Thought Picnic: The Dank Art of Arse Covering

We are first, human

There is something I still believe matters in the work environment; the realisation that you are still dealing with people, a subset of humanity that have personalities, interests, ambitions and lives.

Just because one is paid to work somewhere and by reason of that, fulfilling a role in a job does not take away from the fact that core elements of interaction as in courtesy, respect, appreciation and gratitude do not matter.

I find that in some cases I do appear culturally old-fashioned in appearance, demeanour, speech and written word, but it remains of the utmost importance and it does not cost a thing.

Covering arses

What I cannot stand is professional dishonesty, not so much because the person is morally bankrupt but because the environment is infused with a blame culture that everyone is afraid of being told-off because we have been deluded into thinking we are all infallible.

Maybe I should rephrase that, I have worked in places where what everyone does is find ways to shirk responsibility from owning a problem or admitting a mistake to the point that the problem becomes too obvious to ignore but with no one available to solve it even though all interested parties have both the ability and wherewithal to tackle the issue and provide a solution without much fuss.

In common parlance, I once wrote to a colleague, I cover my arse by getting the job done not by looking for someone to shift the blame unto.

Unhealthy environments

However, an environment that fosters the abrasion of basic humanity for meeting targets where the goal is to win all the accolades and foists all the faults on others even in the face of damning evidence is poisonous and unhealthy; it makes one adopt an antagonistic stance where mutual respect should grow and pitches people in camps ready to war against each other even though they work for the same organisation.

Sadly, there are no clear processes to glean where activities within an organisation are inimical to its development; the system becomes business as usual; the culture and the way things are done.

Bear or dare?

The more frustrating element to this is where people have accepted things as they are, after hitting so many brick walls they have become inured to what outsiders are newcomers consider an unnecessary inconvenience that has developed into an atrocious aberration.

You then wonder, whether you will be subsumed or stand aloof of the fray, maintaining both the composure and comportment that has always defined you – from what I know of myself, when it gets untenable and the environment is impervious to change, a walk is prepared for another challenge than to have one’s soul destroyed because we cannot find the best of our civility to do business together.

Dusting off my marketing literature

Never changing recurrence

Did I attend a meeting twice and find that one of the people who should have done something came to the meeting without having progressed any further?

It was the very last straw that broke the laden camel’s back, as I returned from Stockholm on Wednesday evening, it had come to a head for me, it was already reminiscent of every other endeavour we have tried to undertake – someone just cannot be arsed to do something.

At which point, I phoned my project manager and informed him that an email would be arriving the same night with the decision to seek other challenges.

Anyone would have seen this coming, the question would have been when; only that some had thought I had settled into a complacency that allows for these things to be ignored or treated as par for the course – they know different now.

Done or almost done

I would clear my desk at the end of November if no one has been hired to understudy me and take over what I am doing, else, I would consider suffering this ordeal till the end of the year.

Maybe, I am too demanding in my requirements that people deliver on what they are supposed to do, probably, I apply too much logic to scenarios requiring immediate resolution, apparently, I am impatient with organisations that are so clogged up in bureaucratic morass, we cannot get anything done.

This would normally not be evident because large organisations are able to cover a multitude of sins because their sales figures allow for other management deficiencies to be excused.

In any event, this job no more represents a challenge and more a running frustration; it would require a root-and-branch realignment of perspectives to change things, however, since I am just a contractor/consultant, my kind of professionalism might be creating business disruption in what is essentially the corporate culture of this organisation – it is time for me to move on.

This might momentarily leave my team in a bit of a quandary, but I hear from certain sources that a fresh-from-school guy might be hired in my place – and really, you can get anyone to do the job; but getting someone who really knows what to do, why it is done and how to fit it in that organisation requires experience – that is what I am selling to anyone who wants real solutions to chronic problems in the enterprise.