March 11, 2006

to annoy or not to annoy

From Sigurd:

I have a friend who frequently (yesterday) nudges me that I should not annoy big serious big money potential customer corporate types with certain statements and words (management is a waste of time and bollocks?). That's rule #1 he says.

But I cannot help it. Here we say "find your voice", "be true to yourself" and "engage in open conversations" - and I happen to agree.

Stupid or not, being honest (and stupid saying it loud?) is an excellent filter against wasting their time and my time. They don't like it, good, then let's not waste time.

Big-company people not wasting time? It's like cows not eating grass.

Posted by hugh macleod at March 11, 2006 11:07 AM | TrackBack
Comments

So, this is a good friend of yours? Giving you stupid advice? Yeah, even our good friends do that. You gotta be you, Hugh. And, we gotta be we. Whoever we are. Anyway, stick to your pen... "big serious big money" ain't worth rule #1. Time someone buried that under a great cartoon. Wait...I think that someone is you!

Posted by: Yvonne DiVita at March 11, 2006 12:42 PM

I've found that small company people like to waste time just as much as the big company people, however they usually can't afford to waste quite so much.

Posted by: Jesse at March 11, 2006 2:05 PM

Time, like anything else, is easy to waste if somebody else is paying for it.

Posted by: hugh macleod at March 11, 2006 2:18 PM

"Time, like anything else, is easy to waste if somebody else is paying for it."

In the face of such profundity, one should always:

* Bow down in admiration.

* Throw up.

* Re-evaluate the next T-short order.

And the winner is ...

Posted by: Jerry Mead at March 11, 2006 4:45 PM

I'm reminded, though, of the person I recently saw arguing that his lack of reasonable courtesy was excused by "I'm just being myself. Isn't that what we're supposed to do?"

Of course, any good idea can be used as an excuse; I'm not saying that means it's not a good idea.

Posted by: Brooks Moses at March 11, 2006 10:15 PM

[Protest, protest] Hey, Brooks, I can assure you I'm mostly well behaved, courteous, proper, polite, hair carefully dishevelled, careful chooser of words, etc. - but I freely admit that some ideas and attitudes are resisting all kind of house-training... :D

Posted by: sig at March 12, 2006 9:27 AM

I'm always honest about my feelings and opinions at work. Unfortunately I have been informed that this is against our "anti-negativity" policy. I am tired of explaining that the negative already exists and I'm just voicing it. "Oh well, time to move on. I might be appreciated somewhere" :)

Posted by: bennie at March 12, 2006 8:49 PM