Point Lookout: a free weekly publication of Chaco Canyon Consulting
Volume 15, Issue 14;   April 8, 2015: Why We Don't Care Anymore

Why We Don't Care Anymore

by

As a consultant and coach I hear about what people hate about their jobs. Here's some of it. It might help you appreciate your job.
A laptop with password stickies

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. Go to top Top  Next issue: Overconfidence at Work  Next Issue

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This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

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Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

A white water rafting team completes its courseComing December 11: White Water Rafting as a Metaphor for Group Development
Tuckman's model of small group development, best known as "Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing," applies better to development of some groups than to others. We can use a metaphor to explore how the model applies to Storming in task-oriented work groups. Available here and by RSS on December 11.
Tuckman's stages of group developmentAnd on December 18: Subgrouping and Conway's Law
When task-oriented work groups address complex tasks, they might form subgroups to address subtasks. The structure of the subgroups and the order in which they form depend on the structure of the group's task and the sequencing of the subtasks. Available here and by RSS on December 18.

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