• (cs)

    Wow - what a response!

    This is the OP. As many of you have suggested, yes, there is a bit more to the story which explains why both the PM and the MENSA boss chose to ignore the basic laws of physics but the real wtf-meat was preserved by the editors.

    First, the company that I was working for was a dynamic, multimedia paradygm-driven e-Marketing conclave, kinda like the guys at http://www.huhcorp.com. So yeah, marketing company.

    Next, the PM was either 22-23, had just started (this was her first client) and HAWT. She also had boobies.

    Finally, the MENSA boss had been with the company for about a month. In addition to the whole MENSA thing, he also really liked boobies.

    The PM had forgotten exactly WHEN she had promised the survey results to the client and was too scared to call them back to verify. I even offered to speak with them and play the stoopid tech guy role in order for her to save face, but that thought terrified her even more. I am sure that she understands the laws of physics as they relate to time travel - I just think that she was trying to find a way out of her possible mistake.

    When it got to MENSA boss, he didn't even really listen to the issue. All he heard was that his Sr. Dev was not being nice to PM-with-Boobies and this made him angry. He was also looking for a way to flex his new management muscle and decided to write me up as a way to show the other devs that he meant business - SERIOUS BUSINESS.

    To answer everyone that suggested the whole "just fake it": there were a couple of guys who worked there as developers/system admins. These guys were (and still are) ninjas. They had Mt. Dew for blood, they could code circles around anyone in their sleep and they were always working late. The boss before MENSA boss had put them on a project which involved tracking all manner of marketing data for one of our biggest clients. Because it was a MARKETING company, most of their time on this project was spent coming up with new ways to make the interface pretty (looks are everything!) and not as much time as they would have liked on optimizing the hell out of all of the formulas used to generate the metrics. As a result, they ended up putting a lot of placeholder values in the program just to have something to display (most of these were random numbers). The client saw the demo and fell in love with it. Sales loved that the client loved it and sold it to them as-is. The devs screamed that it was NOT ready and that the data coming out of the program was nothing more than random numbers and pleaded for a little more time to finish it up and make it golden. Their requests were denied. A few months later they left the company.

    So I hope that clears things up. The whole issue was a political issue which ended in MAJOR a wtf. By the time this had come around I was already looking to jump off of that sinking ship and it just so happened that I got an offer letter on the same day as this incident.

    What was even MORE wtf was my exit interview, but that is another story...

  • jack (unregistered)

    I've only read to page two of the comments, but I haven't seen anyone mention the idea that maybe they want the invitation to be sent out "today" instead of Monday? He'd need the email list, but at least that is a clear passage-of-buck, and might even be doable the same day, depending on where the email list is coming from.

    I second the "communication problem" diagnosis, but it's still completely shameful that anyone wouldn't get the point that you can't have survey results before anyone takes the survey.

  • Chris (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous Mensa-Member
    Anonymous Mensa-Member:
    Beeing a membeer of Mensa myself i can say that highly intelligent persons do stupid things too. We just do them faster!
    1. Being a member of Mensa means nothing.
    2. Stating that you are a member of Mensa proves the first rule.
  • (cs) in reply to riotnrrd
    riotnrrd:
    Next, the PM was either 22-23, had just started (this was her first client) and HAWT. She also had boobies.

    Pictures, man!

    Seriously, though, was the PM also mad at you, or just generally panicked? Did she also wise up and desert the sinking ship?

  • Franz Kafka (unregistered) in reply to FredSaw
    FredSaw:
    gwenhwyfaer:
    I always found the concept of a group of people who feel the need to demonstrate their genius-level intelligence by joining a club rather suspect.

    I always found the concept of a group of people who feel the need to demonstrate their pro-athlete-level physicality by joining a gym rather suspect.

    You don't join a gym to demonstrate athletic ability, you join one to build athletic ability or lose weight.

  • Franz Kafka (unregistered) in reply to cognac
    cognac:
    There are FOUR quarters! </picard>

    /beats cognac bloody with a copy of 1984

  • (cs) in reply to riotnrrd
    riotnrrd:
    What was even MORE wtf was my exit interview, but that is another story...

    Waiting...waiting....waiting.....

  • bo (unregistered)

    uhm, this is normal in the corporate world. actually, i used to install surveys... it should take more than 20 minutes to put in online, assuming you already have the questions to post and a distribution list. if it's taking longer than 1 hour to create a survey, then you really need to check out some easier web tools like perseus survey solutions or webmonkey. ps. stop your whining.

  • bob (unregistered) in reply to bo

    typo.. meant to say: Creating a survey shouldn't take more than 2o minutes. period.

  • Gaius Obvious (unregistered) in reply to Mike-o

    I do believe that this story is a clear example of what generally goes by the common name of "bullshit." It didn't happen in the manner in which it is being depicted.

  • asdf (unregistered)

    wtf is right. how do people like that ever become a boss. it's amazing they can figure out how to stand up.

  • Out of the box... (unregistered) in reply to Mike-o

    He was asking for the possible results that you would be measuring. Ie. what is your favorite pizza topping, the results could be pepperoni, ham, cheese...etc..

    No???

  • jimbo (unregistered) in reply to Drum D.

    Slapped with a large TROUT, WRONG, Fresh water fish are tiny, teeny compared to salt water fish -> think Bluefish, striped bass, GIANT TUNA, ...

  • Anonymous coward (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous Mensa-Member
    Anonymous Mensa-Member:
    Beeing a membeer of Mensa myself i can say that highly intelligent persons do stupid things too. We just do them faster!

    Obviously correct spelling, punctuation and captalization are not required for membership.

  • (cs)

    I have a spare flux capacitor if anyone is interested...

  • Ohnonymous (unregistered)

    So marketing is purely random BS, fueled by caffeine and boobies. More obvious than a genuine WTF.

  • Guything McThingGuy (unregistered) in reply to WIldpeaks
    WIldpeaks:
    Don't every developer have a Tardis ?

    Yeah, but they prefer to be called "Managers".

  • AdT (unregistered)

    This would have been no problem at all for the real Martin.

    The MENSA boss reminds me of what the German TV moderator Sonja Zietlow once said: She was a member of MENSA but quit soon because she had "never seen so many stupid people in a room".

  • Chris (unregistered) 
     First off it has always been my understanding that IQ basically measures a person's potential for knowledge, not how knowledgeable they are at the time, although I admit I could be completely wrong. For example, a 55 gallon drum has the potential to hold more of a given liquid than a 20 ounce bottle, however it is fully possible that a randomly selected drum could contain less of liquid than a randomly selected bottle. In this case the subject with the lower potential has the higher amount of the quantitative property. 

 Secondly, highly intelligent ? omniscient. Regardless of how intelligent a person is they are still human and thus prone to all the weaknesses that come with that. In my personal experience I have noticed three glaring examples. 

 1) Highly intelligent people tend to be poor spellers. I'll lump this in with...

 2) Highly intelligent people tend to be (or at least appear to be) uncoordinated. I believe these to have the same cause. Imagine a classic cartoon character, you can always tell when they have an idea when you see a light bulb turn on above his/her/its head. For a highly intelligent person replace the single light bulb with a Christmas tree wrapped in one or more strands of flashing lights. This onslaught of thoughts and ideas leaves little room for such things as juggling an often counter-intuitive written language or noticing that broken bit on the sidewalk. 

 Then we come to 3) Highly intelligent people tend to have difficulties communicating with so called "average" people. This can be explained simply as two people having different ways of thinking. A cheap example would be the whole "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" thing. 

 This may be the heart of the problem. This miscommunication leads to very bright students stuck in classrooms with educators who are unequipped to handle them properly. Even in the small school I went to it seemed that much more effort was made to help those who were determined to have a "learning disability" than those who were considered "gifted". Whereas the "LD" kids were taught all day every day by specially trained educators in a way that would maximize their learning the "GT" (Gifted and Talented) kids were expected to learn exactly the same way as the rest of the class, only faster and with more accuracy. The only escape was a 2-3 hour a week program that fluctuated from slightly more challenging version of standard classwork to some amazingly hippified "thinking outside the box." There was simply not enough time or funding for the wonderful teacher in the program to do what needed to be done.

 In my long winded way I'm simply saying that people should be judged individually and with the most information possible. The valedictorian may not be that bright and the kid in the corner eating paste might cure cancer.
  • justin (unregistered) in reply to Steamer2k
    Steamer2k:
    After a while, you learn not to fight the stupidity (a fight you cannot win), but just to let them learn from their own mistakes and CYA in the meantime.

    Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be like him. --Proverbs 26:24

    Answer a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes. --Proverbs 26:25

    Cover thine behind lest ye be unfairly sent to the unemployment line. --Justin 1:1

    A wise man leans more from a fool than a fool learns from a wise man. --Chang-tse (I think)

  • (cs) in reply to Franz Kafka
    Franz Kafka:
    You don't join a gym to demonstrate athletic ability, you join one to build athletic ability or lose weight.

    Now you're starting to catch on. Keep going with that thought...

  • Thomas (unregistered)

    Frankly, I question the authenticity of this story. I find it suspicious to find a human in managerial role that is unwilling or unable to comprehend the concept of time.

    That said, my response would have been something like:

    Me: Sure, I'll send those to you next Friday after the users have taken the survey. PM: Next Friday?! I promised the client that I'd have the results tomorrow! Me: Unlucky. You should not have made that promise. I can certainly give you the current results we have which would be none.

    Sometimes, you have to let people fail and tell them that it was a mistake to promise something that cannot be delivered. Too many times, developers, especially talented ones, cover the mistakes of sales or executives. Developers have to be willing to not cover their butt so they learn not to promise that which they cannot deliver.

  • Loren Pechtel (unregistered) in reply to dbs

    Being able to explain something to the boss assumes the boss is actually paying attention to what you are saying rather than simply blaming you.

  • Loren Pechtel (unregistered) in reply to amazedReader
    amazedReader:
    2) Someone was doing CYA at the programmers expense (so what is new about that). Probably the requester got confused about which Friday the survey results were promised, and was too much of a coward to step up and take the blame.

    Agreed. This is CYA.

    Captcha: gotcha

  • cm (unregistered) in reply to AdT
    AdT:
    The MENSA boss reminds me of what the German TV moderator Sonja Zietlow once said: She was a member of MENSA but quit soon because she had "never seen so many stupid people in a room".

    Whaaa, and then she hosted that 'tard-only afternoon talk show ...

  • ComputerForumUser (unregistered) in reply to FredSaw
    FredSaw:
    Franz Kafka:
    You don't join a gym to demonstrate athletic ability, you join one to build athletic ability or lose weight.
    Now you're starting to catch on. Keep going with that thought...

    The gym doesn't require you to be in the top 2% or so of the population regarding athletic ability.

  • Rich (unregistered) in reply to Abscissa
    Abscissa:
    Mike:
    Aside from resume padding, what good is MENSA, anyway? I never see them mentioned as a contributing force in any of the stuff I read about in Scientific American.

    That's because Mensa a a social club, not a research organization. I'll agree that it's not very useful though, I was in it for a couple or years until I finally decided that $50/year for a couple uninteresting (often flame-filled) newsletters and an occasional lunch gathering (with people I have nothing in common with besides a test score) just wasn't worth it.

    Same here. I think I was a member for just a few years. I also took the test when I was 14 which, if you understand how IQ is calculated, makes it easy to get a high score if you're any smarter than average. The tests also tend to only test a certain kind of smarts which it's easy to improve on if you are inclined to such puzzles. There's a lot of other kinds of intelligence.

    I'm thinking of joining again though, I live in Redneck country and it's hard to find anyone who can converse more than about football and Nascar.

    Rich

  • randompasserby (unregistered) in reply to Marc
    Marc:
    Unfortunately IQ score doesn't usually mean much.

    It's worse than that.

    Actually, 'intelligence quotient' is a number originally meant to track intellectual development of children as they are growing up. An 8-year old kid that functions as a typical 10-year old will have an IQ of 100*10/8 = 125.

    Simple enough, because children follow a well known path of development to adulthood.

    Following that definition, a 40 year old with a walker, a cadillac, a second home in Florida and in early retirement will have an IQ of 200, because that person functions as a typical 80 year-old.

  • Hans (unregistered)

    Wait, It says in the header that you posted this on Wednesday, but your story happens on Thursday... I am so confused. Is the header wrong?

  • Ty (unregistered) in reply to dbs

    There comes a point, my friend, that management is either too stupid to understand something, or the consept is too complex to explain to them. So what ends up happening is that management wants something done and has to decide weither or not they want to trust their employee's.

    I'v had instances where management despised me because I was a know-it-all and therefor, my explaining the situation to them was somehow wrong. They don't seem to understand they're PAYING me to be damn good.

    They then proceed to boss people around, and if it is infact impossible, then they start firing people for no good reason.

  • deium (unregistered)

    We had a sign at one job that said:

    We the willing are working for the ungrateful We have done so much with so little We are now qualified to do Everything with nothing

  • Michelle (unregistered)

    Okay people, don't laugh. I truly work in this kind of an environment AND the owner is certifiably MENSA. I actually told him I thought he was dumber than a stump. He proved this to be true when he didn't fire me for the insubordination. But honest to god, a person can only take so much!

  • GatesVP (unregistered)

    Clearly I'm late to the hop, but it seems pretty obvious that one of two seedy things are going down.

    1. The managers want the numbers faked.
    2. The managers want a reason to fire Martin.

    I'm leaning on #2 myself.

    TFA doesn't mention any legal action, but there definitely should have been. If Martin failed to take legal action and to receive at least 2-4 weeks of severance pay then he's no better than the bosses he's writing about.

    Stories like this break my heart, b/c I know people who have actually let this happen. If Martin failed to take legal action then he was hiding something or he has a self-esteem complex. Either way, I feel let down.

    I've worked for a shitty boss (for whom I could submit multiple entries for this site), and though he pondered laying me off, he knew that he could never fire me. If I didn't get my 2-4 weeks of pay, he would have been under the legal microscope and he simply couldn't afford that.

    In our current market, the employee holds the biggest hammer, we should remind our bosses of that.

  • Adrian (unregistered)

    Well I bet that she forgot to tell him a week before that she needed the result.so she is to blame....best option in this situation is just give her result ..she want result make it up ...then..n the jungle ..this is the way to survive... Easy to see, she was back up from the higher boss..

  • mark (unregistered) in reply to Reciprocity
    Reciprocity:
    @ Anonymous Mensa-Member "Beeing a membeer of Mensa myself ..."

    BWAHAHA!! Mensa member my ass.

    Beeing. Membeer. Classic.

    I love how everyone is pointing out the misspelling of "being" and "member," but did you ever stop to think that maybe the poor guy has a sticky 'e' key?

    Captcha: dubya (probably spells is "membeer" too)

  • (cs)

    Isn't this an ideal candidate for legal lawsuit?

    The winner is exceedingly shiningly clear.

  • s (unregistered)

    Come on, if I was him, I'd give them the exact answer they requested. What's the problem, the poll is ready, the results for thursday are available:

    Results file of poll 5XT6U Date: Fri, 19-01-2007 ----POLL RESULTS START----

    ----POLL RESULTS END----- ---POLL SUMMARY START---- Total participants: 0 Answers 'Yes' : 0 'No' : 0 'don't know': 0 (...and so on) Mean Average: NaN (division by zero) ----POLL SUMMARY END-----

  • zzo38 (unregistered)

    The boss must be a really high IQ idiot to be a member of MENSA. It is rare and I don't know how often it is. But really everyone is stupid idiots sometmes, even if you aren't.

  • David D Short (unregistered)

    Is "mensa" Spanish for "stupid"? Well, not really... only to the same degree that "eejit" is English for "stupid".

    That is to say, it is dialectal slang for such.

    --A Spanish teacher in Mensa.

  • (cs)

    I call bologna on this. For example, look at how the author has the PHB use the word "Mensa" where it doesn't fit.

    The only thing all Mensans have in common is that they're not stupid. They may sometimes do stupid things like anyone else, but when you bring their attention to it, they recognize their mistake.

    Intelligence is one of those things that universally provokes jealousy. A Mensan with people-smarts doesn't emphasize his/her membership.

    The problem in HR departments is not that intelligence is over-rated, it's that it's underrated. I would always prefer to work with a smart person than a not-so-smart person.

    Apparently there's fewer Mensa-eligible people who read TDWTF than I would have guessed.

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