How to handle a too-influential outside consultant

Dear Bob …

I’ve been on my job for ten years as a one-man IT department — official title is Systems Administrator.  Been great, people are good, pay is reasonable, love my job.  A year ago we were ‘blessed’ with a new management person, brought in to straighten out some operational shortcomings (almost entirely in other areas of the company, not mine).  Our general business is financial, so we have operational issues, regulatory issues, compliance issues, and frankly we did need some re-organizing before we were hit on by hungry auditors.

But our new management person, after talking with me and finding I did not share their views about numerous things (including oursourcing), apparently decided that along with everyone else here, I was incompetent and clueless. I say this because I was cut out of all strategic decision-making relating to IT — this person brought in a local IT engineering firm to do an audit of my department, but subsequently bought into a whole slew of services – hiring them to put in a new backup system (at outrageous prices), disaster recovery planning, inventory, and now appears even headed for giving them management duties. All of which happened without any input from me.

We now have a very expensive backup system that produces an end result not substantially different than what I was doing previously. We are almost no further along on our business continuity plan than we were before, and won’t get there without another whole wheelbarrow full of money.  A penetration test revealed no critical flaws in our security, the test of my new firewall was essentially perfect. All in all, we’ve spent a whole bunch of money, not accomplished much. And I still have no input into disaster recovery, business continuity, and any strategic planning.

Our CEO has the final say, but it appears to our employees that out of fear of being too far out of compliance, he has given this person total control over the company. And along with other employees, I’m frustrated and uncertain what to do. This new person seems obsessed with being in control; always has an answer for everything, even if wrong; can fly into a rage when questioned about a decision; and generally is seen as cold-hearted and ruthless. Most importantly to our staff, the person’s HR skills seem to have been gained at the Marquis de Sade School of Business.

What to do? I’m well over 50, few certs to my name, and the question I’ve tossed over recently is whether to look for a different job or try to hang on long enough to outlast this person and hope life may return to normal?

In some ways, I know I’m just whining, but sign me,

– Frustrated

Dear Frustrated …

The best course of action depends almost entirely on the quality of your relationship with the CEO.

If the two of you have a reasonably strong relationship I’d recommend handling this the straightforward way – sit down with him, point out that the consultant found no material weaknesses in IT and that the company is spending a more money on the externally supplied solutions and getting far less in return than it would get by hiring a second IT staff member. Also point out that since he (the CEO that is) has taken away your authority to make IT decisions and reassigned it to the consultant, you can’t take responsibility for the results any more. (In the it-goes-without-saying department, prepare for the meeting with a list of specifics – all the subject areas where you were reviewed and your performance was found to be satisfactory.)

One other point you might consider making: There seems to be, to me at least, a strong possibility that the consultant is double-dipping – making money through referral fees received from the outside vendors. You might suggest that the CEO exercise the audit rights that are usually written into consulting contracts for just this reason.

If you don’t have a strong relationship with the CEO, let me first just say … why don’t you? That’s a big red warning sign. But if that is the case, you have a much more difficult challenge in front of you. Your first step is to thoroughly document the specific misdeeds of the outside consultant – dates, times, and facts. Do so until you think you have a compelling case that will demonstrate the harm being done to the company.

Then schedule a formal meeting with the CEO, lay it all out, and recommend that the consultant has outlived his or her usefulness.

Or … if neither of these courses of action seem to have a good risk/reward ratio, keep your head down and just wait it out. There are some consultants who do develop permanent “positions” with their clients and whose “projects” become eternal. Usually, these are individuals whose advice and counsel have proven to be useful to the CEO, and so are engaged to be ongoing confidantes and advisors. Unless you think this will be the case with Mr. de Sade, gritting it out just might be your best course of action.

– Bob