Nice post, but I would appreciate examples. Anyone has good examples of this, and of the "not like this" section?
Doing Everyone Else's Job
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Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#22In corporations no good deed ever goes unpunished.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#23Just work a lot more for the same pay. Great idea.
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Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#24In case the author reads this : I suspect I agree with some of the ideas (or at least they're though provoking), but the writing does not help.
The comma count is a hint ;)
(I had to parse a few paragraphs several times to get the idea.)
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#25"For some reason, many resent the idea of working on someone else’s system, and think of it as charity uncalled for in the workplace. Well, did Intel do Microsoft’s job to help poor struggling Microsoft, or did they do it to benefit from Microsoft’s success?"
It all depends on stock options allocation, no?
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#26In corporations no good deed ever goes unpunished.
Someone literally said that to me when I did a thing. I'd never heard it before. But I'm careful about the things I do now because as soon as I touch or fix something I'm suddenly the owner of it for the rest of time.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#27I worked for a Japanese corporation, and a big part of their HR policy, was to move staff around the company. It was usually in 1- or 2-year stints (people would spend their entire careers at the company, so they could do this). Eventually, they would end up doing longer stints, where they would specialize.
They would couple this with things like standardized coding and documentation styles, common tools, etc. Training on these standards was a regular thing for all staff.
The idea was that they could rapidly move experienced staff around. It also helped staff to understand how their work was applied in an integrated system (having “blinders” on, is a fairly typical issue, with dedicated employees).
It generally worked, but relied on their particular culture, and introduced a fairly significant amount of overhead and rigidity to the system. It would also mean that it takes a long time to cultivate experts.
Personally, I’ve always enjoyed learning new stuff (still do). I actually enjoy taking on projects that I don’t know how to do. I wrote about it here: https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/thats-not-what-ships...
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#28The other powerful thing about being able to do everyone else's job is that you, personally, gain a lot of leverage, and in a lot of different ways. Someone else needs a favor? You probably know how to deliver. Something's on fire? You probably know what to do next, or at least who to call, no matter what's on fire today. Someone isn't budging on something? You might not have any bigger of a lever than anyone else, b…
LOL! My bosses used to tell me that I need to learn to be more `rude` and not just do what others says because I can. I have learnt a lot and one of the biggest is to say NO, in big Uppercase—I can do anything for work but I won’t do that, NO, I won’t do that. Sometime, I still do and I like the fun and thrill of locking in a hotel room after a meeting and coming out in lot less days these days (pppppsssstt, because…
There is also the lowercase no, where you say you'd love to do things, but that it has to go through proper channels and get on the roadmap.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#29Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#30In case the author reads this : I suspect I agree with some of the ideas (or at least they're though provoking), but the writing does not help. The comma count is a hint ;) (I had to parse a few paragraphs several times to get the idea.)
Conversely, I found this easy and enjoyable to read.