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Office Politics

Entry 526, on 2007-05-04 at 17:35:58 (Rating 4, Activities)

Recently I have become involved with a petty office politics issue in the University department I work at. This happens occasionally. I'm not the sort of person who cares too much about rules, so its inevitable that I should end up in trouble from time to time. This doesn't really worry me too much because the way I see it, if you are not involved in the occasional conflict with the bureaucracy you're obviously not pushing the boundaries enough.

Its not that I deliberately break the rules, or even ignore them. When a large number of people are working together there have to be some rules to make sure that they all interact smoothly, but we shouldn't let the rules take over. There are always situations where good rules should be ignored just because of the specific circumstances. And bad rules should always be bypassed where necessary. Generally this doesn't cause any problems because most people just look the other way, but some people can't help being small minded about adherence to the rules, then a major problem can result from a really minor transgression.

One of my colleagues is the complete opposite of me with regard to following the rules. He does everything by the book and has no time for anyone who thinks laterally. Not coincidentally, this person has been involved in the last two occasions I have been asked to attend a meeting regarding my behaviour!

On the previous occasion I was "interrogated" by the manager in charge of our section over an issue where I dared to suggest that a new regulation might be ignored by people because it was so ill considered. Apparently this was considered akin to inciting a revolt, even though many similar policies and rules are already effectively ignored. But the bureaucrats can't afford to have their decisions examined too closely I suppose.

Anyway, we've got a new manager now, so he might not be quite as bad as the last one. Of course, there's no such thing as a good manager, there's just some which are less bad than others. I suppose its the power that does it. We see the same thing with politicians all the time: they often have great promise until the system grinds them into submission.

I'll report back here after the meeting on Monday. I don't think this meeting will be quite as exciting as the last one, where the manager used various expletives and seemed to get a bit out of control, but it might be entertaining anyway!

Comment 1 (632) by OJB on 2007-05-07 at 21:54:52:

Oh dear, I'm very disappointed in this guy. Our meeting got a little bit out of control and he threw me out of his office! I guess he's just not used to anyone who doesn't grovel to his unsubstantiated opinions. OK, maybe I'll be fired, but who cares? Why should I put up with this rubbish!

Comment 2 (634) by OJB on 2007-05-08 at 18:30:56:

No further requests for a meeting today. Maybe he's forgotten about the whole thing.

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