Project Whiplash

Anonymous

May 9,2022 at 4:34PM UTC

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Project Whiplash

I am a manager working for an organization that is constantly chasing after new things. The owners of the company, along with senior leadership, often create new areas of focus, which trickle down to new tasks/projects, and we consistently have to divert focus and resources from one task to another. This has created a trail of much needed, valuable, worthy, partially completed projects and efforts that get left behind in favor of the next objective. I also report to someone who is overly team-oriented, and regularly agrees to provide resources (aka, me and other coworkers at my level) towards objectives that are well outside the scope of our area of responsibility. (I’m all about being a team player, but I see this lack of boundaries for the negative impact it has on our workload, because I’m at a more tangible level than she is as a SVP.)

Staffing is lean and there is a fundamental lack of administrative support - we are in an environment where there are a ton of ‘chefs’ but no one to handle food prep, so to speak. Projects have been in process for - literally - years without reaching a conclusion because of it.

To be clear, I’m not frustrated by the constant change in priorities, or by a need to do something administrative - I’m not above doing anything. I’m incredibly frustrated by the time I’ve invested in things that never materialize or come to an end because we’re always being directed to something else, and there are no resources to go back (or stay with) the open tasks.

Is this the norm? Do others live in a world of never-finished tasks? How do you get past the frustration of never producing that which you’ve set out to do?

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AnonymousMay 9,2022 at 8:53PM UTC
It's called shiny object syndrome... not sure if that helps!
AnonymousJune 1,2022 at 5:03PM UTC
Out of curiosity, have you talked with your supervisor about this? This seems like a huge waste of resources - and as a product person, this would frustrate me right out the door. I do what I do because I love seeing the things I made getting used; even with competing or shifting priorities we make it happen. I've not experienced this severity of project shift before and it seems unusual to me. Start with a conversation and see if they will give you any insight into why things change so frequently.
AlexisJune 1,2022 at 10:45PM UTC
Are there any project management resources... software, whiteboards efforts, timeliness, etc.. in place to measure key metrics?
This could be a way to begin a conversation with your manager and/or team to understand how to bring these projects to completion. Hope this helps !
AmyJune 1,2022 at 11:25PM UTC
Like stated below "shiny object syndrome". They want to do everything and in the process many things get dropped. I experienced this a lot in a previous job. Usually small companies with not enough staff and an overeager boss who does not know how to say no to anything. The good is you learn how to do a lot of things, the bad is things get dropped and remain on the ground, pushed under a rug and forgotten about. The really bad is it is frustrating in ways that won't get solved. I found the major thing was to tell the boss what was going on. They never seemed to remember or care, but I kept going till I could get to another job that did not do that. Millions of projects may be normal for some companies but not finishing jobs/tasks is not a good sign for longevity.