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There's no such thing a problem-solving in an office because every problem exist due to political or bureaucratic arrangement. Doesn't take a genius to figure out most problems at work, the real problem is how to get rid of that stupid boss that won't change his/her ways to make things work.
There's no such thing a problem-solving in an office because every problem exist due to political or bureaucratic arrangement. Doesn't take a genius to figure out most problems at work, the real problem is how to get rid of that stupid boss that won't change his/her ways to make things work.
Politics and bureaucracy, so you're saying the most difficult problem solving is understanding people, understanding their different motivations, and understanding how to get them to work together best. That's absolutely problem solving.
Thanks for your post and the dose of sanity. Everyone here is right. They're also wrong, and it's hard to communicate what I'm saying. Basically I work for a dirtbag company and that's that.
You are welcome.
Your company may be dirtbag, or just inefficient. They may press you to work harder because of their inefficiency, or they may press you to work harder because they are cheap. Or both.
It sounds as if you have a fairly lowl evel position, compliling reports and data for others. It is unlikely that you will be able to make a convincing argument for your company to change practices For right or wrong, most execs aren’t going to change corporate practices and culture at the suggestion of a lower tier employee. This is typically because the execs know more than the employee, having more experience and access to information, although that opinion probably won’t make me popular on this thread.
You really have a limited number of options.
1. You can do what your boss says, even if it seems silly. After all, you are getting paid, does it matter terribly what you do during the 8 hours of work?
2. You can fight the system. Keep in mind that the system is bigger than you, with more resources, and is designed to make people comply. You will likely lose.
3. You can leave for other opportunities. Maybe you want to gain experience in this job before moving on, maybe you want to add skills or education.
Good luck. I am not telling you to stay and suck it up, but I am saying that you are not being asked to do anything horrible.
How do I get to this place where working hard and being smart pays off? As should be evident in my post, my company couldn't give a damn what's efficient or not, and presenting any method superior to them would be threatening. I'm sorry, but do people live in the real world?
You need to be in the right role, at the right company. That might mean obtaining more skill, opening your own business, or entering management.
Document what you're doing, measure how much time the company is saving due to the improved processes you are creating, estimate how much money the company is saving based on those time savings. Present that to your boss at your next annual review. That's how you get raises and promotions.
In general, good systems are key. Even a group of smart, hardworking people can flounder if their systems are flawed. In my last job, in purchasing and logistics management, our systems (software, general best practices etc) got slowly better over time, but... if we had had much more robust software, custom tailored to our exact business model, I likely would have had to do a lot less problem solving- I could likely have been replaced with a less intelligent 'drone' type person. But the company couldn't afford the millions of dollars such a solution would have cost.
I can understand where you are coming from. There are different kinds of problem solving. There is the good kind which adds value and the reason why good businesses hire good employees. To solve problems that add value and make happy customers.
Then there is the other kind. The kind where most businesses are. The kind where solving the problem doesn't add value; it consumes it. You spend time and effort just digging out of the hole the business puts itself in through poor processes and poor decisions. Where I work has a database process like that. Been there over 20 years. Very difficult to work with, almost impossible to search and find what you want. It's been a constant complaint from every employee that has to use it since the day it was implemented. But there's a tiny little mafia of IT folks who live and breath this one database. They've built their entire careers around it and keep management convinced they can't afford to be without it because so much is now kept in it.
Document what you're doing, measure how much time the company is saving due to the improved processes you are creating, estimate how much money the company is saving based on those time savings. Present that to your boss at your next annual review. That's how you get raises and promotions.
I had something similar going on in 2006. The amount of time to support our records and present data to customers in an organized fashion was completely unacceptable. I'm only half surprised that sort of kluge still exists here in 2019. Then, two of us were full time doing the analysis and managing an incompetent vendor. I was the lead PM and BA. Knowing something about IT, I setup latency traces on their pipelines and measured the in-situ software's failures. It was a complete kluge by the "low bid" vendor in Ireland. I had that shut down in a year based on my findings, they were fired and systems shut down as they were replaced because they could not fix the issues.
In that time, I called various friends because hopefully it's obvious there are ways to handle eRecords these days with programs like Dynamics 365 and many others. The toughest part is not the software, but the human factors change management. By far. I didn't know that, but best OP does.
I'm guessing...don't hold me to it...SalesForce could come up with something fairly quickly based on OP's comments. Salesforce is sweeping aside all comers these days, for good reason. No. 1 SaaS in the world, "I think."
As the person I'm quoting says, package it up in a proposal: the problem, the manpower, the outcomes, and possible alternatives. The case should be nearly airtight. I did this, it took just a few weeks, and after I convinced a VP with unimpeachable logic she authorized about a hundred thousand dollars into (first) a pilot, then SaaS systems, not a big investment for a mid-cap. I rode herd on that as the SaaS client PM for three months, then six more months in my normal function as PM Lead for the firm overseeing data collection and analysis (aka BI). When we had stable data, our customer in-turn was astounded. First Microsoft, then Cisco and H-P. Internally, it shook up our organization and shone light on quite a few people who didn't like that...not...one...BIT. Too damn bad: there were a few terminations, RIFs, and promotions for those who embraced the new systems to show how effective they were at their jobs (bravo, I said at the time!). See "change management," above.
I documented our savings and efficiencies over the long run, they were substantial. And that's all that matters to executives. "Not" doing this leads to burnout and attrition, so don't be stupid.
Things like this are solvable in three months to a year max. If you're not a solution architect or competent PM, find someone who is whom you can trust.
There's no such thing a problem-solving in an office because every problem exist due to political or bureaucratic arrangement. Doesn't take a genius to figure out most problems at work, the real problem is how to get rid of that stupid boss that won't change his/her ways to make things work.
This 100000xxxxxx
People (generally the management) is the true cause of ANY problem in the company. Most of the time problems (or the root/core of them) never gets fixed regardless. Nothing gets “fixed” I have found in corporate America America. Just patched up for a little while. Actually pointing out problems and providing solutions threatens the insecure nutjobs that run most corporate workplaces now. Fixing issues means eliminating the problems and bringing in new blood that will improve everything (Hardly ever seen it happen though)
And if theres a "change" to eliminate the problem, they usually bring in people that just create even MORE problems.
Generally when workplaces turn rotten, they almost NEVER improve. Theres plenty of places that were once quality places to work turn rotten however.
Most companies "solutions" fixing the problems is just hiring on more pointless layers of management that just muddy the water even more and eliminating the workers. So nothing gets fixed
Politics and bureaucracy, so you're saying the most difficult problem solving is understanding people, understanding their different motivations, and understanding how to get them to work together best. That's absolutely problem solving.
When I was in my 20s entering corporate work, now I am in my early 40s. I was the typical self-righteous lad that wants to get things done if things look wrong. People loved my motivation and bosses praise my work. Then one day, my co-worker pulled me over. He was in his late 50s and he said to me that I will never forget even til this day.
"So you think you're being a doing the right thing they are gonna reward you?"
He explained to me that things are broken or not working because there are people with arrangement to prop their existence and they like to keep it that way. If you upset the food chain they will do marginalize you or push you out. Unless you become the boss.
Now I am independent consultant and I get paid to pinpoint problems and I get more attention than being brushed aside in the past as being an instigator.
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