
A laptop with password stickies
Here's a collection of lightly edited expressions of frustration, disdain, and disbelief about jobs today, and about how people in those jobs are managed. Some are based on specific reports that have come my way, and some are mixtures of reports from several people. Any similarity to your situation is both coincidental and unfortunate.
- Twice they've laid off my best friends. Time to go.
- Whenever layoffs happen, I get more work and no raise.
- I used to "stretch" to deliver superior performance, only to be rated "meets expectations." I thought, "What a lie," but now I realize that stretching myself was their expectation.
- The only thing I hate more than being told to undo what somebody just finished is being told to undo what I just finished.
- I take that back. I hate even more being told to do something that I know somebody will have to undo as soon as I'm finished.
- If meetings were any more mind numbing, they'd be classified as illegal drugs.
- I used to trust my boss to tell me what was really going on. I now realize that he doesn't actually know.
- I liked my old boss better than my new boss. Neither of them knows what they're doing, but my old boss at least knew that he didn't know.
- I don't know what's worse: (a) my boss making decisions about stuff he's clueless about, without consulting us; or (b) my boss asking our advice, and then not taking it. Wait, it's (a). At least with (a) he doesn't waste our time before making the wrong decision.
- Two things are If meetings were any more mind
numbing, they'd be classified as
illegal drugs.mysterious about Steve: (a) how he spends his time, because he sure doesn't do his job; and (b) how he gets away with it. - Only one way the cafeteria could be worse: if they raised the prices. Ah. They just did. Never mind.
- I stuck sticky notes on my wall with fake passwords to fool password thieves. Then IT ran a surprise inspection and wrote me up. I told them the passwords were fake, but they said no passwords on the walls, real or fake. The I in IT must stand for idiotic.
- I got used to my boss not keeping her promises, but I can't get used to her denying she ever made them.
- I have so much work that I can't focus on anything long enough to remember where I was when I had to drop it to do something more urgent.
- I used to tolerate the bad parts of my job because I loved the good parts of my job. Now I don't even know what the good parts of my job are.
- Why am I classified as a "resource?" I'm a human being.
That's all for now. I'm collecting these items, so send me yours, and when I get a batch together, I'll send them out. Top
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Related articles
More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:
Seven Ways to Get Nowhere
- Ever have the feeling that you're getting nowhere? You have the sense of movement, but you're making
no real progress towards the goal. How does this happen? What can you do about it?
Why Do Business Fads Form?
- The rise of a business fad is due to the actions of both its advocates and adopters. Understanding the
interplay between them is essential for successful resistance.
A Pain Scale for Meetings
- Most meetings could be shorter, less frequent, and more productive than they are. Part of the problem
is that we don't realize how much we do to get in our own way. If we track the incidents of dysfunctional
activity, we can use the data to spot trends and take corrective action.
Disjoint Awareness: Systematics
- Organizations use some policies and processes that can cause people in collaborations to have inaccurate
understandings of what each other is doing. Performance management, politics, and resource allocation
processes can all contribute to disjoint awareness.
Notes to Self
- Many of us jot important reminders to ourselves on sticky notes, used envelopes, scraps of paper, and
whatnot. Often we misplace these notes, or later find them too late to serve their purposes. Here's
a low-tech alternative that works better for some.
See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Workplace Politics for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
Coming February 1: The Big Power of Little Words
- Big, fancy words, like commensurate or obfuscation, tend to be more noticed than the little everyday words, like yet or best. That might be why the little words can be so much more powerful, steering conversations where their users want them to go. Available here and by RSS on February 1.
And on February 8: Kerfuffles That Seem Like Something More
- Much of what we regard as political conflict is a series of squabbles commonly called kerfuffles. They captivate us while they're underway, but after a month or two they're forgotten. Why do they happen? Why do they persist? Available here and by RSS on February 8.
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