Comments on: Work: being productive… or keeping busy? (part 2) http://www.thetlog.net/2005/09/08/work-being-productive-or-keeping-busy-part-2/ Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:44:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Joao http://www.thetlog.net/2005/09/08/work-being-productive-or-keeping-busy-part-2/#comment-639 Joao Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:26:11 +0000 http://www.thetlog.net/?p=49#comment-639 The aweful I've even seen this taken a step further. I've witnessed various people in management and leadership positions actually tailor make problems so that they could make a large amount of noise in the process of showing everyone ( directors especially ) how good they are at fixing problems and running everthing. Of course it's easy to fix problems that you orchestrate yourself. But then how does one actually go about correcting these injustices? Beat them or join them? The aweful

I’ve even seen this taken a step further. I’ve witnessed various people in management and leadership positions actually tailor make problems so that they could make a large amount of noise in the process of showing everyone ( directors especially ) how good they are at fixing problems and running everthing. Of course it’s easy to fix problems that you orchestrate yourself.

But then how does one actually go about correcting these injustices? Beat them or join them?

]]> By: Dehumanizer http://www.thetlog.net/2005/09/08/work-being-productive-or-keeping-busy-part-2/#comment-82 Dehumanizer Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:23:04 +0000 http://www.thetlog.net/?p=49#comment-82 4_ever: I said that I already did that (looking for things that could be improved, implementing new stuff, etc.), to an extent. But that <i>still</i> didn't take up all of my free time. If I can do something in 10 minutes, I do it in 10 minutes - I lack the ability to extend that to a week or too (and appear extremely busy during all that time), that apparently most people have. Besides, at that particular job, improving things wasn't encouraged - much the opposite. It upset the status quo too much. That was one of the reasons (the other, of course, was a permanent excuse to appear busy) why they never solved the many problems with the Windows servers, only rebooted them. I guess they thought - and they were probably right, in a way, which is sad - that if everything ran smoothly, management would then believe that there wasn't need for the entire teams, and start downsizing. So they ensured a continuous source of work by not doing anything about the causes of problems. If that meant downtime and bad service, tough. 4_ever: I said that I already did that (looking for things that could be improved, implementing new stuff, etc.), to an extent. But that still didn’t take up all of my free time. If I can do something in 10 minutes, I do it in 10 minutes - I lack the ability to extend that to a week or too (and appear extremely busy during all that time), that apparently most people have.

Besides, at that particular job, improving things wasn’t encouraged - much the opposite. It upset the status quo too much. That was one of the reasons (the other, of course, was a permanent excuse to appear busy) why they never solved the many problems with the Windows servers, only rebooted them.

I guess they thought - and they were probably right, in a way, which is sad - that if everything ran smoothly, management would then believe that there wasn’t need for the entire teams, and start downsizing. So they ensured a continuous source of work by not doing anything about the causes of problems.

If that meant downtime and bad service, tough.

]]> By: 4_ever http://www.thetlog.net/2005/09/08/work-being-productive-or-keeping-busy-part-2/#comment-81 4_ever Fri, 09 Sep 2005 09:09:56 +0000 http://www.thetlog.net/?p=49#comment-81 Well, one solution to this kind of problem is being pro-active, if everything is working ok, if you have free time to upgrade your knowledge, apply that knowledge to the systems. Try to suggest new ways of doing things, migrate things to the stable systems, give more options to the users, find something that it is not being done and do it. Of course, some people must be kept informed of what you are doing, consider it like publicity, it is the lesser-evil. Well, one solution to this kind of problem is being pro-active, if everything is working ok, if you have free time to upgrade your knowledge, apply that knowledge to the systems.
Try to suggest new ways of doing things, migrate things to the stable systems, give more options to the users, find something that it is not being done and do it.
Of course, some people must be kept informed of what you are doing, consider it like publicity, it is the lesser-evil.

]]> By: Sparkling http://www.thetlog.net/2005/09/08/work-being-productive-or-keeping-busy-part-2/#comment-80 Sparkling Fri, 09 Sep 2005 07:42:51 +0000 http://www.thetlog.net/?p=49#comment-80 Noone ever said life was fair. The Windows team was seen as the hard working team. Noone ever said life was fair. The Windows team was seen as the hard working team.

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