• Dan (unregistered)

    So Peter is the Smoke Monster then? I guess his ultimate plan is to kill Jacob.

  • John (unregistered)

    Yeah, I also don't this story could happen. I think there would be too much benefit in Peter's case to just take credit for a good hire and be done with it.

  • phpdevguy (unregistered) in reply to sammy baby

    true. the moral of the story. always CYA. :P

  • (cs) in reply to Aaron
    Aaron:
    Too bad, because I was enjoying most of your posts thus far.

    Protip: The Omniscient Narrator literary device is most effective when the narrator is established as reliable and unbiased. Otherwise, tell the story from the real POV and don't try to cement fantasies as fact.

    Meh, you'll enjoy future ones. They can't all be winners.

    Also: you apparently don't know what the term "omniscient narrator" means, since that wasn't the device in use. Had it been, you would have known more about Bobbie, instead of only knowing what Peter thought or did. That's what omniscient means.

    //It's third person limited.

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    I spent way too long trying to figure out why this guy was still using a Newton PDA, and why its docking cradle was making clacking noises.

    Whew, I thought I was the only one.

  • Peter (unregistered) in reply to computerquip
    computerquip:
    How is she so much different of a person than what she described in the article and the comment?
    I have absolutely no idea what this sentence is trying to say.

    P.S. I'm not that Peter.

  • Stark (unregistered)

    Yay! We can all feel better about ourselves and confident in that our bosses are all screwing us out of jealousy... yay!

    Captcha: Sino, "I Sin" in Spanish.

  • Moe Ronic (unregistered)

    He didn't have a Newton PDA. He had a cradle, with the baby of a Newton PDA. It was clacking because he was rocking the Newtonbaby to sleep.

    CAPTCHA: ratis

  • (cs) in reply to Remy Porter
    Remy Porter:
    Also: you apparently don't know what the term "omniscient narrator" means, since that wasn't the device in use. Had it been, you would have known more about Bobbie, instead of only knowing what Peter thought or did.
    So you discarded the internal narrative provided by the submitter, and substituted an entirely made-up perspective in its place?

    Brillant.

  • Sydney (unregistered)

    I really don't like these entries that are obviously spun from whole cloth. Anybody can write an clichéd, sensationalized short story and post it online. I, however, do not want fiction. I don't read the featured articles merely to be entertained. Rather, I look to them for (what should be) true stories that I can think critically about and learn from. I do not enjoy the over-the-top characterization. All the embellishments just get in the way, and I'm left wondering how much if any of this actually played out in real life. In the end I've gotten nothing out of it.

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    So you discarded the internal narrative provided by the submitter, and substituted an entirely made-up perspective in its place?

    Brillant.

    The submitter didn't provide an "internal" narrative, just a description of events that occurred, with a little info about why she took the job and why she stuck it out as long as she did.

    But hey, good guess, though. Keep trying.

  • (cs)

    Worst. TDWTF. Article. Ever.

    Except perhaps that thedailywth.com April Fool.

  • AnonymousToad (unregistered)

    This reads like bad fanfiction. Somebody, somewhere, is masturbating to this story.

  • wally (unregistered)

    This looks like a good illustration of the Peter principle.

  • Kay (unregistered)

    Rein in your writing just a little, please?

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Sydney
    Sydney:
    In the end I've gotten nothing out of it.

    You got exactly what you paid for...

  • EmperorOfCanada (unregistered)

    It was an ISO 9000 company that was chock a block full of "Peters" for me. Literally around a 5 to 1 ratio of testers to programmers. The testers/QA did not use any automation, just fiddling followed by a ton of paperwork.

  • EmperorOfCanada (unregistered) in reply to Sydney

    The moral of this story is to hunt down and eliminate the Peters and celebrate and retain the Bobbies. This could be your organization. I suspect that if you aren't careful that any company with more than about 3 employees can hide a Peter. With 50 you almost certainly have a Peter and he probably runs your legacy Novell network. Even worse you probably had a dozen Bobbies over the years; and lost them all.

  • foxyshadis (unregistered) in reply to wally
    wally:
    This looks like a good illustration of the Peter principle.
    TDWTF lemons? Alex as the tentacle rapist, and Jake Vinson as the gimp? You may have a winner there.
  • (cs) in reply to IT Girl
    IT Girl:
    Here's the real WTF:

    "When Bobbie's first status report arrived in his inbox, he deleted it, unread. A few days later, he sent her a nasty note complaining that she hadn't turned it in on time, and BCCed Jacob. She sent again."

    If Bobbie was so brilliant, why would she not have had the sense to send messages to Peter with a Read Receipt on them? Don't even try to tell me that you didn't get my email.

    Darling, leave office politics to those with some talent for it.

    You don't request a read receipt - that's far too aggressive. What you do is respond (without ccing anyone - also aggressive) saying 'Sorry, definitely sent it, do you want to check again?' Then if he tries to bluff it out, you raise a ticket with tech support for random missing emails. Either you get them producing the 'missing' email, or you get carte blanche to claim that you sent any email you like, and it disappeared into the same oblivion as the status report.

    My advice to you, though, is to avoid games like that. You're clearly too nice for it. Instead, simply insist on being treated politely and reasonably. Anyone can carry that off.

    Always remember that the manager is not your teacher at school. If he wants something, he needs to ask politely. He is merely your co-worker who organises; not your slave-driver. It's good for the soul to tell your boss 'no' fairly regularly.

  • Contra (unregistered)

    Was Peter's last name File?

  • iToad (unregistered) in reply to EmperorOfCanada
    EmperorOfCanada:
    The moral of this story is to hunt down and eliminate the Peters and celebrate and retain the Bobbies. This could be your organization. I suspect that if you aren't careful that any company with more than about 3 employees can hide a Peter. With 50 you almost certainly have a Peter and he probably runs your legacy Novell network. Even worse you probably had a dozen Bobbies over the years; and lost them all.

    As a rule, good managers tend to hire Bobbies. Bad managers tend to hire Paula Beans, because they are not a potential threat to their positions.

  • oldami (unregistered) in reply to TheRealMe
    TheRealMe:
    What I find interesting is that even though the article is obviously quite fictional, enough real-life anecdotes have come this way to suggest that the story has grains of truth in it.

    PS: for those of you telling us what your captchas are, you DO realize anyone programming a spambot would insert those into its dictionary, defeating the purpose of a captcha?

    And how many CAPTCHA systems allow more than one try? Do you really think spammers use dictionary attacks to crack a CAPTCHA? It would never work, due to the time required, if nothing else.

    What they do is hire third world losers to sit at a PC all day and pay them .0001 USD per CAPTCHA solved.

  • Pedant (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous Hero
    Anonymous Hero:
    Iie:
    The Daily What The Fiction

    Yeah. So this is a real story in what sense?

    An ironic oxymoron....

  • Jimbo (unregistered) in reply to IT Girl
    IT Girl:
    Here's the real WTF:

    "When Bobbie's first status report arrived in his inbox, he deleted it, unread. A few days later, he sent her a nasty note complaining that she hadn't turned it in on time, and BCCed Jacob. She sent again."

    If Bobbie was so brilliant, why would she not have had the sense to send messages to Peter with a Read Receipt on them? Don't even try to tell me that you didn't get my email.

    This is why I rarely empty my 'sent items'.....

    When people say something was never sent (especially when they decide to try to humiliate by copying in bosses) I go to sent items and attach my original reply with an apology that they missed it.... Works the best when the accusation of not having completed it on time is particularly aggressive.

    For the record, I agree this story sounds a little too made up - but if you don't like it people, fuck off and go somewhere else. You choose to come here and read articles, and if you haven't worked out by now that a LOT of artistic licence is used in almost ALL the stories you must be a lot less intelligent than you seem to think. You do have the freedom not to read articles if they upset you!

    (I'm not as dumb as YOU look)

  • neveralull (unregistered)

    I've been both an s/w engineer and a manager, and believe me, the toughest thing about management is finding any employee who can code their way out of a paper bag, and do the assigned work. Peter in this story has no credibility for me.

  • Moe (unregistered) in reply to Jimbo
    Jimbo:
    For the record, I agree this story sounds a little too made up - but if you don't like it people, fuck off and go somewhere else. You choose to come here and read articles, and if you haven't worked out by now that a LOT of artistic licence is used in almost ALL the stories you must be a lot less intelligent than you seem to think. You do have the freedom not to read articles if they upset you!

    (I'm not as dumb as YOU look)

    What you're saying is just stupid. We know these stories are embellished (not that we have to like it), but the fact that so many people are commenting on it today must mean that there is something tangibly different about the way today's post was written compared to normal. With enough complaints you'd think whoever runs the site would notice and not do the same thing in the future. (I'm completely aware that this is just wishful thinking.)

    By the way, if you happen to know of a site that has similar content to this one but without all the fluff, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

  • Jimbo (unregistered) in reply to Moe
    Moe:
    Jimbo:
    For the record, I agree this story sounds a little too made up - but if you don't like it people, fuck off and go somewhere else. You choose to come here and read articles, and if you haven't worked out by now that a LOT of artistic licence is used in almost ALL the stories you must be a lot less intelligent than you seem to think. You do have the freedom not to read articles if they upset you!

    (I'm not as dumb as YOU look)

    What you're saying is just stupid. We know these stories are embellished (not that we have to like it), but the fact that so many people are commenting on it today must mean that there is something tangibly different about the way today's post was written compared to normal. With enough complaints you'd think whoever runs the site would notice and not do the same thing in the future. (I'm completely aware that this is just wishful thinking.)

    By the way, if you happen to know of a site that has similar content to this one but without all the fluff, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

    Who's Stupid?

    YOU made the choice to come here. YOU make the choice to read the article. YOU make the choice whether to return if you don't like it. Given that similar complaints seem to consistently resurface, I'd say it's clear that whoever runs the site doesn't listen. Vote with your feet I say. Instead of visiting daily, come back every two or 3 days - you can see whether the articles are getting better, and whoever runs the site should notice a change in traffic patterns if lots of people are getting upset - if things don't improve, decrease the frequency of your visits again.

    Complaining is almost always pointless. People don't take complaints seriously - as is quite evident here...

  • So sad (unregistered)

    I feel sorry for Bobbie and can't believe how people treat one another sometimes. This manager would rather be lazy and avoid learning the skills he needs to be useful to this company. You know if he would have praised Bobbie's work and supported her instead of fearing her they both would have had learned and improved things for this company. Instead he is still a lazy fool in charge of the operations he so poorly lords over for high wage this man does not earn or deserve. Bobbi on the other hand took her resume up a couple of notches in a years time and improved the system dramatically. Shame on this guys managers for not noticing the facts and giving Bobbie a huge raise and her manager's job. Kudos to Bobbie for stepping up and teaching those fools what a real professional is all about.

  • Dylan (unregistered) in reply to Remy Porter
    Remy Porter:
    Also: you apparently don't know what the term "omniscient narrator" means, since that wasn't the device in use. Had it been, you would have known more about Bobbie, instead of only knowing what Peter thought or did. That's what omniscient means.

    //It's third person limited.

    The story itself may be told as third person limited, but all the information about what Peter is thinking and doing in private is based on having an omniscient narrator, because Peter didn't tell the writer, and it's based on a true story. Omniscient is about what the narrator knows, not says, and in this story the narrator knows anything he cares to by virtue of completely making it up.

  • (cs) in reply to Jimbo
    Jimbo:
    For the record, I agree this story sounds a little too made up - but if you don't like it people, fuck off and go somewhere else. You choose to come here and read articles, and if you haven't worked out by now that a LOT of artistic licence is used in almost ALL the stories you must be a lot less intelligent than you seem to think.
    Troll: -1
  • bla (unregistered) in reply to AnonymousToad
    AnonymousToad:
    This reads like bad fanfiction. Somebody, somewhere, is masturbating to this story.

    That would be me

  • mike (unregistered)

    The real WTF is that Peter and Bobbie were playing football in the house, and ended up hitting Marcia in the nose.

  • ClaudeSuck.de (unregistered) in reply to usitas
    usitas:
    I didn't have time to read the comments, but that story is clearly made up.

    I didn't have time to read the story but hese comments are really made up.

  • Rhys (unregistered)

    This story is ridiculous. How is this ok?

    Are you encouraging people to band together and protect their incompetence? I've lost a bit of faith in thedailywtf today :-(

  • ClaudeSuck.de (unregistered) in reply to Stark
    Stark:
    Yay! We can all feel better about ourselves and confident in that our bosses are all screwing us out of jealousy... yay!

    Captcha: Sino, "I Sin" in Spanish.

    iSin, of course

  • ClaudeSuck.de (unregistered) in reply to Sydney
    Sydney:
    I really don't like these entries that are obviously spun from whole cloth. Anybody can write an clichéd, sensationalized short story and post it online. I, however, do not want fiction. I don't read the featured articles merely to be entertained. Rather, I look to them for (what should be) true stories that I can think critically about and learn from. I do not enjoy the over-the-top characterization. All the embellishments just get in the way, and I'm left wondering how much if any of this actually played out in real life. In the end I've gotten nothing out of it.

    If you don't know that this is real life, embellished or not, narrated from somebody who wouldn't tell the story in this way, or not, it still is the way how many "managers" work, and that for different reasons. Be it, that they want to have a homogeneous group, be it because they are afraid of losing their face or whatever. I have seen this in several places and, as was already mentioned in another post, not only in IT. What you can learn from it is that one day you may be confronted with such a manager and you might appreciate to know his way of thinking and acting.

  • The Wanderer (unregistered) in reply to Moe
    Moe:
    By the way, if you happen to know of a site that has similar content to this one but without all the fluff, I'd be there in a heartbeat.
    Possibly Sharky's Blog, AKA the Shark Tank?

    I'm not sure what counts as "fluff", but although there is (or at least was) a trollish comment-poster there known as F L U F, the overall quality of the content did seem to be fairly high last time I was following the site.

  • Steve H. (unregistered) in reply to neveralull
    neveralull:
    I've been both an s/w engineer and a manager, and believe me, the toughest thing about management is finding any employee who can code their way out of a paper bag, and do the assigned work. Peter in this story has no credibility for me.

    So.... How exactly DO you code your way out of a paper bag?

  • (cs) in reply to mike
    mike:
    The real WTF is that Peter and Bobbie were playing football in the house, and ended up hitting Marcia in the nose.

    Best response yet.

    I'm still trying to figure out how to wedge in an "embedded systems" comment.

  • PinkyAndTheBrainFan187 (unregistered)

    I can't believe how many commenters are saying that this is far-fetched. I suspect they have never worked for anyone in this, or any, industry. I think Alex should publish the original submissions..I'm sure you would all eventually crumble, break down in tears and ask him to hide them away from you again as the boredom rent a hole through your heart. Read the forums for a sample of what I'm sure Alex et al. have to put up with.

  • (cs) in reply to Steve H.
    Steve H.:
    So.... How exactly DO you code your way out of a paper bag?
    It's not pretty. You have to break encapsulation.
  • DJWP (unregistered)

    I'm not sure I understand what Peter was trying to do: Was he trying to save his own job by torturing the new hire or was he trying to "save" Bobbie from a bad position?

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    Steve H.:
    So.... How exactly DO you code your way out of a paper bag?
    It's not pretty. You have to break encapsulation.
    Isn't that what exceptions are for?
  • Logician (unregistered)

    This story really proves that (at least) 10% of managers are psychopats. How the heck can you treat an employee this way, regardless of why? Sure, Peter has a point. It sucks to train someone, just to see them leave. But you can really destroy someone's life if you treat them like that, work is so important to most of us, we wanna feel we're doing something good at work. Real scary story.

    "Male Bobbie"

  • dalin (unregistered)

    Sounds like Peter could be a sexist asshole.

  • z f k (unregistered) in reply to Krischan
    Krischan:
    Dear IT Girl, have you already heard of mail-programs that allow you to decide for each message if a "Read Receipt" should be sent back? If not: just google for them.
    Well, actually here the webmail (MS office outlook web access), if used with firefox, doesn't have the RR feature (it's the limited interface).

    CYA

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    Steve H.:
    So.... How exactly DO you code your way out of a paper bag?
    It's not pretty. You have to break encapsulation.
    Sometimes that is needed.

    However, most paper bags already provide access to the encapsulated space from the outside. By careful handling, the stored items are fairly freely accessible. In fact, through correct positioning of the container within the system, the contents can be streamed either in or out with relative ease. Simultaneous flows tend to require certain amounts of trickery.

  • Erik (unregistered) in reply to Condor

    Do you really not realize that Peter is the "WTF" in this story? He hires a developer who handles things she's not trained for, and does it well.

    Then, because he doesn't want to look bad, he tries to get her fired, or at least get her bad reviews.

    If you're a "peter" do your employees a favor, and quit.

  • Beep (unregistered)

    Wow, I'd like to shake Peter's hand and buy him a beer!

    Peter received a CV for a brilliant and over-qualified female developer. One look and he knew that she would be totally wasted working under him, in fact she could easily do his job, and still be bored!. Peter could see that Bobbie was to bright eyed and naive to pass up the job offer, and he knew that the company would stick this budding talent into a dead-end job which would slowly grind her down into another broken soul with no ambition and a CV that would lead her nowhere - just like himself and his fellow workmates.

    Peter formed a diabolical plan to save Bobbie from her own bad choice of workplaces. He decided to assign her to multiple projects that were considered far too hard for the other wash-outs he worked with, and at the same time to professionally abuse her to encourage her to quit. His carefully judged plan of pushing her to succeed, and then demonstrating that she would be treated badly if she stayed worked. She eventually left the company with glowing references, and a much less rose colored view of corporate life.

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