March 11, 2006
to annoy or not to annoy
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.
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!
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.
Time, like anything else, is easy to waste if somebody else is paying for it.
“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 …
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.
[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…
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”