So, 8 months ago we hired a new person to replace me, since I was quitting. Part of the reason that I was quitting was because I had been hired to do development work, and instead, had spent 3 years accumulating all the crap that no one else wanted to do - so I was by default the customer support person/DBA/Network Admin/Configuration management person/Operations person. It was challenging, I was overworked, but I learned a lot. The problem was that I *really* wanted to do development, and although management kept telling me "sure, you can do that" - no one else would take on the work that I already had on my plate.
So, I was leaving, they hired a new person to do *everything* that I was doing. Then they said "hey since we hired someone, you can do development now" - so I agreed to stay.
8 months later - the guy we hired is doing support. And a little bit of operations. Not all of it, not even most of it. No DBA work, no config management work, very little network admin work.
And he's constantly whining to me about how overworked he is, and how he's ONLY going to do support from now on, because "that's what he was hired to do".
I feel his pain - the job really does need more than one person. But at the same time, I feel like saying "Suck it up, I did it for 3 years, it's not THAT hard".
Of course, the stuff he *doesn't* do, still ends up on my plate...so I have a vested interest in giving him more work to do :) But at the same time, I do'nt want to overload him so that he runs away - he's been talking for the last month about how frustrated he is, and how he will just run away when he hits his limit.
What do I do? It's getting to the point where I'm almost afraid to ask him to do anything for fear that he'll break. This, of course, doesn't preclude others from asking ME to do the work.
Help! opinions? thoughts? hugs?
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