(no subject)

[moominmolly]

Discovery #1: I am mostly immune to the "British accents are sexy" virus -- except if people are saying my name. "So, Molly, can you do this for us?" Ooooh, yes, of course I can...

Discovery #2: There needs to be a non-pejorative word for "micromanagement". These people reset the things they want me to be working on every day or two, and I like that. They do the prioritizing for me, so all I have to do is the work. It's a strangely liberating thing.

Comments

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

These people reset the things they want me to be working on every day or two, and I like that. They do the prioritizing for me, so all I have to do is the work.

i realize that others have different work preferences, but that sounds like pretty close to wonderful. i'd love that, provided that a significant chunk of my day was devoted to "just be available in case people have questions or problems".

yay!

-steve

[srd.livejournal.com]

Zo, vat apout tscherman acktzent?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Aww, de tschermahn acktzent is just adorable. *pinches cheeks*

[vokzal.livejournal.com]

Aw, but he knew /that/ from grade school. He just didn't know how to take advantage of it then.

[srd.livejournal.com]

Yes, well people didn't pinch my butt then. *sits down carefully on a big poofy pillow*

[srd.livejournal.com]

Oh. Uh. Well, thank goodness mine isn't that pronounced. I think. ;)

[niqui.livejournal.com]

Discovery #2: There needs to be a non-pejorative word for "micromanagement". These people reset the things they want me to be working on every day or two, and I like that. They do the prioritizing for me, so all I have to do is the work. It's a strangely liberating thing.

well, there's a difference (to me, anyways) between micromanagement and project management. i used to work for an IT department of about 20 people, wherein we had three project managers. and everything was smooooooooth. you always knew what you were supposed to be doing, hangups were few (and usually unavoidable, e.g. "the vendor can't ship you that hardware for six weeks -- so on to the next project!"). best of all, people *outside* of IT knew what you were doing and why you weren't working on their piddly request, and they wouldn't just walk it up to Random Database Person to ask for it to be done: they'd have it go through the prioritization process. it was a beautiful thing. it's like, "see what happens when we all act like grown-ups?"

otoh, i've also had nightmare managers who poked constantly. istm that the difference lies mostly in that the project managers just guided and sort of pulled levers behind the curtain -- they would listen to me rant, distill the useful information out of it, figure out how it affected other people, and Make Things Magically Happen -- whereas the twits just "isn't this done yet?!?!"-ed.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Mm, you're right -- that's much closer to what I mean. Gosh, it's nice.

That's funny

[precisegirl.livejournal.com]

That's what I was going to say! To me, the sane, functional kind is management - where there's actually COMMUNICATION when someone's needs or priorities change. Micromanagement to me generally means that someone is standing over me trying to control *how* I do the work I'm doing for them.

Like my current boss, who wants me to change the hardware I'm using to do at-home transcription because "THIS WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE AND MINE MUCH SIMPLER, AND THOSE WHO READ WHAT YOU WRITE," even though if we're being adults-with-boundaries about it, the hardware I use doesn't actually change the quality of my work or whether it's easy for others to read, and me changing my hardware mid-job certainly doesn't make it simpler for any of us. (She also talks in all caps all day long. Whee.)