do you realize that you’re talking about the company’s best engineers?”
    Paul didn’t grace this question with any response beyond rolling his eyes and sinking lower into the armchair.
    “When they . . . when we hired you, you were told explicitly that the majority of your team would come from inside. Correct?”
    “Yes. So?”
    “So deal with it. You’ve hired almost twenty people yourself—that should do it.”
    “I should’ve hired the entire team.”
    Steve sighed.
    “Like it or not, but this is the best you can get. Deal with it or deal with the fact that somebody else will take over. Actually , that’s why I wanted to talk to you.”
    Paul straightened up.
    “Ah, not that again. You can’t have someone else running my thing.”
    “We can and we will, if we decide to do so. And thi s time it would be final. Everybody understands that this is your project, but it doesn’t mean that the entire org should report to you.”
    “But why?”
    “Why? Are you serious? It can’t go on like this forever. We hired you because we thought you were the best one out there to take on this project.”
    “And you were damn right.”
    “Yes, we were. You’ve been doing what you were hired to do. You get the job done. But at what cost ? People gossip about your legendary review meetings. Your group’s employee satisfaction is down to the floor. Fights are going on constantly about everything. Nobody’s happy. And above all, you are not happy. You’ve done three re-orgs to date, shuffled and reshuffled your people, but you ’re still not happy! Just look at you, just listen to you . . . You have more power than any typical manager in your situation has ever had and you’re still not happy.”
    “You know that I like to exaggerate a bit.”
    “But I don’t. We gave you a seasoned manager last year. You fought this move like a cat. You didn’t let the poor guy work . You didn’t let him breathe. Everybody still