But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
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But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
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Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#2There is a sort of stress that comes from a "slow-paced environment" where you've got a 50% or less duty cycle of doing real work because you're always waiting for somebody else to do something. Too little work can be just as stressful as too much.
Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#3A manager once told me, "multitasking may be inefficient, but that's what we do here." Let that admission sink in for a minute.
Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#4Interesting - it would be helpful to have a definition of "fast-paced". The phrase is far too vague.
I love working very hard (potentially fast) on a product that I'm making great headway on. Perhaps I'm in the zone or I know I need to hit a deadline.
That being said if I'm being asked to produce things frantically (also fast paced) with little to no direction or thought behind it...that's not so hot.
In general job descriptions should be more self aware and try to communicate the environment more specifically.
Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#5As was pointed out in the comments, fast-paced == lots of unpaid overtime. If you had good project planners (or project managers who don't start factoring timelines based on the amount of unpaid overtime they can get you to do) then you'd be working in a "well-paced environment". Which is a nice place to work.
Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#6A manager once told me, "multitasking may be inefficient, but that's what we do here." Let that admission sink in for a minute.
I'm sorry, I haven't got a minute. Can I let it sink in for 30 seconds, and get back to you?
Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#7Saying 'fast-paced' usually (in my experience) is a claim that the team doesn't get hung up and blocked on a bunch of minute details and 'sign-offs'. In other words - there's no committee.
Even if that isn't the norm, putting so much stock in the copy in a job ad is probably a waste of time anyway. Just because the ad says 'fast-paced' or refers to the person they're looking for as a 'ninja' doesn't mean it wouldn't be an awesome place to work -- from my perspective, quite the opposite, any text like that makes it feel like it was written by a company without an HR department (+10!).
Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#8There is a sort of stress that comes from a "slow-paced environment" where you've got a 50% or less duty cycle of doing real work because you're always waiting for somebody else to do something. Too little work can be just as stressful as too much.
This. Hurry up and wait. That's exactly how it worked for me when I worked for a large company. Need to make a database change? Be prepared to wait 3 weeks unless you can get someone several levels above you on the org chart to take notice. Same for any kind of additional access you might need, or to provision any amount of computing or network resources...
Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#9Interesting - it would be helpful to have a definition of "fast-paced". The phrase is far too vague. I love working very hard (potentially fast) on a product that I'm making great headway on. Perhaps I'm in the zone or I know I need to hit a deadline. That being said if I'm being asked to produce things frantically (also fast paced) with little to no direction or thought behind it...that's not so hot. In general job…
> Interesting - it would be helpful to have a definition of "fast-paced". The phrase is far too vague.
Welcome to the wonderful world of MBA-speak.
Re: But nobody wants a “fast-paced environment”
#10Fast paced is generally code for "we have the attention spans of fruit flies. We'll expect you to pick up the slack for our failings."