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The Work Thread

not in a preventive way, no. no one wants to pay for that up front, at least no one in the small business size we're working with. they can't justify the up front cost against down the road costs + the added layer of security.

the places that are large enough to do that also have their own helpdesk department that we do not work with, so we don't see those issues with them anyways.

the new stuff coming out makes it much more affordable for smaller business to work that way, problem is none of them are going to pay to upgrade to that stuff. we've still got a handful of people running mostly on XP and server 2003. when they finally upgrade i doubt we'll be able to convince them to pay for the added labor of setting it up.
 
Awesome of work to tell us our network drive would be down all day today....at 8:15pm last night! I wouldn't have even come in! Blargh.
 
lol that sucks. they didn't provide any alternate way to work on files?
 
lol that sucks. they didn't provide any alternate way to work on files?

Well local machines are still up, but the project I'm working on right now is on that drive. I could have put it on my local machine easily, if I had been around at 8:15pm to hear that news. So no, no alternate way to access the files.
 
Well local machines are still up, but the project I'm working on right now is on that drive. I could have put it on my local machine easily, if I had been around at 8:15pm to hear that news. So no, no alternate way to access the files.

yeah... the few times I've had to deal with a network share being down that long, we gave people files off the backup drive to work with. that way they can at least do their job...

all day is a long time for a drive to be down though ;(
 
Good God. Had an hour long conference call on Friday and now another one this morning, on the same ****ing subject! The salesman in me is crying because this is time I can't do my job.
 
our country's infatuation with conference calls and meetings always makes me laugh. I've always viewed meetings as exercises where you're supposed update others with new information or try to get help with something when you're stuck. Everyone else seems to view them as an opportunity to repeat basic items everyone knows and review something for the 10th time; if you're lucky. If you're unlucky then a good 40% of the meeting is spent repeating items already discussed in that very meeting because people weren't paying attention.

the meetings about meetings are the best, in my opinion.

meta-meetings
 
I laughed because if I didn't, I would cry.

At the risk of coming across arrogantly, in my opinion, it's a management problem. If you, as a manager, see someone under you is doing something wrong, why aren't you addressing it with that one person (or two people or whatever)? Why in God's name are you dragging me into that ****? I'm doing it right, leave me alone.

But it's fine, really. I mean the second point of the conference call was to get us to get our production up, which is a little easier to do if I'm not on a friggin' conference call covering the same ground we covered 72 hours ago.
 
I laughed because if I didn't, I would cry.

At the risk of coming across arrogantly, in my opinion, it's a management problem. If you, as a manager, see someone under you is doing something wrong, why aren't you addressing it with that one person (or two people or whatever)? Why in God's name are you dragging me into that ****? I'm doing it right, leave me alone.

It's the style of management being taught now. My wife went into the administration concentration of her field for her master's degree. I saw what they're being taught. While she has enough common sense to balance that with reality, I now easily see that others aren't and that's why things have gone the way they have.

The MBA's of today's world have taken over. You're seeing what they've been taught and how they believe management should be done in action.

The best is when one of these MBA's gets a job running a department that specializes in a field they never worked in. It's only a matter of time before that department becomes awful - it'll hit the important numbers, but in terms of being a well functioning unit that's good at its job? Hah.

(I realize I'm generalizing here - not all MBAs are terrible, just most of the ones I've come across :) )
 
Oh. My. Could I tell stories. I won't, because, welll...

:paranoid:

But I could.

You succinctly summarized a majorly disturbing trend, well said.
 
Im happy just to have a job and a chance to provide.
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That's a really good perspective to have, Mike. I appreciate the reminder. I get frustrated because there's a lot of crap that gets in the way of me doing as good a job as I want to do, but at the end of the day, I really (mostly) enjoy my job, and it pays the bills and provides well for the fam, and I can't ask for a whole lot more than that.
 
Oh. My. Could I tell stories. I won't, because, welll...

:paranoid:

But I could.

You succinctly summarized a majorly disturbing trend, well said.

Yeah, I have a brother in law that is getting his MBA, he's preparing for his eventual (although it is far off) exit from the military.

He's doing well because he does well on assignments and tests, but he can't phantom the stuff being taught to a certain degree. It's a bit of a culture shock for him, being an officer in the military means doing things because you're told and there being consequences (sometimes serious) if you don't, it means coming from a very rigid system in completing tasks and achieving goals.

Meta-meetings just blow his mind. He's going to love the private world.
 
Thankfully we don't have many meetings here, other than one-on-ones with the supervisor occasionally to discuss progress. That's the way it should be, IMO. Most meetings can be summarized with a succinct email, rather than wasting 1-2 hours of people's time.
 
Yeah, without going off on a tangent that probably belongs in the PA, I have to wonder if our societal inclination towards positive reinforcement has something to do with it. Instead of singling Johnny out for not filling his paperwork out properly, I (as the manager) will have a meta-meeting about the proper way to fill out these forms (that we just discussed last week) for EVERYONE, so Johnny doesn't feel singled out.

Which decreases both productivity and morale. But what do I know, right?
 
Yeah, without going off on a tangent that probably belongs in the PA, I have to wonder if our societal inclination towards positive reinforcement has something to do with it. Instead of singling Johnny out for not filling his paperwork out properly, I (as the manager) will have a meta-meeting about the proper way to fill out these forms (that we just discussed last week) for EVERYONE, so Johnny doesn't feel singled out.

Which decreases both productivity and morale. But what do I know, right?

That's interesting you say that, because I was actually thinking something different. I agree, we shouldn't go off on too much of a tangent. That said - my wife actually has pretty good success with positive reinforcement, but it all depends on the situation and the people involved.

I was thinking more of the culture of MBA's and what appears to be a system of making qualification/requirement lists, then checking the boxes; where the whole thing gets reduced to literally just making sure the boxes get checked.

There's a really amazing interview with the guy that took over GM after the bailout and his view on that culture and how it ruined GM, and how he had to fix it. Ridiculous car concepts made because they 'checked off enough boxes', but were ridiculously hideous or impractical.

I'm going to see if I can dig it up and send it to you, it was a really fun read.
 
I'm sorry, I didn't explain myself well. I am a huge proponent of positive reinforcement, as those I manage will tell you. I tell everyone when I hire them that I will try to be as fair as possible, and remember to praise them when they do well, but they need to be aware that criticism will come when they don't. Having said that, I want the criticism to be constructive - as much as possible anyway - so that we can be solution based. I don't ever want to get to the point where I am bitching at someone, and not giving them a way to improve whatever the problem is.

Having said THAT, I think there are times when it is appropriate to pull someone off to the side and let them know they're screwing up and they need to get it together.
 
Having said THAT, I think there are times when it is appropriate to pull someone off to the side and let them know they're screwing up and they need to get it together.

Oh boy is that a sore subject. We have one guy at work that is the biggest slob, and instead of addressing it with him, they pull the stuff your talkin about so he doesn't feel bad.

It's gotten me to the point where I blasted the owner in the middle of the shop, in front of three other people a couple of weeks ago. He used the word "pigs" and grouped all three techs together talking about a situation. I went off in a big way, loud and strong to make sure he knows where I stand, and who the problem is.

Yes, I'm still in his good graces because he knows I'm right. He'll never say a word to the guy, nor will the manager so they don't hurt his feelings. They let more stuff slide with this guy then is conceivable, and the manager even covers for him often.

I've fired people go for far less then the stuff this cat gets away with.
 
I've sent this person multiple emails over the last few days about an issue.

No response.

Now I have to send it to their boss because it's actually an important issue.

I do not enjoy being put in such a position, but have been left no choice. People suck.
 
I got an apology email from the person that blew up.

While unnecessary and... inaccurate, it was kind of nice I suppose.
 

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