![A laptop with password stickies A laptop with password stickies](../images/password-stickies.png)
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:
Using the Parking Lot
- In meetings, keeping a list we call the "parking lot" is a fairly standard practice. As the
discussion unfolds, we "park" there any items that arise that aren't on the agenda, but which
we believe could be important someday soon. Here are some tips for making your parking lot process more
effective.
On Virtual Relationships
- Whether or not you work as part of a virtual team, you probably work with some people you rarely meet
face-to-face. And there are some people you've never met, and probably never will. What does it take
to maintain good working relationships with people you rarely meet?
Finding Work in Tough Times: Communications
- Finding work in tough times entails presenting yourself to many people. You'll be conversing, interviewing,
writing, presenting, and when you're finally successful, negotiating.
The Deck Chairs of the Titanic: Obvious Waste
- Among the most futile and irrelevant actions ever taken in crisis is rearranging the deck chairs of
the Titanic, which, of course, never actually happened. But in the workplace, we engage in
activities just as futile and irrelevant, often outside our awareness. Recognition is the first step
to prevention.
How to Deal with Holding Back
- When group members voluntarily restrict their contributions to group efforts, group success is threatened
and high performance becomes impossible. How can we reduce the incidence of holding back?
See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Workplace Politics for more related articles.
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And on July 10: On Delegating Accountability: I
- As the saying goes, "You can't delegate your own accountability." Despite wide knowledge of this aphorism, people try it from time to time, especially when overcome by the temptation of a high-risk decision. What can you delegate, and how can you do it? Available here and by RSS on July 10.
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