It's friday afternoon, everybody is ready to go home for a nice relaxing weekend and suddenly a hereunto unnoticed ELE springs up out of nowhere and ensures that people frantically run amok trying to put things to rights.. These issues are invariably impossible to resolve in a completely satisfactory manner and the hastily implemented resolutions usually result in further complications that nullify any actions taken.
Where do these problems come from?
Well that's an interesting question, but the real question should be how can this happen with such alarming regularity that it becomes predictable?
I have a theory.
Magic. That's right folks magic. You see, there is no way that people (and its normally the same people) only notice the signs of impending doom at 14:30 on a friday afternoon, this mysteriously happens three weeks out of every four. These "big" issues are "sold" to anyone that will listen until panic and frenzy are built up to sufficient levels that people will do anything to resolve the problem and I do mean anything. The normal rules and predefined processes are tossed out the window in the mad rush to fix "the problem", no regard is taken for the ramifications of the solution and the actual implementation of the solution is normally left up to either myself or a colleague.
So how does this relate to magic?
What's really going on here?
Well it takes one of two forms, but in both cases it's an illusion. Most often the problem is no problem at all but the frenzy makes the "Magician" (the guy that notices the issue) look good, and feel important. Furthermore a plethora of minor issues will be forgiven during the course of the next week and written off as they were "caused" by the hastily adopted fix for the "big" issue. The other, and more insidious, form of the illusion is when the "Magician" is unsure of the outcome of a decision he has made. In this instance the "Magician" approaches the "Volunteer" (that's either me or my colleague) and tells us that our implementation of an operational solution we have prepared based on his decision is fundamentally flawed and then proceeds to go home for the weekend making it impossible to fix. If all goes well with the operational solution he looks good because despite the "Volunteer's" incompetence his brilliant idea prevails, and if it goes badly he looks good because his brilliant idea would have worked if it wasn't for the incompetence of "Volunteers".
In both cases, and there are many subcategories, the "Magician" is distracting the "Audience" (the bosses) while he saws the "Volunteer" in half, literally.
But when I started this blog I promised not to mention too much about work, by the way my blog is one year old as of yesterday. If I think about that I started the blog because I was exited about seeing SWIII I've come a long way. 365 days, 133 posts and 4059 hits. I'm happy with what I've achieved here.
Anyway, enjoy your weekend
schpat out
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4 comments:
congrats one the blogthday schpat!
hmmph. all *i* ever wanted to know was how those magicians pulled the rabbit out of the hat. i learned that one instead of how to play with sharp objects. it looks like you need a course in "you can say no". i read a book with that title when i was about 9, and to this day its lesson still comes in handy.
Dude, work is one of the best things to blog about. Everyone can identify with crap work situations. And congrats on the one year milestone, I hop I have your staying power.
I'm confused. What does it all have to do with extinctions? I was getting all excited cos I know about that stuff. And nobody ever talks about the stuff that I would actually have an informed opinion about.
I still think you should run competitions, maybe just extend deadlines?
Well hey there, I was just using ELE to explain how the problems here on a friday afternoon are perceived, and it wasn't hyperbole either!
Over the last 2 competitions I've had a total of 6 entrants and 10 votes, even with a month to enter and a week to vote. That means I'm paying more than R10 per entry and vote. Seriously, I'd continue if I got like 10 entries and 50 votes per contest. I could drop the prize amount, but that would be totally lame.
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