Our scouting network

[Ragatino]

Good post.

Thanks Tops, I appreciate you!

Any genuine fan of the club wants nothing but the best for the lads and future success. The support the manager. Of course I'll criticise when and where I see it necessary.

However, the incessant hatred and rage filled negativity is just pathetic.

It reminds me of a time, many moons ago in my career, as a junior engineer on a project. One of the seniors, we'll call him Mr Jobsworth AKA Mr JW was one of those guys who complained about everything and spent as much if not more energy criticising and avoiding responsibility than it'd take to actually get the job done.

During the project there was a critical error in the installation which had potential to derail the whole job. Naturally it was discovered 10 mins before the close of the working week.

Mr JW, was all packed up and heading for the car park passed the unenthused admin girls, his weekly sleeve offensive in an attempt failing spectacularly as usual when the fault was found.

He immediately threw his hands up 'not my job gov!' and off he trotted. It wasn't his work stream. It wasn't mine either. However, down the line the implications were universal for all workstreams.

The rest of the crew filled out leaving 3 of us to deal with the situation. It took all weekend. We, 3, slept under the desks Friday & Saturday night getting wrapped up on Sunday around 6pm.

Heading out into the low setting Arabic sun, that rich egg yoke orange ball illuminating the dusty, sandy atmosphere was as satisfying as the first pint back at the hotel bar.

14 hrs later sat in the my first managerial meeting with the lads debriefing the Director of Project and top managers, MR JW was front and centre, kept chipping in with comments here and there as though he was part of it.

After his 4th or 5th interruption of the two guys and my break down of the whole situation, I guess it was the sleep deprivation and shortened patient, I paused my updated and turned to Mr JW and politely asked him to keep quiet as he had ducked his responsibilities and walked out on the buzzer at 5pm.

I then turned back to the senior managers at the top of the meeting table, and made it very clear, who'd resolve the situation, piling credit on my two colleagues and down playing my own role.

After the meeting Mr JW was on the war path.

Later that day, I was called to speak with the Director of Project. A former Royal Navy Commadore, a big fat man call Garry, round like a barrel, peg teeth, 80 a day smoker. One of those super posh military fellas who cuts through bs like a knife.

He thanked me for the hard work and dedication with the two other lads but was most impressed with the way I handled the meeting. Offered me a promotion to Project Manager. Basically going from the coal face to Executive suite over night.

Next day was the managers meeting where I was introduce to the team as my new post and the new updated org chart was displayed and discussed. MR JW was not not on it. By the Friday he had been let go and was on his way back to the UK.

It's a shame we don't have a Salty Old sea dog like Mad Garry to marshal the fan base.