Smart Ass In The Workplace

Sometimes, I need to ask questions...

 

 

Sometimes, the people I need to ask are busy and wonder, could we talk about it later...?

 

Well, certainly we could...

 

 

I like to think that all of my questions are easy questions.  Seriously, as long as you are asking the right person, and you've tried everything to solve the problem on your own, but there is just one missing piece and you know who holds the missing piece...should be simple, right?  No more difficult than your basic algebraic equation.  Solve for X.  Done.

 

 

So it feels dumb when you say, "Hey, can I ask you a quick question about something?" and they respond by sending you a meeting request on Outlook.

 

Dumb enough to maybe....oh, I dunno....make a smart-ass joke about it.

 

 

What the hell, right?  Since the other person and I are now officially on each other's schedule, is it wrong to advise that in place of my 12-second inquiry, there will now be a brief Power Point presentation, followed by discussion and review?

 

 

Just curious...

 

 

I am of the mind that companies that have a lot of meetings waste a lot of time.  This company has a kajillion meetings.  I've been to dozens, and I'm just some schmoh.  My boss?  You never see her--she's always at a meeting.

 

I sit through meetings, tapping my foot the entire time (patience of a gnat), thinking about the pile of work on my desk that I should be doing instead of sitting at the meeting, where the pile of work is being discussed, as if by talking about it, they can somehow make it go away.

 

Never mind the fact that there is never a resolution--we talk, and at the end of the allotted talk time, nobody has committed to any action of any kind, they just scratch their heads and say, "well, this is a very complex issue".  From time to time, they actually set up a committee to look into it further.  And that is followed by status meetings, progress meetings, etc.

 

Jeeeeezuzmarynjosef...

 

 

Initiative replaced by bullshit.  Film at 11.