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> > The advice Andrew is giving is
> > unprofessional and destructive.
> > Following it may well get you fired.
>
It sounds like the advice of someone who's somehow gotten through life able
to speak their mind without dire consequences. If you can afford the
consequences, go ahead. If you need the job, ignore the rules at your own
hazard.
> It won't get you fired if you can demonstrate that petty bureaucracy isn't
> important to get a job done well. Results make a much bigger
> impression than
> procedures.
>
How I wish this were always true!! Sometimes you can find a position where
results matter this much, but out of the numerous jobs I've had in my life,
I can't recall more than one or two that I've lucked into where results
mattered more than pettiness. As a boss I had when I was 15 and working at a
bicycle shop used to say (and he was one of the good ones), "There's three
ways of doing things; the right way, the wrong way, and my way. Around here
we do things my way."
I've had more than my share of petty bosses, some unbelievably so. The
problem is, they're the boss and they make the rules. If you need the job,
you've gotta play by their rules, cuz the petty idiots are petty enough to
worry far more about rules than results. More than once I've had a boss call
me into the office to tell me that a higher-up or a customer had written to
compliment on how I did my job, but when I'd have a review a few weeks later
they'd talk to me as though I couldn't do anything right. And inevitably the
negative stuff they'd bring up would have nothing to do with what kind of
results I produced.
Thankfully I'm in a somewhat better situation with my current job.
IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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