Are We Having Fun Yet?

The quote “Find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” is generally attributed to Harvey Mackay, but there are many similar quotes that may pre-date it. In any case, it’s been my experience that Project Management can be a truly rewarding profession, particularly if one happens to be good at it. It has also been my experience that PM can be highly frustrating, to the point of wanting to bite through twelve-penny nails, even if one happens to be good at it. I was engaged in a conversation with a friend recently, who passed along some advice his mother gave him, along the lines of “very few people ever get their dream jobs. You can either work at something you love for very little money, or something you hate for better money, but don’t expect to come into a ‘dream job.’”
I quickly recognized the Payoff Grid implications of this advice, so:

	(1)Pays Little	(2)Pays A Lot
(A) You Love Doing It	Psychologically beneficial, but not Economically	Dream job
(B) You Hate Doing It	Actually has some benefits	Psychologically taxing, but Economically beneficial

If you are experiencing Scenario A2, good for you. I’ve been there, and it’s a great place to be. And, while its opposite Scenario (B1) may appear highly distressing, there are actually some benefits that can be gleaned from it, as I discussed in a previous blog “PM Lessons from Waiting Tables.”[i] Being in this situation can teach rather valuable lessons, even if the circumstances are less-than-desirable.
Which brings us to the two Scenarios consistent with my friend’s mother’s advice, A1 and B2. PMs who engage in Scenario A1, perhaps for charitable or other, similar reasons, bring their expertise to efforts that are typically more noble than those that are more closely tied to their further monetized counterparts. Perhaps their dedication to a cause outweighs their need for renumeration, but whatever the particular circumstances, good on them.
And, finally, we arrive at Scenario B2. If you, as a PM, are being paid well, but hate going in to work, I’ve also been there, and it can be straight-up dreadful. But why does it have to be this way? Well, I’ve compiled my top three reasons why the PM gig can be difficult, and here they are, in ascending order.
3. Involvement of non-Triple Constraint “experts.” I attained my PMP® in 1993 (#1004), so I’m kind of old-school on much of the PM codex. Back then, the PMBOK Guide® had eight chapters – the first three representing the so-called Triple Constraint of Scope, Cost, and Schedule. I take a highly skeptical view of the other five. GTIM Nation knows of my disdain for the risk managers (no initial caps), and of the Communications Managers and that whole business of “engaging all stakeholders,” even those who don’t want your Project to succeed. Quality, in my view, is a subset of Scope, since contractual quality standards are almost always documented in the Scope description. And Procurement, along with Human Resources, belongs under the Asset Managers’ umbrella. Procurement (a.k.a., accounts payable) is even part of the General Ledger, so, yeah, I’m justifiably skeptical of the capacity of these other five to either survive the redundancy test, or else meaningfully contribute to bringing in your scope on-time, on-budget. I have found that dealing with their demands on your time is often a PM buzz-kill.
2. People who hold the title of “PM,” but hate its precepts. They don’t call Project Management “the accidental profession” for nothing. Sometimes people who are strong in the technical discipline involved in a project but have never attended a management class in general, or a PM one in particular, will arrive at the helm convinced that the whole Work Breakdown Structure, Earned Value or Critical Path business is for the birds. These people will make life difficult for not only the PMO Director whose portfolio includes their work, but also for the Project Controls Specialist who is unfortunate enough to be assigned to them. Cringe-inducing office environment, indeed.
1. Asset Managers who are dead-set against PM.  Think I’m exaggerating by placing these guys at Number 1? I’m not. In the early years of my PMNetwork column, The Variance Threshold, I actually had a PM, who identified himself as a U.S. Air Force officer, write to me saying that the accounting department he was working with refused to set up a chart of accounts that was aligned with his Project’s WBS. In other words, it was impossible to create an Earned Value Management approach to assessing his Project’s cost performance – he was, so to speak, flying blind. And, while other like-minded Asset Managers might not be as blatant in their anti-PM approach to conducting business, a low-level mistrust will often manifest in other ways. You see, their education informed them that the General Ledger is the natural and true source of any management information involving costs or budgets, so, when the PM-oriented usurpers arrive, these anti-PM types can become less than helpful. To be clear, I'm NOT saying that all Asset Managers are like this. But those who are can definitely become a millstone around the neck of the PM.
What can be done? I genuinely don’t know. These are the types of problems that don’t easily lend themselves to template remedies. But, if all PM gigs were fun, our employers wouldn’t need to pay us as much, now, would they?


[i] https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/79563/pm-lessons-from-waiting-tables