E, Shanai System Subete Wan'ope shiteiru Watashi wo Kaiko desu ka? - Vol. 1 Ch. 4

[tsuyukihime]

The reality of the higher ups treating the people that know more than them and are actually doing the work as obstacles to overcome, rather than voices to be heard, really hits!

I wish this were exaggerated for the sake of the story, but we all know it's true, and sometimes even harsher than fiction.

there's an active example of that company ongoing in hot news right now! Starts with a B and rhymes with "rowing". you can see how that's getting them in hot water with their substandard products.

 

[krater]

sometime i wonder how moron like this have this high position?

nepotism i guess

 

[Tsukikira]

They don't need to bring her back, what they need is a different system

If she were to die tomorrow due to a random accident, they would be facing the exact same problem, without the convenient solution of just bringing back the one woman team that was able to keep up with a system that only she knew how to handle

Their mistake was that from the beginning they were too reliant on her, and they still are, so they have to change the system itself, to stop being reliant on her

This quote feels very off compared to the reality of the story. First of all, she had documentation, and no one says they cannot use the system. What they say is that they need more people. If she died of a random accident, her team would have been sad and done their best. But because she was fired, her entire team decided to protest-quit in response.
It's not a flaw in the system being too reliant on her, it likely speaks to both her wealth of experience and frankly the fact she doesn't need to slow down to learn the system in order to use it. You can't say the accident thing, because her team, her backup, frankly only walked out because of how she was treated.
It's an extremely common engineering behavior to assume that a system needs to be rewritten, and often it's because junior engineers come in and don't understand the design patterns the original engineers put in. There is probably technical debt in some form of lacking tests or the like, but the primary failure is the manager thinking that every person is equivalent in performance and needs no rampup time to learn the business space - something that tends to be untrue in Software engineering.

 

[bVork]

They don't need to bring her back, what they need is a different system

If she were to die tomorrow due to a random accident, they would be facing the exact same problem, without the convenient solution of just bringing back the one woman team that was able to keep up with a system that only she knew how to handle

Their mistake was that from the beginning they were too reliant on her, and they still are, so they have to change the system itself, to stop being reliant on her

It's not a problem of the system itself, it's a problem how how little time and expense was used to ensure that other people understood the system.

There should theoretically never be a situation where only one person understands a system, but you'd be amazed at how often it happens because the same people who think that engineers are interchangeable also do not think it is worthwhile to spend the time ensuring that they all have the same base level of knowledge.

Any successor system for is going to meet the same fate with the way this company operates, because they are treating employees as tools and not as investments, and the next system will crumble in turn as everyone responsible for implementing it ends up laid off or leaving.

When time spent doing knowledge transfer is treated as solely a negative on the balance sheet, it invariably gets neglected.

 

[kitaek27]

They don't need to bring her back, what they need is a different system

If she were to die tomorrow due to a random accident, they would be facing the exact same problem, without the convenient solution of just bringing back the one woman team that was able to keep up with a system that only she knew how to handle

Their mistake was that from the beginning they were too reliant on her, and they still are, so they have to change the system itself, to stop being reliant on her

This isn't necessarily true. Other characters have already commented that her system is actually brilliant. For example if there is a task that takes 20 people to run with a standard system, she was the one who made a system that cut that work down to 10 people... And then proceeded to run it by herself.

One engineer being able to outperform 10 engineers is a bit exaggerated but not necessarily unfounded. Difference in skill and work management can really be that massive, and if she's truly a one in a million genius, she was probably extremely undervalued and even now being underutilized at her new company. The best engineers get jobs at some of the biggest companies making 6 to even upwards of 7 figures, working on projects that completely revolutionize the world. She just needs to have her work and talent recognized by the right people.

Supposedly she left proper documentation behind, so it shouldn't take more than a few days, a couple weeks at most, for a competent engineer to adjust. No one is complaining about the system, so it probably isn't the problem.

In the end, this manga is just another wish fulfillment fantasy of another flavor. This company will slow burn to hell and the readers who have all felt being underappreciated at their work will savor every moment of it.

 

[Doomroar]

This isn't necessarily true. Other characters have already commented that her system is actually brilliant. For example if there is a task that takes 20 people to run with a standard system, she was the one who made a system that cut that work down to 10 people... And then proceeded to run it by herself.

One engineer being able to outperform 10 engineers is a bit exaggerated but not necessarily unfounded. Difference in skill and work management can really be that massive, and if she's truly a one in a million genius, she was probably extremely undervalued and even now being underutilized at her new company. The best engineers get jobs at some of the biggest companies making 6 to even upwards of 7 figures, working on projects that completely revolutionize the world. She just needs to have her work and talent recognized by the right people.

Supposedly she left proper documentation behind, so it shouldn't take more than a few days, a couple weeks at most, for a competent engineer to adjust. No one is complaining about the system, so it probably isn't the problem.

In the end, this manga is just another wish fulfillment fantasy of another flavor. This company will slow burn to hell and the readers who have all felt being underappreciated at their work will savor every moment of it.

She was extremely undervalued, but she wasn't underutilized, she was mismanaged and overworked

She left some documentation behind, but it is clear that that's not enough to train people on how to deal with her system, no one is going to badmouth her software because it is a genius application, however it is a fact that it is a tool that only she knew how to properly use, and no one else, and that's the problem, that she made a tool for a company that only she can properly use

I guarantee you they will end going to her and ask her to train the engineers on how to deal with her system, which is something they should have done from the start and never did, and that's the end game of this manga

That's the whole reason why she ended conveniently working as a private tutor out of all the things she could have done after being fired

And is a solution they only can use, because she is still alive, she is still available, and she ended up working as an educator, but the moment she declines the offer, they will end back in with a system that no one knows how to properly use

But think about it, this new asshole manager gets fired, and you are hired as his replacement.

The first manager approved the making of an in-house software, and never worried with making sure to have any backup plans, they either assumed their main dev was going to be in there for life, or that the thing she made was easily accessible, but thing were great for him, at the expense of this one genius woman bearing all the burden

The second manager then came in, and fired the main dev and half of her team, the other half is already in the process of quitting, so none of the original members with all their experience will be around by the moment you arrive, he has also failed to recognize that the in-house software is not something everyone is familiar with, so as he drops out with a golden parachute, he is leaving you with this mess, and pretty much a need to build back a new engineering section

Now it is your turn, you have a department that is failing away, everyone working there is miserable, they are mostly new hires, the department is eating resources, its level of production dropped in half and is affecting the whole company, it creates bottlenecks daily, but the team size grew up to 12 people, a size that the company can't really affort, but it is either that or halting operations entirelly

You don't find a new genius engineer to come and save you, head hunting has failed, there's no Satou 2.0, who just so happens knows exactly how to keep this running optimally.

You did found a 1 in a thousand guy, but you needed a 1 in a million guy, if you abuse the shit out of him... you can reduce the team to 8... maybe 7 people, not really a solution by anymeans

The main deus ex machina, the protagonist, is also gone, she can't be rehired, nor can she be reached to train a new team, no one else in the world actually knows the ins and outs of the in-house software, all you have left is the last minute document papers this super genius woman made, and this is what allowed the team to make it this far

What do you do? if things keep going like this the company will start acquiring lots of debt, and you can't really keep increasing the team, you just came out from the previous administration that downsized the company in order to avoid failing in the red

I am not saying you shouldn't insist on keeping the brilliant inhouse software that no one knows how to use, but..

 

[Doomroar]

If by system you mean the department organization, sure. But if you're talking about the software she wrote, no way. They don't have proper documentation and experience on this system, and your solution is to replace the whole thing? That would be a huge waste of time even if this wasn't the best in class system, a point they made clear in the first chapter.

They have some documentation, and some experience, but that's clearly not working for them, the meta solution this story is pointing towards will be to get properly trained, but that's something they wont do until the manga is near ending, and an option they only have at hand because the one that knows how things work is alive, available, and conveniently became a tutor

But If none of the team members is actually able to properly use the software they have at hand, they need to start looking into ways to become functional at long term

Turning a 4 team department into a 10 team department is not sustainable either, and if she was not around to teach people how to use her software, then... they need to change the software

Or pray to the heavens that there's another genius engineer out there

The cheapest and fastest solution is training, but that's just because luck is on their side, head hunting for talent is a gamble that doesn't guarantees success, increasing personnel is expensive inefficient and doesn't answers the core problem, they have to change their tools which i agree is not cheap, is not fast, but it will secure them a future

Her software is brilliant but no one in there knows how to handle it, hell some of the people that had some of the experience working with it, already quit, and the 2 that are left are also planning on leaving, that will leave them pretty soon with only the documentation she wrote for them last minute, you can insist on keeping the awesome software that no one knows how to use, but all that will ever do is act as a grindstone to crush new teams of engineers that will keep growing in size and expense, until they run out of funds, because they don't have the means to deal with this thing, because they never took any steps towards the scenario in which the main developer was fired

They fired the one woman that was holding everything together, but the fact that one woman was holding everything together with no backup or fail-safe options was a problem in and on itself

 

[Dennis-aka-Denji]

They have some documentation, and some experience, but that's clearly not working for them, the meta solution this story is pointing towards will be to get properly trained, but that's something they wont do until the manga is near ending, and an option they only have at hand because the one that knows how things work is alive, available, and conveniently became a tutor

But If none of the team members is actually able to properly use the software they have at hand, they need to start looking into ways to become functional at long term

Turning a 4 team department into a 10 team department is not sustainable either, and if she was not around to teach people how to use her software, then... they need to change the software

Or pray to the heavens that there's another genius engineer out there

The cheapest and fastest solution is training, but that's just because luck is on their side, head hunting for talent is a gamble that doesn't guarantees success, increasing personnel is expensive inefficient and doesn't answers the core problem, they have to change their tools which i agree is not cheap, is not fast, but it will secure them a future

Her software is brilliant but no one in there knows how to handle it, hell some of the people that had some of the experience working with it, already quit, and the 2 that are left are also planning on leaving, that will leave them pretty soon with only the documentation she wrote for them last minute, you can insist on keeping the awesome software that no one knows how to use, but all that will ever do is act as a grindstone to crush new teams of engineers that will keep growing in size and expense, until they run out of funds, because they don't have the means to deal with this thing, because they never took any steps towards the scenario in which the main developer was fired

They fired the one woman that was holding everything together, but the fact that one woman was holding everything together with no backup or fail-safe options was a problem in and on itself

Christ you wrote a novel but none of it makes sense. No, you don't throw away an entire system that's the backbone of your company just because you need 6 more people to manage it. You just hire 6 more people instead of paying an entire team for at least 2-3 years (assuming this is more than just a sysadmin tool that she built) to build a new one. Which then also need several engineers to run and no way it's as good. If this is the best in class system they say it is, 8 people managing it isn't a big deal. The thing literally makes the company run.

You're applying some silly perfectionist video game logic to a world that is all about pragmatism. I've literally used logistics software written for MS DOS up until 2 years ago, because companies don't throw away millions just to make things neat and tiddy. They adapt via the route of least resistance.

 

[Doomroar]

Christ you wrote a novel but none of it makes sense. No, you don't throw away an entire system that's the backbone of your company just because you need 6 more people to manage it. You just hire 6 more people instead of paying an entire team for at least 2-3 years (assuming this is more than just a sysadmin tool that she built) to build a new one. Which then also need several engineers to run and no way it's as good. If this is the best in class system they say it is, 8 people managing it isn't a big deal. The thing literally makes the company run.

You're applying some silly perfectionist video game logic to a world that is all about pragmatism. I've literally used logistics software written for MS DOS up until 2 years ago, because companies don't throw away millions just to make things neat and tiddy. They adapt via the route of least resistance.

They can't afford hiring more people that's part of the whole problem, they are trying to have a smaller team!

The solution can be anything, except making the team bigger!

 

[Tsukikira]

They can't afford hiring more people that's part of the whole problem, they are trying to have a smaller team!

The solution can be anything, except making the team bigger!

No, the Manager refuses to hire any more people, not that he cannot. It's a very big difference. I've seen this happen multiple times in big companies, such as Microsoft (I personally witnessed this kind of behavior for a short period of time; Within six months, the manager was replaced and more resources allocated in a reorg.)
The fact that the engineer called for it needing 8 people makes a lot of logical sense - if one person who knew everything could handle it while burning out, that means you want a rotation of at least 2-4 people to not burn out, and in the short term, they need more people because unramped up people will take twice as long to do the work.

 

[Dipuc4Life]

I am not defending the manager that fired her without making sure the company didn't had a fail-safe plan

I am blaming the old manager that allowed the entire system to get to a point in which they are all reliant in one person with no real option to recover the moment she becomes unavailable, even if she was never fired, the moment something happened to her this same thing would have happened, and something was bound to happen to her eventually with how overworked she was

This situation was bound to happen regardless of the new guy making bad decisions



Getting a new manager is something they need because the guy is a bad boss, but that doesn't address the core problem of them working with a system that is only optimized to be used by one person, and that no one else knows how to manage to the point that the department becomes a resource hog

Whoever comes in new will have to face the same problem of a system that was not made thinking about other engineers using it, they would have to go and hire her as an instructor, to teach a new engineer group how to deal with her code, which is something they should have done years, and years, and years ago, at the moment of development

So they are lucky she is alive, and coincidentally working as a programing teacher, and this is probably how the company is gonna save it self

But if she had never been fired, and had died yesterday, this exact thing would been happening to them, this is an old hole they dug themselves in, is the reason why she was overworked, and would have happened eventually even without the new asshole manager

Oh I'm blaming BOTH of the managers here. The old manager should have put things in place to succeed the one man show and the new manager should properly assess his new environment (to see the flaws and put things in place to succeed the one man show) before firing people on sight. They are both EQUALLY BAD at this manager shit. I've been a manager in the past, in IT no less, so I've had to learn this the hard way. Fortunately for me common sense allowed me to see the problems BEFORE something bad happened.

 

[papergeneral]

The author's depiction feels accurate and logical for both side of the perspective. There are positions that require a niche but highly complex skill set, which would be worth much more than four people. However, there are also positions meant to be filled by the average workforce. A good production is meant to have proficient people in their right positions. People similar to the MC do exist; you can think of full-stack developers or small studios making software/games that are way better than those from companies ten times their size. Those people do seems to adopt a different lifestyle in order to achieve things the average workforce cannot, and the MC cosplaying is a reference to it, although it's really just a plot device in this manga.
You see, most people wouldn't agree a person can outperform a group of 4, or even more, it's would seems idealistic, and that is exactly what the manager is thinking, although the manga doing the manga thing, that is to create drama, i would bet an average person would think similarly to the manager when money is involved, without the drama of course.

 

[jonsmth]

They can't afford hiring more people that's part of the whole problem, they are trying to have a smaller team!

The solution can be anything, except making the team bigger!

You're not gonna have a smaller team by having a new system. You still need a team to reinvent the wheel and match the amount of effort that went into developing the current system (because you don't want to end up with an inferior system). In the meantime, the company's service is paused because you would rather allocate the effort in preparing a new system. You could try minimize the downtime by hiring more engineers. Also, the development of new software means you have to have QA/testers, so more people on the payroll. You have to be absolutely pinching pennies if you don't have dedicated professional QA.

Your suggested solution will not prevent you from hiring more people. It's about as wasteful as digging a hole and filling it back in.

 

[Saya2879]

honestly, I find the chapters revolving around her old work place falling apart FAR more interesting than what she's doing right now, or her stupid consultant/teaching agency.
The problem with these revenge stories such as this, is that the revenge is the meat of the meal, but we're forced to have a lot of vegetables before we get back to the meat - and they're just not very good, being dry and lacking anything interesting... at least when compared to the meat.

They will be able to speak about other workplace problems with this troubled devs school. It can become the meat

 

[Saya2879]

You're not gonna have a smaller team by having a new system. You still need a team to reinvent the wheel and match the amount of effort that went into developing the current system (because you don't want to end up with an inferior system). In the meantime, the company's service is paused because you would rather allocate the effort in preparing a new system. You could try minimize the downtime by hiring more engineers. Also, the development of new software means you have to have QA/testers, so more people on the payroll. You have to be absolutely pinching pennies if you don't have dedicated professional QA.

Your suggested solution will not prevent you from hiring more people. It's about as wasteful as digging a hole and filling it back in.

Yup. It can take years and several different teams to prepare and migrate to a new system

 

[wallsg]

That will happen when the phase out COBOL.

(I haven't written any since college in the early 1980s so I had to look up how to do it again. I can't make the spaces before the DISPLAY and STOP statements show up here for some reason.)

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. REPLY.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
DISPLAY 'YOU ARE CORRECT, SIR.'.
STOP RUN.

 

[Dragonshiny7]

sometime i wonder how moron like this have this high position?

Sucking up to the bosses and giving their workloads to the people below them. It happens in far too many businesses to the point that it becomes concerning

 

[VladDracul2]

They don't need to bring her back, what they need is a different system

If she were to die tomorrow due to a random accident, they would be facing the exact same problem, without the convenient solution of just bringing back the one woman team that was able to keep up with a system that only she knew how to handle

Their mistake was that from the beginning they were too reliant on her, and they still are, so they have to change the system itself, to stop being reliant on her

Now that's a long-winded way of saying that the company had a low bus-factor.

 

[TNT261]

Exec: ”it’s just a one man job. Y’all are whiny bitches”

Employee: I'm working overtime every day and starting to see stars and haven't eaten in two weeks. Please hire more staff.
Executives: Skill issue.

 

[TNT261]

They don't need to bring her back, what they need is a different system

If she were to die tomorrow due to a random accident, they would be facing the exact same problem, without the convenient solution of just bringing back the one woman team that was able to keep up with a system that only she knew how to handle

Their mistake was that from the beginning they were too reliant on her, and they still are, so they have to change the system itself, to stop being reliant on her

I don't think so. The only fundamental problem is that higher ups don't understand the actual workload related to the system they need for the company to continue running. They were too reliant on one person, but that's only because the higher ups wouldn't expand the team like needed and that one person kept all their jobs afloat and allowed them to coast with trash execs. The system itself is fine. I mean they can try improving it. But they really just need 10 more employees to run it on the day to day. That's not... bad (AFAIK). Bad executives just ignore the importance of human resource and want to cut all costs.