BS jobs
- Thread starter RezClone
- Start date
I started working for a company ten plus years ago. When I started to get from me to the CEO was four steps. Me, my Boss, Boss's Boss, CEO. I have the exact same job now and it's six steps. My day-to-day role hasn't changed at all yet they added two levels of management between me and the CEO in ten years.
Better to not let any of the other dozens of world class swimmers that happen to be right there on location jump in and help.
Because of, you know, liability issues.
The CEO is hoping those extra layers keep some of the crap off of his/her desk. Instead, it probably creates more miscommunication and more drama.
I've told this story before on CF and I will now tell it again.
Early on in my engineering career I was on a team with other engineering disciplines. We had a design due deadline. We were done about 3 weeks ahead of the due date. I was thinking we were going to turn it in to management. Our electrical engineer, who was older and wiser than me said this. "No, we will wait until the day before it's due. If we turn it in now management will want us to make a lot minor changes since they know there's time for us to do that. If we wait until it's due they will only make us change things that are wrong or very significant."
Grasshopper learned much that day.
My service in the military was pretty much a BS job. My primary responsibility was protecting our floors from the threat of communist dirt and grime.
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I mean, this actually happened, and the lifeguards were actually useless.
Has the number of employees changed? I'm at a very large organization. If there were only 4 layers between me and CEO the amount of people that would report to each layer would be crazy. I think having 8-20 direct reports is a lot. My director has 10 managers that report to him. I struggle to get his time, and unfortunately there are many times I need the next level to get escalation. I have 10 direct reports. My brother had 25 as an architect. I couldn't imagine having to do 25 1:1s, bi-annual reviews, help manage workload for all 25. Now you could argue that nobody needs to have these things, but each industry and size of organization is different in that need. Up until I was at this organization I wouldn't have said layers of mgmt were necessary. Our structure is analyst/engineer->mgr->director->VP->Exec VP->CIO->CEO. The people that report to managers under our director is 120+. So eliminate managers and you are down to 5 layers and have fun getting any time with your director if you need help. Personally I would much rather be an engineer again.
I get the cynical side. Again, that was my point if somebody got burned by their company. The other side of that is if you work harder than others and take advantage of the situation, you may move ahead quicker than others. Hopefully your company recognizes that you can handle more and are ready for more and move you up. It may not be an instantaneous thing, but might be the next person to get the promotion because of your diligence and hard work. Having said that, I’ve also gotten burned by companies and had to make the decision to move on because they will work me as hard as I am willing with no more money no more promotion. I can easily see both sides.
Here I thought he'd say because otherwise next time they'll chop 3 weeks off your timeline!
Even at good companies, no one is watching your performance the way you do. I think if you keep your head down, work hard, and expect someone to notice and give a nice promotion - more often than not you'll find yourself waiting a long ass time. You have to be advocating for what you want.
I was a lifeguard at the local pool in the summer as were all of my sons. I was a lifeguard in college as were several of my sons.
We all had several incidents. A friend described trucking as 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror and I think that applies to life guarding too.
The big issue at ISU for those of us who had that gig was older people (maybe professors) having a heart attack doing lap swimming. One of my sons had to go in for someone when the football players were goofing around. Also problems with intoxicated people that just shouldn’t be there and often get hurt outside the pool. Everything from minor scrapes to brain injuries.
At the local pool, if you were there the last week of school when the elementary gets out early for pool day, some kid that really can’t swim gets pressured into going into the deep water. Usually can just haul them in with a float, but sometimes we’ve had to go in for them. And just scary if RAGBRAI in town, way too many people to see someone struggling.
But a lot of issues are also prevented by lifeguards. Stopping horseplay, running, etc. And sometimes it is babysitting kids dumped at the pool every day who just happen to be goofing around deep water. I found it to be far from a BS job.
Damn you had a legit experience. Mine was just an east job at a lake in Michigan. Only ever had to get off a tower twice, someone who lacerated their leg really bad, and a concussion.
Outside of that every day was eating pizza/freeze pops and hoping some family didn’t dig a massive hole that we had to fill when we locked up.
