This stuff just knocks me out. I’ve been in a haze all day after taking it this morning to help stop the sneezing due to allergies. As a result, I’ve decided to not do any work today. Well, as little as I can anyway.
So in my surfing of the net, I came across this blog post. The guy (author’s name says Pedro) is mainly talking about what a System Administrator does, and how he goes about his business. This paragraph stood out to me as it relates to one of my pet peeves…
Now, you have a problem… especially if you’re an honest person. Because managers — and this has been my experience almost everywhere I’ve been — still tend to measure an employee’s work — and worth — by how busy he looks. Many people, then, simply pretend to be busy all the time (“change your email password? OK, I’ll get back to you next Monday.”), but such an attitude may be repulsive to you (it is to me). Explaining things to your manager doesn’t really work; even if he begins to understand, his own bosses won’t, and, if some head must roll, better yours than his…
This sentence “Because managers … still tend to measure an employee’s work — and worth — by how busy he looks” just riles me up. Even when I am busy, I try not to run around like a headless chicken (usually I succeed) and this means of course, thatI must NOT be busy and therefore in need of more work. [Empty filecabinet on my head]. And if there is no work, then they go and FIND work for you. Oooooo, how I despise “busy work”. Work invented out of thin air just so you aren’t sitting there doing nuttin.
I once spent a whole day doing a really stupid project that I recall thinking at the time “this is senseless, but my boss asked me to do it so it must be for a good reason” and turned it in only to hear the bastard say “I don’t want it. Just throw it away.” At my obviously confused look he said “It was just to keep you busy” and smiled.
F%cker…