Boggette, another solution would be to have a supply of stamps and envelopes, and if they needed to get a message to a certain person, they could mail it to the one(s) who need to know. I’d think, there would be a way to get mail out to a person who works at home even if they were reluctant to let all those who worked in the office know their home address. Maybe give the office secretary/receptionist a file, and if they are on vacation HR could address it to be sent?
But… but… that would involve confrontation.
Speaking of SET YOU ON FIRE!!
I had a manager who set himself on fire [1]. While he was in the hospital, more and more accounting “irregularites” would be found by his backup. Such as why we were $800,000 over budget. Would you believe it wasn’t my section after all? I didn’t think paperclips were that expensive.
[1] Remember, kids, unload your hunting rifle before you store next to your home’s propane tank. you know, just in case you drop the rifle with the safety off, and blow up your house… and you.
They were. Generally the rules changes were a follow-up.
To make a long story short, it’s hard to prove in court what common sense or professionalism is. My company doesn’t want to get sued, or face legal action if we fire someone for doing something stupid. Hence, overly specific rules.
Common sense doesn’t exist, and we shouldn’t expect it. My husband, the Construction Safety Officer, has been trained to not even call it that. It’s called Good Judgement, and it should exist , but sadly, often doesn’t.
I agree with everything said so far. The best way to survive in the working environment of today is to not take anything seriously. When people are having artificial crises all over the place - smile and nod when they’re in your face, then just do what you can and leave it all at work when your shift is over. And get used to incompetence - it is as perennial as the dawn.
Two reasons this happens:
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Incompetent boob gets reprimanded for something. He asks where he can see the policy that prohibits this. There isn’t one. It gets written and distributed.
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Incompetent bood does something you don’t want the incompetent boob to do. Other people do the same thing without problem. You want to tell the boob not to do it, but he’ll ask why Mr. Does a Good Job gets to do said act. So the rule gets applied uniformly.
Not all incompetent boobs demand that all requests get applied uniformly, but some do. The ones who cause this to happen.
I’ve never had a problem with selectively enforcing rules before with people working for me. Just make sure Mr. Does a Good Job doesn’t do whatever he should not be doing in sight of Mr. Incompetent Boob.
Show of hands: How many women have trouble with incompetent boobs? I thought so.
Sometimes it’s hard for Mr. Does a Good Job to hide his actions in the cubefields of Corporate Americana. Also, for that to work, you have to let Mr. DaGJ know that his actions are OK but not OK for Mr. IB, which may involve telling Mr. DaGJ more than you should tell him.