"NY" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote in message news:...
> Human Resources <-> Personnel
> CEO <-> MD
> Information Services <-> Library
> Colleague <-> Assistant (*)

Having said that, I've livened up many a boring and pointless meeting (*) by
playing "bullshit bingo" - counting up the number of bullshit phrases that
each person uses ;-)

(*) "Meeting": "Imprisoning a group of people in a room when they'd much
prefer to be doing productive work rather than just taking about work, which
assigns additional tasks to everyone but then keeps them imprisoned in the
meeting so they can't get on with actually doing those tasks." Are you
calling me a cynic?

In article <sqntdl$ds4$1@dont-email.me>, NY <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:
> "NY" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote in message news:...
> > Human Resources <-> Personnel CEO <-> MD Information Services <->
> > Library Colleague <-> Assistant (*)

> Having said that, I've livened up many a boring and pointless meeting (*)
> by playing "bullshit bingo" - counting up the number of bullshit phrases
> that each person uses ;-)

> (*) "Meeting": "Imprisoning a group of people in a room when they'd much
> prefer to be doing productive work rather than just taking about work,
> which assigns additional tasks to everyone but then keeps them
> imprisoned in the meeting so they can't get on with actually doing those
> tasks." Are you calling me a cynic?

After the BBC had gone in for internal charging, someone said, at an
interdepartmental meeting"Who is paying for me to come to this meeting?"

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

"charles" <charles@candehope.me.uk> wrote in message
news:59a3a78ec7charles@candehope.me.uk...
> In article <sqntdl$ds4$1@dont-email.me>, NY <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:
>> "NY" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote in message news:...
>> > Human Resources <-> Personnel CEO <-> MD Information Services <->
>> > Library Colleague <-> Assistant (*)
>
>> Having said that, I've livened up many a boring and pointless meeting (*)
>> by playing "bullshit bingo" - counting up the number of bullshit phrases
>> that each person uses ;-)
>
>
>> (*) "Meeting": "Imprisoning a group of people in a room when they'd much
>> prefer to be doing productive work rather than just taking about work,
>> which assigns additional tasks to everyone but then keeps them
>> imprisoned in the meeting so they can't get on with actually doing those
>> tasks." Are you calling me a cynic?
>
> After the BBC had gone in for internal charging, someone said, at an
> interdepartmental meeting"Who is paying for me to come to this meeting?"

When the company that I worked for introduced cost centres, with codes for
filling in micro-managing timesheets, there were calls for a special code
"Time wasted while I fill in this f*ing form" ;-)

My view is "we all work for the same company and we shouldn't be building
excuses for not cooperating between one department and another". We've all
got jobs to do, so let us just get on with them for the good of the company
as a whole, without having to take time out to fill in timesheets and to
cross-charge people outside the team.

The best manager is one who is always available whenever you need him to
authorise something or to fight for you, but who is otherwise invisible
unless you've got a problem; also he/she should have sufficient technical
knowledge to understand why you are having problems completing a task and
who can actually help or else "know a man who can".

I had the misfortune in my last job of working for a manager who was a
project- and people-manager but who had no technical knowledge of the
various projects that his team were working on. I was engaged to do some
pioneering work, pushing back the frontiers of the company's knowledge,
trying to do something that may well have been impossible because of
Microsoft limitations. There was one huge stumbling block by way of a
non-negotiable requirement which I kept telling my manager "this is what is
giving me big problems and this is why". He metaphorically patted me on the
head patronisingly and told me he had confidence in me. Eventually the work
was handed to someone else and that huge unachievable requirement was
removed. The other guy completed the work very easily. This was used as
justification for making me redundant on the grounds of failure to achieve.
At my exit interview I made sure everyone was made aware of this moving of
the goalposts. It was not a nice company to work for, and I'd probably have
been looking for another job if I hadn't been pushed.

NY wrote:

>I had the misfortune in my last job of working for a manager who was a
>project- and people-manager but who had no technical knowledge of the
>various projects that his team were working on.

It is just as bad the other way round.

There was a time when my chief engineer and engineering manager,
whilst both excellent engineers, had no real management skills.
This was such a shame, as their real talents were wasted, and
their ineptitude diminished the work of those in their charge.

I'm not sure what would have happened if we had been allowed to
share our evaluation, in the way that some systems encourage
these days, but it would have been interesting to find out.

I recall one of my annual appraisals, termed a "Merit Assessment"
(which was really just a way to allocate a budget for annual
increments by working backwards from the financial limitations,
like physics practicals) where I was given no enhancement because
I had not "expanded my role".

I suggested this might in some way be linked to my having
performed all those tasks which had be allocated to me, but
management hadn't chosen to "expand my role". This was not a
fruitful argument.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
chris@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

On 31/12/2021 22:12, charles wrote:
> After the BBC had gone in for internal charging, someone said, at an
> interdepartmental meeting"Who is paying for me to come to this meeting?"

There were lots of stories of the lunacy of "internal charging" like
people going out to buy a record because it was cheaper than paying for
the use of the Record Library (or whatever they called it). But it was
like religion, you could argue with the true believers.

I remember for years we were not charged for stationery because it had
been calculated that it cost more to administrate a charging system than
the items cost. But it was contracted out with many of the items not in
the supplier's catalogue, I think that like most of that type of company
they sent everything out by expensive courier services. For basic items
I would just go into the local John Menzies and use the universal
currency to cover my costs - stamps from the stamp box!

On 31/12/2021 22:28, NY wrote:
> When the company that I worked for introduced cost centres, with codes for
> filling in micro-managing timesheets, there were calls for a special code
> "Time wasted while I fill in this f*ing form";-)

We had that as well but of course they did not want to know much it cost
to fill in forms. There were lots of telephone calls to try and get a
cost code out of people which they would be reluctant to give you.

The whole cost code system was poorly thought out, probably be people
using it all day so able to remember the codes for everything. I think
there were three different numbers but two had the same number of digits
so easily mixed up.

On Sat, 01 Jan 2022 10:01:30 +0000, MB wrote:

> On 31/12/2021 22:12, charles wrote:
>> After the BBC had gone in for internal charging, someone said, at an
>> interdepartmental meeting"Who is paying for me to come to this
>> meeting?"
>
> There were lots of stories of the lunacy of "internal charging" like
> people going out to buy a record because it was cheaper than paying for
> the use of the Record Library (or whatever they called it). But it was
> like religion, you could argue with the true believers.
>
> I remember for years we were not charged for stationery because it had
> been calculated that it cost more to administrate a charging system than
> the items cost. But it was contracted out with many of the items not in
> the supplier's catalogue, I think that like most of that type of company
> they sent everything out by expensive courier services. For basic items
> I would just go into the local John Menzies and use the universal
> currency to cover my costs - stamps from the stamp box!

I bypassed the buying department one Saturday afternoon to continue an
experiment on a very important test rig. All I needed was a 4" hole in a
3" thick walled vessel. I knew the cutting specialist subcontractors were
on site on another job and I got them to come over and do the hole cut.
This saved a huge amount of money in test rig delay and cost of a
dedicated visit to site requiring safety and security clearance costs. All
they could grumble about was not going through the buying department.

On Sat, 1 Jan 2022 10:01:30 +0000, MB <MB@nospam.net> wrote:

> There were lots of stories of the lunacy of "internal charging" like
> people going out to buy a record because it was cheaper than paying for
> the use of the Record Library (or whatever they called it). But it was
> like religion, you could argue with the true believers.

Yes, someone was sent up the road to WH Smiths to buy a VHS of something,
which we then had to transfer to a proper format for editing, instead
of getting a line booking from Windmill Road (as it was then) and the
archive VT in proper quality.
I expressed my displeasure to the producer*, but he wasn't interested,
and bleated about the 'cost'. That's bean-counters for you.

* He's now a doctor.