Venting about vagueness
Posted by OutOfMyWay 11 years, 7 months ago to Business
Working with people in the software industry, every day I run into one or more situations with a co-worker or manager that reminds me of very NON Galt-like behavior. One persistent behavior exhibited by one person in particular just never gets better, and I'm sure some can relate. I'm talking about vague instructions or arguments about things that should be pretty concrete. And no, I don't mean giving a high level directive where the employee is expected to fill in the practical details themselves.
This person will dance around a subject or point for 10 - 30 minutes instead of just clearly stating facts and making a point that could be made in 30 seconds. I once had to sit and listen for 30 minutes in a meeting about why it is important to get your timesheets in on time each week, and how managers have to approve your time after it is submitted, and reports are run after time is submitted, and the reports are skewed when the timesheets haven't all been turned in. On and on and on for 30 minutes! All that needed to be said is "Upper management is not pleased with the number of people failing to turn in their timesheets on time. Get it done on time each week without me having to nag you into it".
Time wasting conversation and vagueness seems to go hand in hand with making non-nonsensical statements. They will make a statement such as "If you get to the grocery store and discover that they are out of olive oil, then you probably should've come up with a substitute before leaving home". Then when you point out that you'd have to come up with a substitute for every item before leaving home, instead of just admitting that it was a silly argument they will say something like "Well see, what you need to understand is that grocery stores don't always have everything you need and nobody should be expected to have a substitute list for every grocery item they need". Instead of banging your head against the wall you have to just nod your head and stop engaging them in the hopes that it will shorten the time they will spend going on and on about something with more vagueness or nonsensical garbage.
The point to my ranting above is just that people who are eternally vague and drag on with nonsense and strange declarations in every conversation in a work environment are huge TIME WASTERS! It's particularly bad when they are management and you can't just say "Shut up and get out of my away". The weird thing is that some of these people are actually pretty intelligent, yet their intelligence doesn't always translate to being productive. Some of these people seem to have little appreciation for getting things done in a timely manner and cutting out the BS. On the other hand, I have also known a few people who are quite productive, but are not necessarily the sharpest among their peers. I'll take those people over the time wasters any day!
I feel like the producer in me makes me much more annoyed than I would otherwise be. Is it just me, or do these people annoy you too?
This person will dance around a subject or point for 10 - 30 minutes instead of just clearly stating facts and making a point that could be made in 30 seconds. I once had to sit and listen for 30 minutes in a meeting about why it is important to get your timesheets in on time each week, and how managers have to approve your time after it is submitted, and reports are run after time is submitted, and the reports are skewed when the timesheets haven't all been turned in. On and on and on for 30 minutes! All that needed to be said is "Upper management is not pleased with the number of people failing to turn in their timesheets on time. Get it done on time each week without me having to nag you into it".
Time wasting conversation and vagueness seems to go hand in hand with making non-nonsensical statements. They will make a statement such as "If you get to the grocery store and discover that they are out of olive oil, then you probably should've come up with a substitute before leaving home". Then when you point out that you'd have to come up with a substitute for every item before leaving home, instead of just admitting that it was a silly argument they will say something like "Well see, what you need to understand is that grocery stores don't always have everything you need and nobody should be expected to have a substitute list for every grocery item they need". Instead of banging your head against the wall you have to just nod your head and stop engaging them in the hopes that it will shorten the time they will spend going on and on about something with more vagueness or nonsensical garbage.
The point to my ranting above is just that people who are eternally vague and drag on with nonsense and strange declarations in every conversation in a work environment are huge TIME WASTERS! It's particularly bad when they are management and you can't just say "Shut up and get out of my away". The weird thing is that some of these people are actually pretty intelligent, yet their intelligence doesn't always translate to being productive. Some of these people seem to have little appreciation for getting things done in a timely manner and cutting out the BS. On the other hand, I have also known a few people who are quite productive, but are not necessarily the sharpest among their peers. I'll take those people over the time wasters any day!
I feel like the producer in me makes me much more annoyed than I would otherwise be. Is it just me, or do these people annoy you too?
The following article has an interesting take about why that might be.
http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gold...
The Blithering blatherskites!
I have been called into meetings where my clients wish to impress their clients with the expertise at their disposal. They then proceed to talk for 30 minutes, saying nothing of import. Then they ask me what I think of the project. In two or three sentences I point out the design problems related to manufacturability, and then they talk nonsense again for 20 minutes while I wait for the meeting to break up wishing I was anywhere else. Most of the time my few words were the only ones that accomplished anything, and that usually amounts to a later phone call from the buyers engineer so I can explain it to someone who can see it and do something about it… I believe there are a lot of know nothing paper pushers who set up these meetings to create pretence for their necessity…
Now if you really want to experience brain numbing rambling attend almost any government meeting. From small town halls to Congress you will never encounter more stuffed shirt, self important, simpletons who resemble babbling idiots. This is where the best/ worst of them gravitate for the spotlight… it is a road to prosperity for smooth talking shysters and community organizers…. there are of course a few exceptions…
Their modus operandi:
If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull#$&%!
Respectfully,
O.A.
The Big Sleep is vaguely pleasant but starting a company in an area you feel passionate about is exciting and challenging and rewarding.
You would be happy-
except- the business environment for the private sector is vague at best.
As for the not getting the time cards in on time. That's easy. Time cards are due at X time. Payroll is processed 15 minutes later. No time card, no pay. Problem solved.
What I've found is that if you just do your job well, be productive, and be clear and concise when explaining your work then your intelligence will just be self evident without making yourself look like an arrogant jerk. Some of these people will spend way too much effort boasting about their experiences or what they did in the past that was so great. What they don't seem to realize is that once you are hired and working with me, I don't really give a crap about all that. I only care what you can do right now so you need to start spending your mental energy on THIS problem right NOW! And don't give me a bunch of theoretical BS that is only remotely applicable (if that) to the problem at hand, either.
Again, I think these are all behaviors that annoy the producer in me, which is why I like posting it here in the Gulch. Very cool replies from all.