Have seen this plenty of times too. Sure there’s lots of untapped skills and knowledge in organisations where people genuinely could step up, but there’s even more people who severely overestimate their abilities and their bravado can leave a ginormous mess which now someone else has to clean up. IT has no way of knowing which one you are based on ‘I say so’
As frustrating as it is, I understand why bigger places do this. That being said, I want to fix up something IT configured incorrectly in the first place
@tombruzzo@SituationCake The other thing is to keep in mind is that it’s not necessarily IT that is the “business owner” of the website.
Sure, IT might be responsible for keeping it online. But the main decisions about it, and the responsibility for maintaining the content, belong to a different person/team/department.
Depending on where I’ve worked, that’s been operations, content, comms/PR, and marketing.
Even in small orgs, it’s often the CEO rather than IT who has the final say.
And sometimes different parts of the website are managed by different people/teams/departments.
The second thing to be mindful of is it’s not just about whether you have the WordPress skills.
There’s often a lot of office politics in many organisations.
People quite rightly don’t enjoy feeling like their jobs or responsibilities are being undermined.
And they don’t want changes made in an area they’re ultimately responsible for without them knowing.
That’s where business processes and procedures come into play.
It might be as simple as emailing a particular person to get their sign off on you making a particular update, or notifying them afterwards.
You also need to think about what the benefits to them are of granting you this access. Perhaps it frees up their resources for more meaningful tasks?
And the third thing to be prepared for is if you get the admin privileges you want, suddenly other people might ask you to make changes as a shortcut around IT. You might want to push back against that.
If I were in your position, I’d plan out the case for:
* What the problem you want to solve is.
* Your proposed solution. That’s not just gaining access, but also the approvals or notifications around it.
* Restrictions and safeguards. You are only to have this level of privileges and make updates in situations x, y, and z. This helps you push back if someone else wants you to make other changes — I’m not authorised to do that.
* The benefits to the business, including improved productivity, or customer experience.
I’d have a chat with your boss to get them on board.
I’d find out who the business owner(s) of the website are.
I’d organise either an informal chat (maybe buy them coffee one day?) or a meeting to talk through the case with them.
And finally, I’d be prepared for the answer to be a no. That’s ultimately their call. If that’s the case, your decision is whether you stick with your current job, or find a different one that makes better use of your skills.
I know Marketing aren’t responsible for the website because that’s the team I’m in. This issue isn’t worth getting everything setup for, but I might try get access overall soon.
I think it’s that I feel hamstrung by not being able to make the change myself. I’m just bumping against the contradictions of businesses needing everything done now, but also needing everyone’s input and approval.
I’ll see if they let me in, even if it’s just to put on my own resume.
Just under 500 people according to the staff mailing list.
More the issue is we had a form that was kind of working. It has a hidden field that was filled incorrectly. The adjustments worked fine in testing but now it has been pushed to Prod it doesn’t seem to work.
I’ve inspected element on the form and the hidden field is still filled, looking unchanged.
The urgency now is we have a form of lead capture on the website that may not be working, and all I can do about it is reply to a Jira ticket.
I just want to jump in and fix the form but I know things aren’t that simple.
Have seen this plenty of times too. Sure there’s lots of untapped skills and knowledge in organisations where people genuinely could step up, but there’s even more people who severely overestimate their abilities and their bravado can leave a ginormous mess which now someone else has to clean up. IT has no way of knowing which one you are based on ‘I say so’
As frustrating as it is, I understand why bigger places do this. That being said, I want to fix up something IT configured incorrectly in the first place
@tombruzzo @SituationCake The other thing is to keep in mind is that it’s not necessarily IT that is the “business owner” of the website.
Sure, IT might be responsible for keeping it online. But the main decisions about it, and the responsibility for maintaining the content, belong to a different person/team/department.
Depending on where I’ve worked, that’s been operations, content, comms/PR, and marketing.
Even in small orgs, it’s often the CEO rather than IT who has the final say.
And sometimes different parts of the website are managed by different people/teams/departments.
The second thing to be mindful of is it’s not just about whether you have the WordPress skills.
There’s often a lot of office politics in many organisations.
People quite rightly don’t enjoy feeling like their jobs or responsibilities are being undermined.
And they don’t want changes made in an area they’re ultimately responsible for without them knowing.
That’s where business processes and procedures come into play.
It might be as simple as emailing a particular person to get their sign off on you making a particular update, or notifying them afterwards.
You also need to think about what the benefits to them are of granting you this access. Perhaps it frees up their resources for more meaningful tasks?
And the third thing to be prepared for is if you get the admin privileges you want, suddenly other people might ask you to make changes as a shortcut around IT. You might want to push back against that.
If I were in your position, I’d plan out the case for:
* What the problem you want to solve is.
* Your proposed solution. That’s not just gaining access, but also the approvals or notifications around it.
* Restrictions and safeguards. You are only to have this level of privileges and make updates in situations x, y, and z. This helps you push back if someone else wants you to make other changes — I’m not authorised to do that.
* The benefits to the business, including improved productivity, or customer experience.
I’d have a chat with your boss to get them on board.
I’d find out who the business owner(s) of the website are.
I’d organise either an informal chat (maybe buy them coffee one day?) or a meeting to talk through the case with them.
And finally, I’d be prepared for the answer to be a no. That’s ultimately their call. If that’s the case, your decision is whether you stick with your current job, or find a different one that makes better use of your skills.
I know Marketing aren’t responsible for the website because that’s the team I’m in. This issue isn’t worth getting everything setup for, but I might try get access overall soon.
I think it’s that I feel hamstrung by not being able to make the change myself. I’m just bumping against the contradictions of businesses needing everything done now, but also needing everyone’s input and approval.
I’ll see if they let me in, even if it’s just to put on my own resume.
@tombruzzo Out of curiosity, roughly how large is this organisation? Is it closer to 10 staff, 50 staff, or 1000?
Also, you mentioned something I found interesting.
You said the business wants everything done now, but also everyone needs to give their input and approval.
Is that an issue just with the website? Or is it across the board in your business?
Just under 500 people according to the staff mailing list.
More the issue is we had a form that was kind of working. It has a hidden field that was filled incorrectly. The adjustments worked fine in testing but now it has been pushed to Prod it doesn’t seem to work.
I’ve inspected element on the form and the hidden field is still filled, looking unchanged.
The urgency now is we have a form of lead capture on the website that may not be working, and all I can do about it is reply to a Jira ticket.
I just want to jump in and fix the form but I know things aren’t that simple.