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Andrew Plato reports that in the movie Office Space: <<the boss, Lumberg, is
angry with an employee, Peter, for not showing up at work the past weekend.
Lumberg is standing in a hallway as Peter walks up to him. "Peter!" Lumberg
says. Peter looks right at Lumberg. Lumberg begins to admonish Peter for
not coming to work. Peter walks right around Lumberg and out the door
without saying a word. Lumberg stands there in awe as people nearby laugh.
I think this is the only effective way to deal with bureaucracy tyrants.>>
To put this in context, it might be worth reminding folks that Andrew is his
own boss, and can ignore himself whenever he so chooses--though I must
admit, the image of him walking past himself in the halls is one I'll
cherish for some time. <G>
In the wage slave's workplace, this tactic can also work under _limited_
circumstances, but it can also backfire. I once tried this tactic with a
boss two levels above me (he supervised me for a year while my own
supervisor's position was being staffed), and it worked because in this
specific conflict, I had my ass well and truly covered, with facts and
corroborating witnesses; he could have followed through on his threats, but
would have fallen flat on his face in front of the other managers, and he
knew it and I knew it. I was never specifically insolent or insubordinate,
as that would have been overplaying my hand and would have landed me in hot
water. I also accepted the fact that he was going to go around badmouthing
me and trying to undermine me for the rest of our mutual stay at that
office--which he did, and which I survived only because my reputation with
the other managers remained unblemished, unlike his. I also once stood up to
the Director General himself by politely refusing an unreasonable request,
bowing out with the (factual) excuse that I had many more urgent things to
be doing first, but he could have insisted on me doing the job anyway. I
spent some kharmic capital on that one and had a good working relationship
of several years with the DG, though, and if I hadn't collected that kharmic
and relationship capital in the first place, I doubt I'd have had the
courage to try or have succeeded when I did.
Andrew has the right to fire a client at any time because (by the evidence)
he's good enough to easily replace that client. I'd extend Andrew's advice
to us wage slaves by noting that the market for techwhirlers seems pretty
hot these days, and you have the same right to walk straight past the
Lumbergs in your office too--provided you're either holding the higher
ground, as I did, or are prepared to keep right on walking out the door.
--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html
"I vowed [that] if I complained about things more than three times, I had to
do something about it."--Jon Shear
IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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