It came to me today in yet another random flash of brilliance. Perhaps it isn't so brilliant but I impressed myself nonetheless. A bare-bones dissection of any organization reveals the 3 layers in organizational structure, the classes of employees if you will. It consists of low level workers, middle management & upper management.
Low level workers do all the grunt work. Their tasks can be menial, physical or extremely technical but their work produces the raison d'etre of the organization. Without the workers, there is no need for anything else. Upper management make important org-wide decisions that can have effects trickling down to every last employee mainly because their decisions affect the direction a company takes. Their decisions can make or break the organization.
As for middle management, we always hear about large organizations having too many mid-level managers. It has become a trend to consider middle management as completely unneccesary. Thus, the many layoffs in large companies in recent years create a harsh, competitive landscape for those in middle management positions and re-affirms this myth that we don't need them.
True, too much middle management creates unneccesarily inefficient bureaucracies but just the right amount of middle management will actually create a more cohesive organization. I love real and completely unrelated analogies so here is my brilliant new thought.
Take the nut, the bolt and the washer. The bolt does a half-assed job of holding two parts together but the nut keeps it in line. Without a washer though, that bolt is likely to slide from the nut over time and everything falls apart. I think the expression "cog in the machine" used to apply more to low level employees but now applies more to mid level management. It is actually a more fitting analogy anyway though it is often used incorrectly in the negative for cogs in a machine are absolutely neccesary. Cogs or gears are used for various reasons (from Jen Lewin):
1) They can reverse the direction of a motor or drive.
2) They can increase or decrease the turning of a motor.
3) They can increase or decrease the power of a motor's turning.
To sum up my point: the right cog and the right amount of cogs in the machine can make it a more powerful force to contend with therefore cogs & middle management should not be so easily dismissed.
Showing posts with label The Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Man. Show all posts
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Offended
You know, honestly there are times when I do not have a "FULL" day's work but often times I do enough. I waste some time here and there, while I work at the same time to keep myself sane because I am a little ADD. But when the work is there, I can always handle it and do it in 8 hours time because i prioritize and organize. Just because I am more efficient, and am not being managed well, it is no fault of mine.
To be accused of being "idle" shows exactly how little my manager knows about what his workers ought to be doing to do their job right. Instead of just piling on the work saying it needs to be handled now, forcing them to constantly start and not finish anything, which ultimately creates more backlog later on. Why not just make and let them finish it through to the end? It's as if I am not already maintaining and constantly adding items to existing PO's (these are tasks he is never even aware of!) OR helping A/P with all the problems that he and his department are dodging phonecalls from. It's not even just that he said I was idle because there are odd times when I am. But at this time when he said he had to keep me busy by bringing me another pile of invoices, even though I told him I only entered a bunch of PR's which need to be followed up on, that's when he said I was idle and I said well no I have to do work on them. He said, come on, be honest with me. Meaning what? That i am lying and saying I have work when I have nothing? It's a slap in the face that's what.
I mean, fuck sticking around just to help him out, why should I? He already screwed my chances of having a forward momentum in this job by not releasing me to A/P just because he could not manage the extra work by NOT having me here. You know, if I am so idle, why don't I just quit and they can do the rest of this on their own. I am hopping mad right now but look at me, here I am working and chugging away. Screw this bullshit, I'm finding a job closer to home.
To be accused of being "idle" shows exactly how little my manager knows about what his workers ought to be doing to do their job right. Instead of just piling on the work saying it needs to be handled now, forcing them to constantly start and not finish anything, which ultimately creates more backlog later on. Why not just make and let them finish it through to the end? It's as if I am not already maintaining and constantly adding items to existing PO's (these are tasks he is never even aware of!) OR helping A/P with all the problems that he and his department are dodging phonecalls from. It's not even just that he said I was idle because there are odd times when I am. But at this time when he said he had to keep me busy by bringing me another pile of invoices, even though I told him I only entered a bunch of PR's which need to be followed up on, that's when he said I was idle and I said well no I have to do work on them. He said, come on, be honest with me. Meaning what? That i am lying and saying I have work when I have nothing? It's a slap in the face that's what.
I mean, fuck sticking around just to help him out, why should I? He already screwed my chances of having a forward momentum in this job by not releasing me to A/P just because he could not manage the extra work by NOT having me here. You know, if I am so idle, why don't I just quit and they can do the rest of this on their own. I am hopping mad right now but look at me, here I am working and chugging away. Screw this bullshit, I'm finding a job closer to home.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Here's where it gets a little preachy...
No regrets.
There are always ups and downs in life but for a long time I have tried to make this my mantra. The reasoning is logical. At any given point in your life, you make decisions based on what you feel is best. The result may not always turn out the way you hoped or things change along the way and your decision from before does not appear so wise now. However you do the best with what information you have. That is why it is important to have trustworthy friends to talk things over, mentors to give advice and loved ones to give moral support.
After having a talk with the roommate last night about his current dilemmas, I realize that my mantra needs to be expanded upon. It's not enough just to have no regrets because in some ways you can assume that every decision you made was right. Alternatively, even if your decisions are wrong and in turn you suffer the consequences, by simply having no regrets, it somewhat waives your responsibilities for the situation, putting the blame on an outside force. One can then easily be trapped in a vortex of complaints and dread for the unfairness of life, allowing himself to be victim to everything that ever goes wrong. The "victim" can then digress even further, withdrawing from healthy interaction with all situations and people. Essentially giving up because what is the point in trying? The unfairness of the world will ultimately put him in his place despite his best efforts. But it's okay as long as it's not his fault, he will never have to admit his wrongs to feel guilt or see the truth behind his choices, yet he will never be happy either.
No regrets. No complaints. No excuses.
Here is the addition which I believe completes this mantra. The first part remains the same but the second and last part kind of go together. Aside from not regretting the choices in the past, one must be grateful for what you have now. You must not complain and put the blame on others for your misfortunes because you are the single most powerful force in your universe. Sometimes those outside forces are pretty strong too but you alone can change how you interact, deal with or shape your future. To achieve that, you must not make excuses for why you cannot change your ways. You cannot make excuses to relieve responsibility of yourself. To have no regrets means to understand and admit your mistakes, then take matters into your own hands and change how it's done in the future. This makes for a true learning experience that will ultimately improve life and open doors for opporunity.
There are always ups and downs in life but for a long time I have tried to make this my mantra. The reasoning is logical. At any given point in your life, you make decisions based on what you feel is best. The result may not always turn out the way you hoped or things change along the way and your decision from before does not appear so wise now. However you do the best with what information you have. That is why it is important to have trustworthy friends to talk things over, mentors to give advice and loved ones to give moral support.
After having a talk with the roommate last night about his current dilemmas, I realize that my mantra needs to be expanded upon. It's not enough just to have no regrets because in some ways you can assume that every decision you made was right. Alternatively, even if your decisions are wrong and in turn you suffer the consequences, by simply having no regrets, it somewhat waives your responsibilities for the situation, putting the blame on an outside force. One can then easily be trapped in a vortex of complaints and dread for the unfairness of life, allowing himself to be victim to everything that ever goes wrong. The "victim" can then digress even further, withdrawing from healthy interaction with all situations and people. Essentially giving up because what is the point in trying? The unfairness of the world will ultimately put him in his place despite his best efforts. But it's okay as long as it's not his fault, he will never have to admit his wrongs to feel guilt or see the truth behind his choices, yet he will never be happy either.
No regrets. No complaints. No excuses.
Here is the addition which I believe completes this mantra. The first part remains the same but the second and last part kind of go together. Aside from not regretting the choices in the past, one must be grateful for what you have now. You must not complain and put the blame on others for your misfortunes because you are the single most powerful force in your universe. Sometimes those outside forces are pretty strong too but you alone can change how you interact, deal with or shape your future. To achieve that, you must not make excuses for why you cannot change your ways. You cannot make excuses to relieve responsibility of yourself. To have no regrets means to understand and admit your mistakes, then take matters into your own hands and change how it's done in the future. This makes for a true learning experience that will ultimately improve life and open doors for opporunity.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The mother of all curses
Someone must be cursing something nasty about me. For the past hour, I've been getting involuntary left eye twitching and hiccups. Well, it's either that or my strange sleeping patterns. Also, the past two days I've been getting itchy bumps on my legs, at first they did not look like mosquito bites so it made me think my dog contracted fleas and infested our bed. Luckily I found a mosquito buzzing around in our room this morning so thank god it's not a curse of boils or something.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
God damn!
As soon as I finished my last blog @ 4:30pm, someone sitting behind me announces that the system's back up and the chump from A/P starts emailing me with stuff to do. OOOH, how does the Man always know how to get you?! Just at the right time too! arrrgh...
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Lunchroom Conversations
01:27
Five minutes ago, I walked into the lunchroom to rinse my mug: reservoir for my fill of soy milk from this morning. You know how it thickens and sticks to the sides, looks like day old splooge. Nasty stuff, that soy milk when dried. Two female co-workers whose names I will not mention (only because I do not know them) are chatting during a break. A typically casual conversation amongst colleagues about the television and movie preferences of their respective kids & significant other.
OL A, "...he really likes the action stuff, really fast paced, you know."
Worker B, "He would really like Die Hard then wouldn't he?"
OL A, "Oh, but that is really adult. No that's...that's too adult."
Worker B, "Well that's got everything!"
OL A, "My husband, he likes 24."
Worker B, "24? Die Hard's like that."
OL A, "No, 24 is more...intelligent, what with the government and all that."
Worker B, "What about those Mel Gibson movies?"
Hearing that conversation alone was enough to signal my blood to boil and jolt me back into full consciousness from my work induced trance.
I suppose I can't blame them. They are just as much affected as I am by the phenomenon of OCBDD (Office-Computer Brain Drain Discorder). When forced to converse in a manner not related to work, it reduces us to make bubble-headed remarks on just about any topic. For shame that we should be plagued by this affliction, when we have the technology in our hands to combat the effects of this ailment. Internet radio, ipods, YouTube; conveniently packaged for the momentary diversion of attention to relieve us of concentration fatigue. All of it is readily available on the very workstations we have but we are cut off or forbidden to access the cure.
The Man is determined to bring us down and drag our brain-dead carcasses across the never changing landscape and barren wasteland of office space. Sure, cubicles may change slightly, at times we are boxed in, others we are a field of people at floating workstations but always under the overbearing dark clouds of corporate policies.
Five minutes ago, I walked into the lunchroom to rinse my mug: reservoir for my fill of soy milk from this morning. You know how it thickens and sticks to the sides, looks like day old splooge. Nasty stuff, that soy milk when dried. Two female co-workers whose names I will not mention (only because I do not know them) are chatting during a break. A typically casual conversation amongst colleagues about the television and movie preferences of their respective kids & significant other.
OL A, "...he really likes the action stuff, really fast paced, you know."
Worker B, "He would really like Die Hard then wouldn't he?"
OL A, "Oh, but that is really adult. No that's...that's too adult."
Worker B, "Well that's got everything!"
OL A, "My husband, he likes 24."
Worker B, "24? Die Hard's like that."
OL A, "No, 24 is more...intelligent, what with the government and all that."
Worker B, "What about those Mel Gibson movies?"
Hearing that conversation alone was enough to signal my blood to boil and jolt me back into full consciousness from my work induced trance.
I suppose I can't blame them. They are just as much affected as I am by the phenomenon of OCBDD (Office-Computer Brain Drain Discorder). When forced to converse in a manner not related to work, it reduces us to make bubble-headed remarks on just about any topic. For shame that we should be plagued by this affliction, when we have the technology in our hands to combat the effects of this ailment. Internet radio, ipods, YouTube; conveniently packaged for the momentary diversion of attention to relieve us of concentration fatigue. All of it is readily available on the very workstations we have but we are cut off or forbidden to access the cure.
The Man is determined to bring us down and drag our brain-dead carcasses across the never changing landscape and barren wasteland of office space. Sure, cubicles may change slightly, at times we are boxed in, others we are a field of people at floating workstations but always under the overbearing dark clouds of corporate policies.
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