I've made my living for decades helping executives accomplish business objectives using technology that their corporate IT departments cannot or will not implement. Those departments are often gamma or delta-led and their first inclination is always "No." The increasing emphasis on cybersecurity has handed dictatorial powers to the IT gammas and the results are exactly what one might anticipate.
One example: My company distributes safety information to the public on behalf of our clients, information that is required to be distributed by federal rules and regulations. I've had client cybersecurity guys demand that we agree to keep this information confidential even after explaining to them repeatedly that the entire purpose of the engagement is to make the information public. It's simply astounding. Doof is competent compared to these doofs.
The test if it is "you or the organisation that' is retarded" is to go out on your own. I was having a mental breakdown due to the stupidity of the decisions being made at levels in the organisation that were far above my pay grade and one I seemingly never got promoted to.
My sanity test was to go out on my own and start a company to see if I was the nut case or they were. It worked.
98% of new businesses fail (also due to bad luck) but because gammas and deltas think they're hot shit.
A former coworker used to go off into the weeds and just get distracted, seemingly doing everything else except what he was told to do. He became a notorious busy body in the eyes of the bosses. Needless to say, he ended up failing to complete something very basic but vital to his job and dragged the whole production release down. He didn't get to stay on after that.
The end stage of degeneration is when you have lawyers and politicians setting the rules and only promoting those who will obey (that trumps DEI points). I have seen good members of the favoured minority groups in my nation ignored because out political class select compliance above everything else.
Do your job well. Deal with their requests. Fix things that need fixing after doing what is ordered. If you don't know what the outcome is, ask.
Think of as practice for when you leave and set up your own business. Because these orgs will fail and you better have an exit strategy.
I always thought the purpose of middle management was to protect the performers from the arbitrary and irrational directives coming from upper management. Of course, I’ve only ever worked for dysfunctional military contractors, so maybe in companies with decent CEOs things are different.
I initially balked at this take, but that probably says more about me than it does anything else. Spot on I think.
I did wonder how would alphas, betas, or sigmas respond where they are an entry level employee (most people start at the bottom after all) to a situation like this?
1. Skilled. Become good, then excellent at all of your job responsibilities. Put in the time and don't short-cut. Learn the rules and follow them.
2. Accountable. Never avoid responsibility if you screw up. Take your lumps and do what is necessary to fix it, and then make sure you don't do that again. If you're going to miss a deadline, tell them as soon as it becomes obvious. Never whine or blame. Offer a solution if at all possible.
3. Proactive. Anticipate and do the thing(s) you know your supervisor will need done before they ask. It's OK to offer a 'good idea,' but STFU if you're told 'no.' If you're not early, you're late. If you didn't do a little extra, then you're slacking.
4. Awareness. Keep your boss in in the loop, but don't flood with useless details. Always ask if you're genuinely not sure; never ask to sound smart.
5. Teamwork. Decently help others in your organization to do all of the above. Never be jealous if somebody else does well; congratulate them, learn from them, and humbly apply that. It's OK to be competitive wrt to other groups, but never be the braggart in yours. If your output isn't consistently superior to others, then don't ever think you're even remotely special - you're just another member of the herd.
Keep up that cycle to the point you develop your skills, organizational awareness, and value to the organization so you can fill in for your boss if ever required. Then actively and honestly seek promotion. Make it all a life habit, and you might even get the chance to command.
Dependency Hell is real. And if you cannot learn to deal with it, you are functionally useless. Do your job, learn to anticipate for smoother progression, and default to safe assumptions rather than constantly halting for "input."
"My boss is such a control freak and micromanager. He should just let me do it how I think is best."
The instant I hear "micromanage" in an interview I immediately pounce and tell them the level of scrutiny and accountability I have over my employees in attempts to scare them away.
For people who prioritize getting the employers' mission done, they see this as an opportunity to showcase their competence. For the lazy and self centered, they feel repulsed and prefer finding work where they can fall through the cracks.
Not to defend Doof, lord knows I’ve seen a bunch of those in my day, but I’ve found female execs tend to not be direct when they want something done. My old alpha boss would say “I need this done ASAP” or “I need this done EOD or EOW”. My female boss gave us a minor task last week, which this morning I realized I forgot to do, by saying “yeah, it’s a little thing, jamming us up, so take some time to look it over and send it back to me”. Next week will come the terse email that we all are preventing updates from happening. She never once has fixed a hard deadline. Usually we make our own. A complete opposite style.
I’m a programmer and I suffered from this exact malady during my early career. It came from an incessant need to know why. I just refused to prioritize the businesses needs over my own unless I could see a good reason for it. Eventually I landed with a very patient manager who got it into my head that why wasn’t that important but there was always a reason even if I didn’t know what it was. My job was to find a way to make it happen. I didn’t even care about the why, I just thought I was more important than I was and thought I was owed an explanation.
Some never even get to the job because the need to know "why". These people tend to be atheists and materialists and unfortunately believe the answer lies in Quantum Mechanics or other nonsense.
Into the rabbit hole they embark, never accomplishing anything.
What is ironic is that if they had not been obsessively demanding answers to stupid questions, they would know a lot more about why.
Yep. You learn a lot more by doing than by reading. And if you have any intelligence at all, eventually, the patterns in what you’re doing make the why pretty obvious
One would think that doing what a boss requires would be an employee's first priority, but most people are idiots and have to learn by getting fired. Sometimes many times.
I've made my living for decades helping executives accomplish business objectives using technology that their corporate IT departments cannot or will not implement. Those departments are often gamma or delta-led and their first inclination is always "No." The increasing emphasis on cybersecurity has handed dictatorial powers to the IT gammas and the results are exactly what one might anticipate.
One example: My company distributes safety information to the public on behalf of our clients, information that is required to be distributed by federal rules and regulations. I've had client cybersecurity guys demand that we agree to keep this information confidential even after explaining to them repeatedly that the entire purpose of the engagement is to make the information public. It's simply astounding. Doof is competent compared to these doofs.
The test if it is "you or the organisation that' is retarded" is to go out on your own. I was having a mental breakdown due to the stupidity of the decisions being made at levels in the organisation that were far above my pay grade and one I seemingly never got promoted to.
My sanity test was to go out on my own and start a company to see if I was the nut case or they were. It worked.
98% of new businesses fail (also due to bad luck) but because gammas and deltas think they're hot shit.
No single event in my life has made me feel like more of a retard than starting a business.
Q: Sergeant, we just moved this pile of rocks from over there! Why do we have to move them back?!
A: Because rocks can't move by themselves. They need our help.
Doof just needs a tie that curls up on the bottom and he's Dilbert.
A former coworker used to go off into the weeds and just get distracted, seemingly doing everything else except what he was told to do. He became a notorious busy body in the eyes of the bosses. Needless to say, he ended up failing to complete something very basic but vital to his job and dragged the whole production release down. He didn't get to stay on after that.
I've been on both sides of the paycheck, and there are some things you just can't know/can't be told as an employee.
That's when you havw to decide whether you trust the people directing your efforts. If you don't, leave.
The end stage of degeneration is when you have lawyers and politicians setting the rules and only promoting those who will obey (that trumps DEI points). I have seen good members of the favoured minority groups in my nation ignored because out political class select compliance above everything else.
Do your job well. Deal with their requests. Fix things that need fixing after doing what is ordered. If you don't know what the outcome is, ask.
Think of as practice for when you leave and set up your own business. Because these orgs will fail and you better have an exit strategy.
I always thought the purpose of middle management was to protect the performers from the arbitrary and irrational directives coming from upper management. Of course, I’ve only ever worked for dysfunctional military contractors, so maybe in companies with decent CEOs things are different.
You have it backwards.
Gammas always think that, the dysunctional Alpha is always wrong and awful.
Stop doing Gamma things.
I initially balked at this take, but that probably says more about me than it does anything else. Spot on I think.
I did wonder how would alphas, betas, or sigmas respond where they are an entry level employee (most people start at the bottom after all) to a situation like this?
1. Skilled. Become good, then excellent at all of your job responsibilities. Put in the time and don't short-cut. Learn the rules and follow them.
2. Accountable. Never avoid responsibility if you screw up. Take your lumps and do what is necessary to fix it, and then make sure you don't do that again. If you're going to miss a deadline, tell them as soon as it becomes obvious. Never whine or blame. Offer a solution if at all possible.
3. Proactive. Anticipate and do the thing(s) you know your supervisor will need done before they ask. It's OK to offer a 'good idea,' but STFU if you're told 'no.' If you're not early, you're late. If you didn't do a little extra, then you're slacking.
4. Awareness. Keep your boss in in the loop, but don't flood with useless details. Always ask if you're genuinely not sure; never ask to sound smart.
5. Teamwork. Decently help others in your organization to do all of the above. Never be jealous if somebody else does well; congratulate them, learn from them, and humbly apply that. It's OK to be competitive wrt to other groups, but never be the braggart in yours. If your output isn't consistently superior to others, then don't ever think you're even remotely special - you're just another member of the herd.
Keep up that cycle to the point you develop your skills, organizational awareness, and value to the organization so you can fill in for your boss if ever required. Then actively and honestly seek promotion. Make it all a life habit, and you might even get the chance to command.
Agreed.
If you are wired for it, that is the job.
Dependency Hell is real. And if you cannot learn to deal with it, you are functionally useless. Do your job, learn to anticipate for smoother progression, and default to safe assumptions rather than constantly halting for "input."
The practical and empathetic points are clear.
Practically, what benefit do you have for keep your boss mad at you and on your case? If you can do the work, get it done.
Empathetically, your boss rarely originates orders, help them out. They just want to get home at the end of the day too.
No need to conflate them being friendly, build positive feelings and be the helpful delta, let annoying folks get the hammer.
"I just finished the task, boss. What's next?"
Vs
"My boss is such a control freak and micromanager. He should just let me do it how I think is best."
The instant I hear "micromanage" in an interview I immediately pounce and tell them the level of scrutiny and accountability I have over my employees in attempts to scare them away.
For people who prioritize getting the employers' mission done, they see this as an opportunity to showcase their competence. For the lazy and self centered, they feel repulsed and prefer finding work where they can fall through the cracks.
Do you think an alpha or sigma male would tolerate this kind of close supervision?
Of course not. But Alphas and Sigmas don't require it.
That's a good point. I have definitely met people who work better under micromanagement.
Not to defend Doof, lord knows I’ve seen a bunch of those in my day, but I’ve found female execs tend to not be direct when they want something done. My old alpha boss would say “I need this done ASAP” or “I need this done EOD or EOW”. My female boss gave us a minor task last week, which this morning I realized I forgot to do, by saying “yeah, it’s a little thing, jamming us up, so take some time to look it over and send it back to me”. Next week will come the terse email that we all are preventing updates from happening. She never once has fixed a hard deadline. Usually we make our own. A complete opposite style.
A management failure is not an excuse to not do your job. You're hiding behind her incompetence; you shouldn't need a deadline to get things done.
Getting people to understand priority can be painful—a lot of repeating yourself.
I’m a programmer and I suffered from this exact malady during my early career. It came from an incessant need to know why. I just refused to prioritize the businesses needs over my own unless I could see a good reason for it. Eventually I landed with a very patient manager who got it into my head that why wasn’t that important but there was always a reason even if I didn’t know what it was. My job was to find a way to make it happen. I didn’t even care about the why, I just thought I was more important than I was and thought I was owed an explanation.
Some never even get to the job because the need to know "why". These people tend to be atheists and materialists and unfortunately believe the answer lies in Quantum Mechanics or other nonsense.
Into the rabbit hole they embark, never accomplishing anything.
What is ironic is that if they had not been obsessively demanding answers to stupid questions, they would know a lot more about why.
Yep. You learn a lot more by doing than by reading. And if you have any intelligence at all, eventually, the patterns in what you’re doing make the why pretty obvious
One would think that doing what a boss requires would be an employee's first priority, but most people are idiots and have to learn by getting fired. Sometimes many times.