…you need either considerably more or considerably less fiber in your diet.
I can only imagine the horror of the person on the other end of the line as you’re working through a problem and an automatic power flusher goes off.
Worse yet, imagine this being a conference call that someone has on speakerphone. Half of the office will experience the joy of every restroom sound.
I may just have to intentionally set off the power flusher a few times while I’m the stall next time.
Have you been given a crappy assignment?
Is your job your field’s equivalent of disassembling the drainage pipes in the building and cleaning them? Â Is it beneath your skill set?
Pride goeth before the fall.
News flash: No one’s hiring people with PhDs in operating an abacus anymore. The same may go for your skill set, too.
The key thing to remember about crappy assignments is that very few people embrace them well enough to get good at them. Â Yes, it’s true that if you get really good at a job that nobody else wants, you might be assigned to that job for a very long time. Unfortunately, if you do a mediocre or bad job at it, you may not have any job for very long.
Maybe you’ve been assigned this crappy job because people believe that you can turn things around. Do you want to prove people who believe in you wrong?
Maybe you’ve been assigned this crappy job because people expect you to fail. Do you want to prove those people right?
Embrace your inner lackey.
Find the angle that you can own and attack it.
Apparently, conventional wisdom has decided that if you don’t take action, you can’t be blamed for anything:
Sure, you’re about to hit an iceberg. However, if you try to steer the ship, and it ruptures, you’ll be at fault. If you hit the iceberg head on and your ship withstands the hit, you’ll have warded off disaster. If your ship starts going down, well, you can possibly pretend you were unaware of the problem. If you take action, you have to acknowledge the problem.
Why must departmental silos treat problems like toothaches: Because there’s a fear of going to the dentist, everyone waits until the tooth abscesses and a trip to the emergency room and an emergency extraction is needed. A little infection or cavity turned into a week-long course of top-tier antibiotics and a missing tooth.
Maybe everyone’s hoping they’ll be laid off before having to take responsibility for a problem. Â After all, being laid off assumes far less personal responsibility than possibly failing when attempting a fix.
Let’s all be powerless.
(No, this isn’t a paid advertisement, unless they decide to pay after the fact.)
Ever have one of those tasks on your computer that you feel like you could get a robot to do? I found that AutoHotkey works well for this purpose.
You can record tasks in specific windows that you have open and have them repeat the next time you need them. Â Recording tracks mouse clicks and keyboard presses and records them to a readable script file. Â You can then edit the generated script and add delays.
This sometimes proves useful when you have to set up detailed time sheets through a slow interface. Â You can record what you need, press the button, and let things go.
Obviously, automatic coffee makers with hot water supply are too challenging, so here is a step-by-step guide:
1) Pull filter basket out
2) Put a new coffee filter in the basket.
3) Open coffee packet.
4) Pour coffee in basket.
5) Put filter basket back in place.
6) Rinse out near empty carafe.
7) Put carafe back.
8) Hit green/start/brew/on button.
Obviously, automatic coffee makers with hot water supply are too challenging, so here is a step-by-step guide:
1) Pull filter basket out
2) Put a new coffee filter in the basket.
3) Open coffee packet.
4) Pour coffee in basket.
5) Put filter basket back in place.
6) Rinse out near empty carafe.
7) Put carafe back.
8) Hit green/start/brew/on button.
Different types of work gatherings have different rules.
It seems like the greatest skill that many rely on to get through their careers is creative writing.
Most jobs start with a resume, in which you may have to creatively explain how your dark periods, lack of qualifications, and employment gaps don’t make you a less desirable candidate that all the people with creative resumes.
If you’re in a place which provides a peer feedback mechanism, you may need creative writing skills to critique a coworker without completely demolishing that person.
If you’re required to write your own performance appraisal, you will need to strike the balance between accuracy and best story possible. I believe this genre is called “historical fiction”.
Finally, every day you have to respond to an email from a customer or coworker who’s out-of-line, you have to respond creatively.
Forget all the business and formal writing classes. You need well-developed creative writing skills to succeed.
Insert news headline: Large bureaucratic organization covers up misdeeds of members to protect itself from admitting that there are anything but benevolent forces within the organization.
Churches, non-profits, government organizations, and large corporations all suffer from this disease that bureaucracy brings. Â On a few occasions, the ultimate consumption of the disease is some major cover-up of criminal activity of some sort.
The sensational headlines distract from the underlying problem, by making people declare that the purpose of the organization: religious, governmental, business, etc… is inherently evil. Unfortunately, the evil is one that increasingly applies to all organizations as they get larger: The bureaucracy is a self-feeding organism.
Bureaucracies often create problems for which they cannot produce solutions. If the best solution involves tearing down parts of the bureaucracy, then the bureaucracy will do its best to defeat that solution. Consequently, the only problem that survives is a poor bandage solution that, ironically, creates more bureaucracy.
THE BEATINGS MEETINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVES
Milton Waddams in Office Space:
Nina: Now Milton, don’t be greedy, let’s pass it along and make sure everyone gets a piece.
Milton Waddams: Yeah, but last time I didn’t receive a piece. And I was told…
Nina: Just pass.
[while the cake passes Milton mutters – eventually everybody but Milton gets a piece]
Milton Waddams: [muttering] I could set the building on fire.
When you start getting your meetings bumped, your invitations dumped, and not receiving cake–is there any other conclusion than Milton’s underlying suspicion that he’s intentionally being choked off?
I understand that the time of one person at a higher level is more valuable, but one wasted hour of a higher level employee can erode hours worth of productivity. Bump people sparingly. Respect their time.
