A little explanation of what I mean by BS, and my response to it.
In many instances, creating the appearance of doing something worthwhile is just as - if not more - important as actually doing something worthwhile. Often your boss is mostly interested in having you do things that they can report to THEIR bosses as accomplishments, while at all costs avoiding anything from happening that will force them to inform their bosses of anything unpleasant. So keep your boss happy by giving him/her what they want - something to brag about. Lacking that, above all else don’t do anything that will cause your boss’ boss to put your boss on the spot.
There is often a huge discrepancy between managers’ view of what is important, and labor’s view. Management’s concerns often seem to have little relevance to a worker’s day-to-day tasks, and often seem to interfere with the performance of those tasks. So your main time-management goal is to find a way to at least appear to be giving some lipservice to management’s concerns, while actually putting a dent on the work that is piling up and needs to be done.
Many managers place a terribly high value on controlling information, and doling it out only when absolutely needed. Don’t get pissed the 2d, 10th, and millionth time you encounter it. Too many jerks think information is power. Build your support groups, and figure out ways to compile and readily access info.
Of course, the other extreme is for mgmt to pour out a torrent of irrelevant e-mails and such, hidden within which may be the one nugget of information that is used down the line to say why something you have always done with no problem or complaint is against clearly communicated policy.
Once you accept the level of BS in your job, however, you can wrap yourself in it to create a lovely little cocoon of defensibility and anonymity. Put more effort into writing things up for management’s reports than actually attacking the workload, if that is what praise, bonuses, and raises are built on. All too often being the top producer simply earns you more work.
Value the fact that management carefully scrutinizes certain minutiae, because that will cause them to have blind spots in other areas. Scrupulously comply with what they pay attention to, while looking for the blind areas within which to carve out your flexibility and comfort.
Here’s a nutshell primer on one small aspect of many jobs- committees:
-Volunteer to be on teams/committees that you perceive will be of interest to the most important people in your organization, whether the subject matter is of any interest/value or not.
-Once on such a committee, immediately volunteer to take notes. That confers many benefits. First, you are too busy typing on the laptop to be expected to make much contribution during the meeting, while at the same time by taking notes you are clearly participating.
-Type the notes up and circulate them immediately following the meeting. That way you are the first person to have created any tangible product.
-When it comes time to request volunteers for specific tasks, well, you’d love to volunteer, but, you see, you are already so busy taking the notes and writing up the minutes. You’ll volunteer as soon as every other member of the committee has assumed a task that produces a tangible product akin to your minutes.
-Offer to work in subgroups with the most anal and opinionated member of the group. They will want to do everything in a certain way, and will like nothing more than someone who will quickly say, “I read over what you proposed, and it looks GREAT!” At times, you may wish to scan it briefly enough to spot a typo or something, just so you can point to your concrete contribution.
-You never need to propose anything. However, whenever someone else proposes something, immediately express your agreement. No need to be the first with an opinion, but you can always be the 2d. And your opinion can be nothing more than “Sounds GREAT! I agree!” That way, the group is never waiting around to hear from you, and at least the guy you agree with will view you as a positive contributor.
When all is said and done, you will be viewed as a valuable team player, at no cost other than wasting time from your normally assigned work tasks. But heck, even if those pile up, you have an excuse! You were swamped with all of this important work on this committee!
