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- Wanted: idle, indifferent and irresponsible staff for absurd work.
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Hmm, if you’re paid to do work absurd or otherwise then leave the job or get fired!
Who is the employee be they manager or not to decide what is absurd or not? What might *appear* to be absurd at one level of perspective might be perfectly sensible at another.
But if the company encourages feedback then go for it.
If not shut up or leave.
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The customers decide what is absurd. “Would I pay for this?”. Is the work (1) directly helping the customer or (2) supporting this work to happen at all or happen better. Why ask an employee or manager what’s absurd? That’s just opinion. Instead FIND OUT whether it’s value work or pure absurd waste. Rule of thumb: no line of sight to customer, you’re doing absurd work
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Crazy talk! A train should always be driven from the rear. Preferably with no consideration to the passengers that use it. Just ask Southern Railway.
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I suspect that a significant majority of both employers (and employees) don’t realise that what they’re instructing staff to do is absurd and stands a reasonable chance of turning potentially great staff into idle, indifferent and irresponsible staff…..
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…and giving customers absurd work to do produces a similar set of behaviours.
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Where do I apply?
If you’ve not done so already, I think you’d enjoy reading some of Dr Richard Claydon’s stuff LinkedIn. He writes a lot about how irony, cynicism, etc, are an inevitable consequence of our broken management system.
Here’s one example: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/our-irrational-fear-negative-employee-dr-richard-claydon
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that link’s awesome!
looked at some of his others, and love this one. Brilliant. EVERYBODY STOP WHAT YOURE DOING AND READ THIS
I think I’m a cross on a bad day of Basket-case and on a good day of Buffoon. Buffoon being the one to aspire to obv.
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Fantastic. I’m a buffoon.
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I’m all five and more. It depends on the context (and/or content and/or process a al Wharfield) and what I’m aiming to achieve. I can also be mad warrior or elder statesman for the same reasons.
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Good stuff.
So much Change stuff is bullshit based on the assumption that “Resisters are idiots who have to be cajoled/tricked/bullied into the Brave New World”.
What are the odds that an organisation would hire scores of drab stupid minions yet also manage to hire superstars to Lead them?
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Someitmes it’s not so much change that’s resisted but the promise of change. Promises that are rarely kept do make people cynical.
Of course a lot of change is resisted because orgmen don’t want it as it would be against their interests and would weaken their fiefdoms.
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