Multi-tasking, a skill that's highly admired in other firms, is forbidden at ILA. As a skilled professional, I have mastered the art of balancing multiple projects, varying deadlines, and simultaneous demands as well as keeping my cool in the process...I developed this skillset in other firms where I dealt with folks who knew that "I'll be with you with that in 5 minutes" meant that you were not being blown off, ignored, disregarded, etc. and that you will have my undivided attention as soon as I done with doing what I'm doing.
I guess that concept didn't apply to the head jackass at ILA. If he saw you working on something that wasn't directly related to him, then it was deemed an unimportant in his eyes.
This jackass was also disrespectful of the staff, what their workload was (for things that weren't his) or any other issues that they were facing. He never mastered the art of giving somebody some friggin notice when he needed something, as a result, there were a lot of last-minute requests with some bogus deadlines.
One incident, in particular, still stands out 11 months after it took place. I was informed of a very ambitious initiative for a package that the jackass wanted for a potential client. Mind you, there wasn't anybody in-house that possessed the skillset to prepare a quality package in the short timeframe that was allowed and the cheap fuck wasn't going to outsource it (the more money he spends on something, the less he has for himself). Now, I already had my set of stuff that I was working on and remember, I'm very skilled in balancing an enormous workload. With this ambitious undertaking, the number 3 guy has been tapped to work with me...quite frankly, it's the blind leading the blind but hey, you gotta roll with the punches.
The number 2 guy (who's a fucking snake but that's another story) has a blatent mistrust (or is simply dismissive of folk's capabilities) for what people can do so he wants me to help him out with something. OK...whatever because I've helped him out numerous times in the past with the task at hand.
Well...jackass comes to me to see what I am with his stuff and he see's #2's materials open on my screen. He asks me what I'm doing so I told him that #2 wanted my help with this thing. Without batting an eyelash, he screams in the middle of the office "fuck [#2]" and proceeds to yell for him. Now, #2, in order to save fave, flat out denies any knowledge of me working on his stuff...that bastard. The Jackass now has to bring #3 into the mix and yells at him for not being on my ass to work on Jackass's shit. Now, the three of them are yelling and cussing, doors are slamming, etc. Shit, at the rate things were going, I was waiting for somebody to start throwing a punch...it would've been interesting and if somebody had a videocamera, that craziness could've been psoted on YouTube.
Without getting into details about what the project involved, all I can say is that a whole bunch of people had to shitcan a Friday night of a holiday weekend to finish the damn thing. You know, it might've been cheaper to have an outside consultant to work on it considering the collective hourly rates that needed to be expended for that effort.
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There's obviously a real problem at ILA. Didn't take me but a week to figure out that creativity and sound business practice have no place in the egotistical world "jackass" has created for himself, one in which everybody else is just fodder to feed his insatiable need for attention. Unfortunately the man doesnt have a clue as to how to run a viable business. Surrounding oneself with yes men and ruling through intimidation will only get him so far and one thing it will never get him is the respect and loyalty of his staff. Ultimately someone will come along and slap his delusional butt off that high horse that floats a good 50 feet above the ground. It's a long way down.....crunch...ouch...YES!
Amen to that!!
Wow, you guys sound like you really hate that place. How long were you there? Was it really that bad? Why couldn't you give him suggestions on how to run the business?
There is a direct relationship between the size of his ego and the size of projects he gets...the bigger the project, the bigger his ego.
It was his way or no way and you way is simply wrong because that's not his way of doing things.
Don't get me wrong, he's a talented architect but he doesn't know shit about running a business or managing people.
I was there for a year and 5 months but I knew after 3 months that the place was a friggin cesspool. I only stayed as long as a did because 1) I was planning a wedding and didn't want to lose vacation time for my honeymoon by starting a new job and 2) I was buying a house and needed to show some type of job stability.
The Worst thing about ILA while i was there, was seeing the way he treated the individuals that really could not run out of there freely- People w/ work visas, student visas, or the younger individuals recent- graduates. They were treated w/ no respect at all. It was awful, it was like an animal talkign at times - its definetely not the way that a normal human being treats another, regardless of each other positions in this game call life.
Life is too short, and tomorrow is not promised for the slavery and lack of respect that goes on in there-which was one of the biggest reason why i left. There are a bunch of better places to be in, especially if you are going to be there for the most part of your day. ;) I hope he changes, since he's the leader of the company and has such a great opportunity to impact all those young people that work around him w/ knowledge but instead he chooses to talk to them like cavemans use to do. I guess that's the crazy world we live in.. but i still have hope. We all have our different opinions and this one is mines.
I think most of us that were there would have to agree with that assessment. There's more going on there than meets the eye. There are some very questionable practices and some interesting head games that would indicate something akin to a psychotic condition on the part of jackass. As bad as the "immigrants" are treated, Americans, particularly those with real, proven resumes are concerned are treated far worse. Marketing has been a favorite scapegoat for his incompetence and I know Im not the only former Director of Marketing whose commented here. There's a lack of respect for anything or anybody who can be an asset to that company provided that they are allowed to use their experience and skillset to actually make an autonomous decision that actually makes freaking sense.
Be that as it may. ILA has put themselves in a position where all their eggs are in one segment of the market. Every market has a finite life and you dont need 20/20 vision to see that their market will run out of steam within 5 years as the real estate market makes a long overdue correction. Yet they keep chasing those who could broaden their playing field for them away because they cant deal with the reality that while jackass may be a halfway decent architect, he has no sense of market trends and is not equipped to take the company to the next level of sustainment. And he cant imagine that anyone but he could possibly have something to contribute. Its really an unfortunate situation and I personally would not want to be there when that facade melts away to reveal the truth about a company that cant get out of its own way.
If and when his core market dries up, it's inevitable that a host of layoffs will take place. Ironically, I think that jackass will be fine because as long as his hide is covered, he could give two shits about what anybody else has to go through.
Well, I just got word that ILA is indeed, just as I predicted, in trouble. The market dried up and the idiots that run that place never diversified to cover their markets. Theyre down to 25 staff with almost all of the senior talent gone. They tried to open an office in Qatar and completely blew that, as well.
I also heard that the little persian fuckhead is still bad mouthing me over there. Now here's the thing: if those idiots had allowed me to do what I do, they wouldnt be in this mess. My contention has always been that they had all their egs in one basket and that that basket had a hole in the bottom...that they needed to diversify their client base and market sectors to survive past the building residential and hospitality boom. With my contacts and 30 years of know how, I easily could have gotten them into the government market, which incidently, is booming with stimulus dollars. But no, they felt my job was to take care of chief dickheads ego with respect to news clippings and that kind of BS. The persian says to this day I didnt know what I was doing. Funny, in the 2 years since I left, Ive won over $4 billion of work and have the highest hit rate in the industry and helped position this comnpany into what Cramer called one of the few sureshot stocks in this down economy. Guess Im clueless, eh?
Couldnt happen to a better tandem of heartless, incompetent pricks. I just feel badly for all those that have been laid off and continue to get layed off as their egos and shortsightness thats driving ILA into the ground.
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