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Re: Poor saps



True enough, but not everything is an opportunity; some things are simply
wasted time.  As an example, I will share with you all my experience at my
last job.  (I may have told you all about this before, but it's still a good
illustration).

I get called on by the Exec VP, the VP, and my boss to go up to the
Executive floor and change the arrangement of materials on the shelves of
the exec library.  As Barbara suggests, I took it as an opportunity rather
than the waste of time I felt it would be (maybe the CEO will notice me, the
bosses will appreciate it, etc.) I figure we're a publishing company, let's
take the books from 1952 off the shelves and replace them with stuff we
actually put out now - CD Roms, updated textbooks, whatever.

So I spend a month arranging with our divisions to get copies of our
products and setting everything up on the bookshelves, and I get a limited
thank you from various powers that be (OK, maybe expecting a few stock
options was a little much).  Two weeks later I get a call from the CEOs
office saying "it's not what he had in mind.  Could you get some fancy
looking books with leather bindings that will look pretty on the shelves?"

Not only did I waste my time setting the whole thing up, but then I'm left
doing the whole damned thing over again, with a trip to the Strand (one of
the world's biggest bookstores, for those outside NYC) to buy "stuff" thrown
in.  Who cares what it is, nobody's going to read it anyway.  I wouldn't
have cared as much if Mr. CEO/Interior Decorator had decided before I
started what it was he really wanted.

My point?  Some things really do get dumped on us.  Some things aren't worth
making lemonade out of.  This became simply one more thing (among many) that
made me feel they didn't understand what I was actually there for, nor did
they appreciate what I had to offer.  My solution, of course, was to turn it
into an ex-job.  I learned that it wasn't a place I felt like putting out
110% for, something the powers always implied they wanted - so I guess I did
get something out of it.

I'm not exclusively trying to gripe about it, but pessimist that I am, I
still feel there's more thought that should go into what our bosses expect
of us, especially (as in my last two jobs) when we're working for people who
don't really know what we do.

Sorry for the soapboxing,

DS

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pope, Barbara [SMTP:bpope@MAIL.STLCOP.EDU]
> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 10:40 AM
> To:   ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> Subject:      Re: Poor saps
>
> I do not consider that anything got "dumped" into my lap. I took on the
> responsibility realizing that there would be a great deal that I did not
> know in the beginning. Rather than seeing it as dumped into my lap, I saw
> it
> as a learning opportunity, a time to learn something new.  I have had a
> few
> jobs where things did get dumped into my lap and because I was young and
> did
> not have much experience, I again saw it as an opportunity and ran with
> it.
> Instead of complaining, I consulted with people who had done that kind of
> work and learned from them. I took lemons and made lemonade.
>
>

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