The job but I don’t see how they could possibly single me out as the sender if its sent anonymously.
No but he sure will get pissed when he sees the email to the entire staff…maybe as pissed as we are about his email to us.
HR is in on it of course and we were specifically told not to complain to anyone including our direct management. Overboard IMHO and deserving of a little public shaming.
If this guy is also banning work-related paperwork on desks, what in the world makes you think that he’ll be swayed by effects on productivity? One doesn’t need a peer-reviewed publication to reveal that allowing work-related paperwork is good for productivity.
In this situation, I would expect anywhere from no result to negative results from that email. I think most of us can tell you personal anecdotes about working for supervisors or company owners that were a lot more dangerously insane than this, and as a worker, your choices are put up with it or quit.
You can give it a try, though.
Guys, the point is not to change the policy, its to annoy the manager who thinks its ok to do stuff like this. I don’t expect a change to the policy, I expect to show our discontent with his absurd idea. No one can confront him directly about this, its the only way I know how to express myself without getting in trouble.
Hey Bongmaster, how do you know that your chief is not on The Straight Dope and is now looking at your profile…if so, he already knows who you are.
If you MUST do this foolish thing, please make sure that you go to the public library and use a common computer, open a Gmail or Yahoo! account specificially for this purpose, include your work email address in the list of addresses, and never complain about the new policy at work.
It would be better just to open a pit thread and call the CEO the more noisome version of Adrian Monk.
I’ll give you this, Bongmaster, at least you have an appropriate screen name.
I’m reminded of the manager of a large postal service sorting center who liked to watch from the catwalk overlooking the vast room where the mail sorters were at work in front of their banks of cubbies. He was bothered by the fact that some people sorted with their left hands. So he issued an edict mandating that henceforth ALL sorters were to sort with their right hands. Productivity for the lefties crashed and errors climbed, of course, and he tried to fire a few. That’s when it hit the news. He was severely reprimanded and demoted. (Hopefully to a sorter job.)
Intentionally annoying a manager is an excellent way to end up unemployed.
I predict that this will not end well.
O rly?
This tells me that you initially had the idea that you’d attempt to affect a change in policy. If you’re only trying to annoy him, it doesn’t matter what spam you fill his inbox with.
If you really really want to annoy him, cc a couple of letters-to-editor and Tv sites as well, and use “Scrooge Boss” in the heading.
Be careful about waxing poetic. The more you personally write, the more obvious your personal style becomes. He may be stupid but he’s not stupid. As someone else has already pointed out, he will go on a witch-hunt to find the culprit if he’s that anal. If teh rest of the company is as cowed as you say, they will certainly try to find out and have some guesses. Friends you tell at work about this idea might rat you out for some brownie points. When the secret police get going, nobody is your ally.
That’s not passive-aggressive. Passive-aggressive would be to smile and say “sure, I’ll get right to it!” and then never do it or do it badly.
Letting people know your opinion is not passive and it’s not necessarily aggressive.
You’ll find a lot of studies backing up the CEO actually. Do a search on 5S which is a Japanese workplace methodology for manufacturing environments.
Isn’t that the point of “Suggestion Boxes”, where people can make recommendations without worrying about upsetting anyone, or at least not attract unwanted attention to themself?
Bongmaster: Have you posted to the Dope from your work PC? It isn’t much of a stretch to believe that an aggressive boss could do a google search himself, find this thread, and find out who has been posting here via IP.
YMMV
Oh, they’ll find out. E-mail is not untraceable.
No, that’s so that the employees feel like their opinions matter.
Really.
Some interesting suggestions (and assumptions) here but all the forecasts of doom from doing this are misguided. No one at work views this site and even if they did they would have NO idea that I’m Bongmaster. I will of course take care to make sure the email is sent anonymously from a public source. I know a little about networks and computers. I also know enough not to write a long email, it will contain just a link to the article.