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The Soft Bigotory of Lowered Expectations
Sep. 2nd, 2004 11:13 pmIt's lightly raining tonight. As I left work it was just starting, and now it looks like it's going to go on all night. No big deal, after getting some dinner, I'm at home for the evening. Heck, this cold has come back-because I don't think I truly lost it. There's a lot going on at work, so I want to avoid not being there, but I know I'm totally unfocused while the Sudafed works me over.
You see, the product launch happened yesterday. This means that our marketing department will finally start talking about it. Retirement plans are full of legal crap and things that the company has to look at, plus they have to decide if the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in fees are worth it, as well as our financial performance. (When you just had a company take their 350 million dollar account away from you, you kind of wonder how we're doing. I rarely notice if our financial products are good or not this day.) We probably won't see our first application for another week or so.
We've tried to train our people, but there are still many, many holes. Things we just don't know, haven't foreseen, and haven't fathomed to know how to fix. We've been on the new system for a year and a half, and we still get surprised with the next glitch, or the new revelation that we could have done right if we had only know. Sometimes the fixes are costing us thousands of dollars. I'm betting there won't be raises. I guess if you own some of our investments, you must be feeling real good about this. It's a good time to be doing it as part of our company is already being scrutinized by the SEC.
It's sad that we are getting calls from the bewildered marketing folks, wondering what's going on with the product they are selling. "What is the fee structure?" "Uhm, guys, your group come up with them, could your management not tell you what it was? They told us!" This can only lead to two things, customers who are concerned that we don't know what we're doing, or even worse, those that get told the wrong thing, and we'll have to try to fix it. Misconceptions sell so well.
We've also been have a rash of "corporate culture" events. Lunches out together, odd occasions like jeans days and weird events, like an olympic games sort of thing. I'm sorry that I'm not all rah-rah about these events. i don't like that people keep calling for potluck lunches, where I have to buy stuff for all of you, and you bring crap. I, like others, don't like feeling forced to be one of the gang...especially since I know I'd leave in a heartbeat when the right opportunity comes.
We do a breakfast thing each week. There's 8 of us on my team who take turns bringing stuff for the rest. Since we had some times where Lisa, my boss, didn't like what was brought, we now have two people each week bringing stuff. That's once a month, and it cost at least $10 to do. Lisa now asks people what they are bringing, and then denies that she's trying to influence whet is delivered.
I jovially fight this, and keep what I bring a secret, and lately I've been pushing the edge. I brought Pop Tarts one week. the team ate it up, but Lisa disapproved. Another week I ordered Pizza the night before, and put them in the fridge. Cold pizza for breakfast. Again, Lisa was in a huff, but the Pizza was gone before 11. I know my team better than she does, and rightfully so.
The breakfast thing isn't a part of my duties, and if I find it coming up in my review, I will make a shout about it. I could say how bad she is forcing people to buy what she wants. When we were all going to go out to eat, everyone let her choose the restaurant, because she would fuss. (He's the thing, here preferred taste is - Bland. Yep, we went to Chipotle and in a burrito with no salsa...it was still too spicy. I'm surprised she's Hispanic) So yes, we went to a terrible restaurant, and any hope of feeling good about it was lost.
Yes, I have a lot of crazy things about food, but if they bring in a fruit platter for breakfast, or want to go for Chinese, I deal with it. I know I'm the weird one, and I can't force them to kowtow to me. I'm just their boss - a guy who has a different responsibility, not control over them.
Corporate culture isn't worth the work most times. Go to work. Do your job, earn your pay. Go home.
Lastly, I get to do one more rant about my boss. She was the one who tried to look for other, safer options for the bulletin board we were made to create, announcing our team to the rest of the department. She thought our "Bob the Builder idea was to risky, to unprofessional for us. Here's an email she sent yesterday:
Us? What us? Grr. Where's my Dallas dream job?
You see, the product launch happened yesterday. This means that our marketing department will finally start talking about it. Retirement plans are full of legal crap and things that the company has to look at, plus they have to decide if the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in fees are worth it, as well as our financial performance. (When you just had a company take their 350 million dollar account away from you, you kind of wonder how we're doing. I rarely notice if our financial products are good or not this day.) We probably won't see our first application for another week or so.
We've tried to train our people, but there are still many, many holes. Things we just don't know, haven't foreseen, and haven't fathomed to know how to fix. We've been on the new system for a year and a half, and we still get surprised with the next glitch, or the new revelation that we could have done right if we had only know. Sometimes the fixes are costing us thousands of dollars. I'm betting there won't be raises. I guess if you own some of our investments, you must be feeling real good about this. It's a good time to be doing it as part of our company is already being scrutinized by the SEC.
It's sad that we are getting calls from the bewildered marketing folks, wondering what's going on with the product they are selling. "What is the fee structure?" "Uhm, guys, your group come up with them, could your management not tell you what it was? They told us!" This can only lead to two things, customers who are concerned that we don't know what we're doing, or even worse, those that get told the wrong thing, and we'll have to try to fix it. Misconceptions sell so well.
We've also been have a rash of "corporate culture" events. Lunches out together, odd occasions like jeans days and weird events, like an olympic games sort of thing. I'm sorry that I'm not all rah-rah about these events. i don't like that people keep calling for potluck lunches, where I have to buy stuff for all of you, and you bring crap. I, like others, don't like feeling forced to be one of the gang...especially since I know I'd leave in a heartbeat when the right opportunity comes.
We do a breakfast thing each week. There's 8 of us on my team who take turns bringing stuff for the rest. Since we had some times where Lisa, my boss, didn't like what was brought, we now have two people each week bringing stuff. That's once a month, and it cost at least $10 to do. Lisa now asks people what they are bringing, and then denies that she's trying to influence whet is delivered.
I jovially fight this, and keep what I bring a secret, and lately I've been pushing the edge. I brought Pop Tarts one week. the team ate it up, but Lisa disapproved. Another week I ordered Pizza the night before, and put them in the fridge. Cold pizza for breakfast. Again, Lisa was in a huff, but the Pizza was gone before 11. I know my team better than she does, and rightfully so.
The breakfast thing isn't a part of my duties, and if I find it coming up in my review, I will make a shout about it. I could say how bad she is forcing people to buy what she wants. When we were all going to go out to eat, everyone let her choose the restaurant, because she would fuss. (He's the thing, here preferred taste is - Bland. Yep, we went to Chipotle and in a burrito with no salsa...it was still too spicy. I'm surprised she's Hispanic) So yes, we went to a terrible restaurant, and any hope of feeling good about it was lost.
Yes, I have a lot of crazy things about food, but if they bring in a fruit platter for breakfast, or want to go for Chinese, I deal with it. I know I'm the weird one, and I can't force them to kowtow to me. I'm just their boss - a guy who has a different responsibility, not control over them.
Corporate culture isn't worth the work most times. Go to work. Do your job, earn your pay. Go home.
Lastly, I get to do one more rant about my boss. She was the one who tried to look for other, safer options for the bulletin board we were made to create, announcing our team to the rest of the department. She thought our "Bob the Builder idea was to risky, to unprofessional for us. Here's an email she sent yesterday:
From: Gxxxxx, Lisa A (Houston)
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 3:58 PM
To: Yohan; Dominick; Marvin; Edwards, Michael; Rick; Wallooppillai, Monica; John; Hiran
Subject: KUDOS......
Wanted to let you all know that Bill [President of Our Division- ed] was very impressed with our boards for the Plan Install team, he really liked the building concept, the use of blue prints etc...
WAY TO GO TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lisa
Us? What us? Grr. Where's my Dallas dream job?
