Headless chickens

Author
Discussion

creampuff

Original Poster:

6,511 posts

142 months

Thursday 19th May 2016
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Would you say most companies are organised, or people run around like headless chooks with no idea?

Prior to the oil price going down the toilet, I used to work in the oil and gas industry. I thought it was very organised and everyone pretty much had a clue.

Due to getting laid off, I took a general type job. Now nobody has any idea. Not only no idea, but they create work such that I spend a lot of time replying to internal emails which is totally unbillable and I have to drop doing billable work. Today I got 42 emails addressed to me. In the oil industry I was client rep for about a £700 million project, everything technical from the contractors landed on my desk and usually my desk only. I never got anywhere near 42 emails a day.

Now I'm dealing with stuff about 1/100,000th the value and I get 42 emails, most of which never needed to be sent. WTF????? Is everywhere like this?

chrisxr2

1,127 posts

193 months

Thursday 19th May 2016
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As a fellow offshore worker, having done work offshore and in the military and the real world, yes the real world is full of useless people trying to look busy.

rog007

5,748 posts

223 months

Thursday 19th May 2016
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Set up auto delete and with a return message to say that if the note was important, please call this number...

AdamFX

242 posts

144 months

Thursday 19th May 2016
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Work for a very large software company. I can sometimes go an entire week and feel like I've accomplished next to nothing due to bureaucratic nonsense, and I'm sure it's getting worse over time.

thainy77

3,347 posts

197 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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I'm not sure this doesn't apply to the O&G industry either, in my previous role (O&G country manager) I would receive anywhere between 150-500 emails a day, 90% of which didn't require any input from me. It's just people covering their arses.



Edited by thainy77 on Friday 20th May 07:42

Jasandjules

69,825 posts

228 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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In my old company, 50% of work undertaken was work, 50% undertaken was by people covering their a**e in respect of the work they had done...... There were a LOT of emails which were carefully drafted and lengthy which concentrated on why they were not to blame if something went wrong....

creampuff

Original Poster:

6,511 posts

142 months

Friday 20th May 2016
quotequote all
thainy77 said:
I'm not sure this doesn't apply to the O&G industry either, in my previous role (O&G country manager) I would receive anywhere between 150-500 emails a day, 90% of which didn't require any input from me. It's just people covering their arses.



Edited by thainy77 on Friday 20th May 07:42
As an aside, what system did you use to sort which ones could go direct to the bin, which you had to file and which ones you actually had to do something?

thainy77

3,347 posts

197 months

Friday 20th May 2016
quotequote all
creampuff said:
As an aside, what system did you use to sort which ones could go direct to the bin, which you had to file and which ones you actually had to do something?
I didn't really, i just used rules and folders in Outlook, if i was on CC it would go to a designated folder and it would more than likely not get looked at unless i had time.

It wasn't ideal but i'm a bit OCD and don't like unopened emails so tended to scan read anything other than what was in the CC folder and reply as necessary.

markiii

3,565 posts

193 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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I'm in telecoms, and no one has a clue

its endemic

dukeboy749r

2,539 posts

209 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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I think it's life, increasingly sadly..

LHRFlightman

1,929 posts

169 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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Civil aviation.

Just the same. Everyone's working at 100%, with no time to think if what they're doing is actually adding any value.

It's getting worse.

Foliage

3,861 posts

121 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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Yep companies are full of busy idiots.

andy-xr

13,204 posts

203 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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Many people think their job is the be all and end all, and the world would stop turning if they didnt do that important round robin email of nothingness.

at the place I work there's a guide. 1) Put it on Slack. 2) If you have to email it, keep it to 2 lines. If you cant say it in under 2 lines you set up a call

bga

8,134 posts

250 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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thainy77 said:
I'm not sure this doesn't apply to the O&G industry either, in my previous role (O&G country manager) I would receive anywhere between 150-500 emails a day, 90% of which didn't require any input from me. It's just people covering their arses.
In my experience the unnecessary fluff and arse covering in O&G is worse than any other industry other than Pharma.

Vaud

50,289 posts

154 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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Foliage said:
Yep companies are full of busy idiots.
Companies are full of people saying that the company is full of idiots, except, of course, themselves.

Foliage

3,861 posts

121 months

Friday 20th May 2016
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Vaud said:
Foliage said:
Yep companies are full of busy idiots.
Companies are full of people saying that the company is full of idiots, except, of course, themselves.
Im an idiot, I just don't pretend to be busy.

CaptainSlow

13,179 posts

211 months

Sunday 22nd May 2016
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Overuse of email is one of the things I hate in my working life. I work for one of the largest global companies that attempts to run a lean workforce, however, in reality by trying to cut headcount too much they actually introduce an inefficient structure where people follow a set of process notes and any deviations cause mayhem leading to the requirement for more heads than originally.

I get about 200 emails a day in my inbox. I've already set up automatic rules to file or delete certain emails so the real number is much higher. Of the 200 I delete about half without opening and then read and file another 50 just in case I need to refer to them in the future. This leaves about 50 that need me to do something, I concentrate on the ones that are chasing previously unactioned requests and delete the other 25 that are first requests, as I've learned the majority are a waste of time and will self resolve.

With my remaining time I may actually do some of my own work, but it's unlikely I'll get the chance.

Flooble

5,565 posts

99 months

Sunday 22nd May 2016
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I've noticed that companies seem to experience a change when they get to somewhere between 50-250 employees. Before that point everyone is quite involved in keeping the place running; after it you get a lot more people who are "internal" and don't actually have a direct impact on the company (they may still be important, but they are largely acting indirectly). At this point it becomes easier to "hide" within the company structure - internal meetings; process documentation; make-work. Above 1000 employees you start to accumulate politicians and people who genuinely have no impact at all and can build entire empires of pointlessness without bringing the company down.

I have observed a few people iterate their careers along a path of "get job doing real work; slide into internal job; build pointless empire; move on when the company goes under/new top management spot the vampires"

When working with someone in this "hiding" mode, they often desire to appear massively busy. I've had people storm into my office demanding to know why I didn't CC them on an email trail to which they had only tangential relevance. They could have offered no useful input into the "conversation", nor would it have impacted upon them, but they felt slighted. This sort of politics leads to junior staff (or those with slightly lower levels of assertiveness) simply CC'ing everyone lest they offend a make-work colleague who wants to look busy.

Add in the usual backside covering and you get the situation described.

The worst, for me, are the people who will spend hours agonising over sending an email; drafting and redrafting to get exactly the right "tone". If it's that important, pick up the phone!

CaptainSlow

13,179 posts

211 months

Sunday 22nd May 2016
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Flooble said:
I've noticed that companies seem to experience a change when they get to somewhere between 50-250 employees.
Wait to you get to 300,000.

Flooble

5,565 posts

99 months

Sunday 22nd May 2016
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CaptainSlow said:
Flooble said:
I've noticed that companies seem to experience a change when they get to somewhere between 50-250 employees.
Wait to you get to 300,000.
I can imagine - only got to 100,000 and baled.

It was ridiculous even at that point ... Senior Management time seemed to be occupied on different divisions fighting each other. Junior staff might as well have been in different companies, such was the lack of interaction and amount of paperwork and process.