Workplace BS

[brewer12345]

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Originally Posted by REWahoo If it's a financial issue, I'll be happy to chip in.

You're too late: I have already procreated.

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by cyclone6 3) We were advised that the company was going to settle on a formal, official font policy. Thats right, if you use Times New Roman, you are directly violating company policy...

Are they at least going to use something like Arial or a modern sans-serif font? If so, consider yourself lucky, and stop complaining.

A friend of mine quit and moved to a mid-size aerospace company in town. This was in the early 90s. When he met with us for beer afterwork sometime later, he told his story. Their order was to use Courier. Yes, Courier. We cried out "No way, you are BS'ing us". He said, well the guy in charge grew up on typewriter fonts, and saw no need to change. We laughed until we cried in our beer.

[Alan]

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In the federal workforce, we learn acronyms by the total immersion method.

I was in a presentation last week by the company psychologist talking about stress and ways to cope - typical Megacorp stuff to try and 'help'. The doc was obviously going to be very dry and boring (think reading from powerpoint slides) but he did give me some great leads to spice up the meeting for the 20 or so folks and we did leave a lot less stressed than we started. For example, early on he put up a slide with the latest 3 words to describe stress and said that it used to be thought of as "flight or fight" but this was the latest thinking. I can't remember the 3 buzz words and I doubt anyone else can 'cos they started with the letters G.A.S. so I immediately piped up and said "so, what you are saying is that stress produces gas - I can certainly relate to that"

At one point he said to me, "Alan, we are obviously bonding here", to which I replied "naturally, I work in the adhesives group". He didn't get it despite the laughter in the rest of the room so I just said "it's a chemical joke - at this site we make glue". I think the poor guy was glad to be out of there.

[thaidyed]

oh my. i really never ever wanna work at MegaCorp. I'd get arrested of fired or both my first day...

[RetiredGypsy]

I always thought Dilbert was funny. Now I'm learning it's really a horror story.

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by thaidyed oh my. i really never ever wanna work at MegaCorp. I'd get arrested of fired or both my first day...

The communists fired disgruntled workers all the time ...







with an execution squad.

[FreeAtLast]

I also work for a small company of about 30 employees. We used to have a VP something like the one you describe. He was also in charge of hiring and firing. I will always remember the day he fired a sales person and had to go hire her back because the boss liked looking at her.

[haha]

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Originally Posted by brewer12345 Just like trying to be a SNAG (sensitive new age guy): sometimes I think I don't need a vasectomy; I need my balls removed.

LOL!

[NW-Bound]

Hey, I just thought of something....

Working for big corps all my life (except for the time I involved with failed start-ups), I thought I knew how they evolved to become so bad. We always talk about how small cos would be better. Had to be, since they have to be nimble to survive, like mammals vs. dinosaurs.

But it occured to me that many of you are talking about small cos

Could the reason these small cos were bad, because their clients are megacorp, and the disease spreads? Small cos sell to megacorps, have to have TQM in place, BS like that.

I cannot see a small outfit that serves the public directly afford this kind superflous non-productive BS.

[ikubak]

"Ralph" reminds me of a sales manager I had years ago, we'll call him "Elmo." He was originally our marketing manager and was a friend of the owner of the company. When times got lean, the owner made this bozo the head of sales. Elmo went out and bought a few sales books and proceeded to have sales meetings to explain how this recession was all in our minds and wasn't really happening, we just needed to be positive.

I play tennis, and Elmo was talking to me and another guy and Elmo said that if I had started playing tennis earlier, I could have been the number one player in the world. I had had enough of his BS so I called him on it. I told him that not everyone who picks up a tennis racket and believes they are going to be the best player in the world achieves it. He told me I just didn't have enough faith.

Elmo was a big golfer and I said, "What about you? Could you be the number one golfer in the world?" He said yes. If he put his mind to it, he could be the number one golfer in the world in a couple of years. I laughed and said, "Well, why don't you do it?" He said he had a job as sales manager and he had a family. I said, "I'm sure your family wouldn't mind if you became the number one golfer in the world, and you would make a lot more money than you do now." He still said no. I couldn't resists this opportunity and said, "Elmo, sounds to me like you just don't have enough faith. Maybe you don't really believe this crap you're trying to sell us."

Sometimes you just have to call BS. I was "let go" with some severance a few months later, by Elmo, and things are much better for me today. Elmo is still at the old company and I am sure he is still a richard cranium.

[BunsGettingFirm]

Small company culture is determined by leadership of the owner. If the guy is upstanding and on the ball, then everyone else will at least try to be. If the guy is too busy or hands off to lead or he's slime ball himself, then all kinds of bad behaviors come out because there is no other mechanism like rules and regulations to keep people's idiocy in check. Then you're going to get the bosses who hire sales reps because they look good or a Ralph, the do nothing yeller.

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound Hey, I just thought of something.... Working for big corps all my life (except for the time I involved with failed start-ups), I thought I knew how they evolved to become so bad. We always talk about how small cos would be better. Had to be, since they have to be nimble to survive, like mammals vs. dinosaurs. But it occured to me that many of you are talking about small cos Could the reason these small cos were bad, because their clients are megacorp, and the disease spreads? Small cos sell to megacorps, have to have TQM in place, BS like that. I cannot see a small outfit that serves the public directly afford this kind superflous non-productive BS.

[CitricAcid]

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Originally Posted by ikubak I play tennis, and Elmo was talking to me and another guy and Elmo said that if I had started playing tennis earlier, I could have been the number one player in the world. I had had enough of his BS so I called him on it. I told him that not everyone who picks up a tennis racket and believes they are going to be the best player in the world achieves it. He told me I just didn't have enough faith. Elmo was a big golfer and I said, "What about you? Could you be the number one golfer in the world?" He said yes. If he put his mind to it, he could be the number one golfer in the world in a couple of years. I laughed and said, "Well, why don't you do it?" He said he had a job as sales manager and he had a family. I said, "I'm sure your family wouldn't mind if you became the number one golfer in the world, and you would make a lot more money than you do now." He still said no. I couldn't resists this opportunity and said, "Elmo, sounds to me like you just don't have enough faith. Maybe you don't really believe this crap you're trying to sell us."

Absolutely hilarious, I'll bet he had a 20 handicap too. I love when people say that everyone can do anything if they just put their mind to it. Perhaps I am just to cynical.

And, by the way, I like serif font better than sans-serif.

[jclarksnakes]

What I am reading here is that US businesses, big and small are all so full of BS that they cannot possibly be productive. Just as soon as prices come back up I am going to completely divest myself of US companies and invest it all overseas. I am so glad there is no BS in my life.
Jeff

[Marquette]

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Originally Posted by RunningBum Oh, you bet. A few years ago "Who Moved My Cheese" copies could be seen on about every manager's bookshelf, because the CEO liked it.

The book was thin enough that I decided to waste 20 minutes on it.

Executive summary of the book: Change happens so adapt or die. Also, if you see man-sized mice or mouse-sized men, you're probably on LSD.

[RunningBum]

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Originally Posted by jclarksnakes What I am reading here is that US businesses, big and small are all so full of BS that they cannot possibly be productive. Just as soon as prices come back up I am going to completely divest myself of US companies and invest it all overseas. I am so glad there is no BS in my life. Jeff

Oh, yeah, I'm sure this is a US thing only. The rest of the world is well-known for having no barriers to business productivity.

And if US businesses cannot possibly be productive, what makes you think stock prices will come back up??

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by BunsGettingFirm Small company culture is determined by leadership of the owner. If the guy is upstanding and on the ball, then everyone else will at least try to be. If the guy is too busy or hands off to lead or he's slime ball himself, then all kinds of bad behaviors come out because there is no other mechanism like rules and regulations to keep people's idiocy in check. Then you're going to get the bosses who hire sales reps because they look good or a Ralph, the do nothing yeller.

Good explanations. But I can't help thinking for small cos, the ratio of non-productive activity/productive activity could swell out-of-hand quickly. They've got to have some other real advantageous edges to compensate.

As I mentioned, I was intimately involved with some tech start-ups. We were mostly nerds, trying to make a living doing what we do best and not having to suffer fools. It did not work out, though we worked so hard and "so smart". Being nerdy may have a lot to do with the failure.

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Originally Posted by CitricAcid And, by the way, I like serif font better than sans-serif.

I like to use TeX and its fonts (like Time Romans, except better). Donald Knuth rules! I am sure someone else here will agree. The friend I described was also a TeX aficionado, hence it was torture for him to use MS Word, and with Courier font to boot.

[Dudester]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound A friend of mine quit and moved to a mid-size aerospace company in town. This was in the early 90s. When he met with us for beer afterwork sometime later, he told his story. Their order was to use Courier. Yes, Courier. We cried out "No way, you are BS'ing us". He said, well the guy in charge grew up on typewriter fonts, and saw no need to change. We laughed until we cried in our beer.

I worked for a big aerospace company. In the 90's -- if my recollection is correct -- I got a copy of the official company standard for producing documents on a "word processor." Basically the standard said to make the document look like it was typed on a typewriter: courier font, everything monospaced, everything the same size, etc.

This wouldn't have been to bad by itself, except that the standard also dictated where the company logo had to go. The latter was basically impossible to do with the word processor that I was using at the time.

The company did eventually adopt standards that made more sense given current technology.

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by RunningBum Oh, yeah, I'm sure this is a US thing only. The rest of the world is well-known for having no barriers to business productivity.

I can't help thinking that the Chinese are so busy building stuff that they have no time for BS. They build all the electronic gadgets we are enjoying. Learning to design them too! Also, Jim Rogers ranted about the Chinese work ethics, once their rulers released them from government co-ops. Of course, their bubble is being deflated now, but I have no doubt it will come back. Of course nobody knows when.

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Originally Posted by RunningBum Oh, yeah, I'm sure this is a US thing only. The rest of the world is well-known for having no barriers to business productivity. And if US businesses cannot possibly be productive, what makes you think stock prices will come back up??

Technical reasons? Plus things may get undervalued? Plus some goods/services cannot be imported, like health care, housing, retails, etc...

[brewer12345]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound Of course, their bubble is being deflated now, but I have no doubt it will come back.

Don't confuse the Chinese stock market with the Chinese economy.

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by brewer12345 Don't confuse the Chinese stock market with the Chinese economy.

I am trying. Like I said, I am just a nerd. NO sarcasm intended. I want to make money, and will listen to all viewpoints.