The Roger Yardley Incident
I grew up with the saying "work hard, do a good job, and you will succeed". Somehow I missed the classes on "Under-handed Business Tactics" and "How To Demoralize Your Coworkers".
Early in my tenure as an employee of Compaq Computer Corporation my job at the time was to test new business laptops that we were producing – one such product was one of the early Armada line.
At the time there existed protocol that determined how critical a problem was, and the top level problem is data loss. Data loss happens when a computer freezes and needs to be powered off to recover – thus losing any unsaved work at the time.
I had found one software application that was bundled with the unit that would hang the system with normal use. The project manager for this Armada unit was Roger Yardley.
This product was due to ship very soon and finding a data loss problem in the system caused a lot of concern. Initially, Roger had made the decision to not fix the problem for shipment and not to escalate the issue. My manager at the time felt this was an important issue so the decision was made to escalate the problem.
An after-hours meeting was held with key marketing people and Roger Yardley. After demonstrating all the problems, there was concern, but it boiled down to the fact that the product needed to ship and the application that was causing problems needed to be on the unit. Marketing approved shipping the unit. My manager and I were only doing our due diligence per the charter of our test organization to bring this problem through the appropriate channels.
I thought that was the end of that. To make a long story short; a couple of years later I took a position, which at the time was SMB (Small & Medium Business unit) under Steve Teeples. Steve is one of the best managers I ever worked for (wish I had had more of them), so I was thrilled to work with him again and bring automated testing to the group. I enjoyed the position very much until a year later when I got my review.
Steve had written a great review for me, it is one I still remember today, but the problem was that the point system that determines your raise and promotion potential was very low and contradictory to what Steve wrote. So no raise or promotion potential which is something that affects your life and career!
Well, I went into Steve’s office and said “Steve, I’m confused you wrote a great review for me but all I got out of it was a ‘Meets Expectations’”. Steve said, “John you are absolutely right, please close the door”. So I closed the door and sat down and Steve explained to me the conditions that were set down by Roger Yardley.
Roger, who was in a higher position now; and the director of the SMB unit told Steve that he could hire me, but I would NOT be allowed to attend any engineering team meetings and that no matter how good I performed my job, I could only get a “Meets Expectations” for my review. WHAT??? I was not told of these conditions when I accepted the position.
A "blackmail" deal was forced upon Steve and without my knowledge prior to accepting the position, nor any time prior to my review a year later. Apparently Roger was upset...
I’m no lawyer but this seems a bit illegal, and at least unethical and unprofessional. My only saving grace, and the reason I had found about this was, at the time of my review SMB was being dismantled. The director and Roger had already moved on to their new positions. Steve was free to change my review points to match what he had written about me.
So Roger if you are reading this, how many other people have you tried to sabotage for just doing their job because they might have made you look bad???
I know of no Compaq regulation that permits this type of behavior. And unfortunately; I've seen it done to other people as well. At the time I figured there was nothing to do about it and I would be a good employee and keep my mouth shut. Not anymore, I'm fed up. And with good reason as later articles will show.
I know there are more Rogers out there, eating away at the companies they work for like a cancer - and it is up to each and everyone to let these people know we are not going to put up with it. Well, I say enough is enough, let’s shake it up America and let these people know that we are NOT going to take it anymore!
Early in my tenure as an employee of Compaq Computer Corporation my job at the time was to test new business laptops that we were producing – one such product was one of the early Armada line.
At the time there existed protocol that determined how critical a problem was, and the top level problem is data loss. Data loss happens when a computer freezes and needs to be powered off to recover – thus losing any unsaved work at the time.
I had found one software application that was bundled with the unit that would hang the system with normal use. The project manager for this Armada unit was Roger Yardley.
This product was due to ship very soon and finding a data loss problem in the system caused a lot of concern. Initially, Roger had made the decision to not fix the problem for shipment and not to escalate the issue. My manager at the time felt this was an important issue so the decision was made to escalate the problem.
An after-hours meeting was held with key marketing people and Roger Yardley. After demonstrating all the problems, there was concern, but it boiled down to the fact that the product needed to ship and the application that was causing problems needed to be on the unit. Marketing approved shipping the unit. My manager and I were only doing our due diligence per the charter of our test organization to bring this problem through the appropriate channels.
I thought that was the end of that. To make a long story short; a couple of years later I took a position, which at the time was SMB (Small & Medium Business unit) under Steve Teeples. Steve is one of the best managers I ever worked for (wish I had had more of them), so I was thrilled to work with him again and bring automated testing to the group. I enjoyed the position very much until a year later when I got my review.
Steve had written a great review for me, it is one I still remember today, but the problem was that the point system that determines your raise and promotion potential was very low and contradictory to what Steve wrote. So no raise or promotion potential which is something that affects your life and career!
Well, I went into Steve’s office and said “Steve, I’m confused you wrote a great review for me but all I got out of it was a ‘Meets Expectations’”. Steve said, “John you are absolutely right, please close the door”. So I closed the door and sat down and Steve explained to me the conditions that were set down by Roger Yardley.
Roger, who was in a higher position now; and the director of the SMB unit told Steve that he could hire me, but I would NOT be allowed to attend any engineering team meetings and that no matter how good I performed my job, I could only get a “Meets Expectations” for my review. WHAT??? I was not told of these conditions when I accepted the position.
A "blackmail" deal was forced upon Steve and without my knowledge prior to accepting the position, nor any time prior to my review a year later. Apparently Roger was upset...
I’m no lawyer but this seems a bit illegal, and at least unethical and unprofessional. My only saving grace, and the reason I had found about this was, at the time of my review SMB was being dismantled. The director and Roger had already moved on to their new positions. Steve was free to change my review points to match what he had written about me.
So Roger if you are reading this, how many other people have you tried to sabotage for just doing their job because they might have made you look bad???
I know of no Compaq regulation that permits this type of behavior. And unfortunately; I've seen it done to other people as well. At the time I figured there was nothing to do about it and I would be a good employee and keep my mouth shut. Not anymore, I'm fed up. And with good reason as later articles will show.
I know there are more Rogers out there, eating away at the companies they work for like a cancer - and it is up to each and everyone to let these people know we are not going to put up with it. Well, I say enough is enough, let’s shake it up America and let these people know that we are NOT going to take it anymore!
