Over the past year and a half, Marie has regularly come home from work, frustrated with stupid management style and government policy. I’ve had to tell her that it isn’t any better in the rest of the world. We all have the same complaints, though I’ve come to realise just how lucky I’ve been with my direct managers.
Some examples of her complaints. To avoid corruption, government departments must go through a strict purchasing process to buy anything – anything at all. The problem is that the vendors then know that it’s the rich government doing the purchasing, so they all mark up their prices by about 20%. I compare this to buying a VoIP headset that I needed urgently for my last job. I could have it the same day from a local store for $20, but I had to go through the proper channels and ended up paying $50 for a lower grade product from a store in the UK that arrived 7 weeks later, by which time I’d bought my own to cover the business need.
She’s also found that her ideas are rejected immediately by the boss, only to have him bring it up himself a few weeks later. This is one I’ve been lucky enough never to have, but I know others who have it all the time. Marie now tells the boss privately, so he can reject it there, because he’ll present the same idea more quickly in team meetings this way.
Now she has a complaint at home. The Institute of Traditonal Medicine Services makes a herbal tea she really likes, but they’ve changed the packaging. Aside from looking less appealing, the tea bag itself is sealed with the external cover, so ripping open the cover also rips open the bag – making tea soup. When she mentioned this to a friend who works at the hospital, he said that they’d just bought a new machine to do the packaging, so they probably wouldn’t revert to the old style now. Where’s the ROI if the machine isn’t used?
Keep up this great resource. best greetings!