My team has been brought in for a turnaround situation at a acquisition with a few thousand employees. The company has recently lost a major revenue source and become unprofitable, and the hope is that new technology will fix everything. I've been tasked with designing the platforms that the company will use.
There are a few "big ideas" being used as constraints, and sometimes these ideas conflict with each other. Some parts of the vision are really smart, but some don't make any sense. When I ask for clarity or point out a challenge I see (and am ready with a solution), my supervisor says I'm being "negative" and either chastises me or reminds me that negativity is the primary reason for termination at this company.
For instance, my supervisor thought it would be cool to run a video call center off of tablets instead of desktop computers. I reminded him that our wifi is quite poor and the financial cost of using data plans for a hundred two-way video streams all day would be astronomical, but I was just given a look of disgust and a talking to.
The stress is getting to me. We've been sold to the employees as a messiah and I am confident based on our track record and the conditions we work in that we're going to fail. Even if I thought it was the right thing to do, I can't go over the boss' head. The CEO and I both report to the same guy. I can't be happy working in an environment where I feel my work is forced to be of poor quality or where I'm forced to be a yes man.
In general, how does one deal with a situation like this? Should I as a systems designer just nod my head when the constraints I'm given don't make sense to me? Does it seem like the issue is actually with me instead of my supervisor? What should I do?
I feel my work is forced to be of poor quality or where I'm forced to be a yes man
. In IT field, it's on those kind of situations that you end up with a lot of turn over because old people move on and new guys won't stay. – Walfrat Sep 28 '16 at 11:09