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I cant remember ever talking about spouses, family, kids pets etc at work.
Resume, Job Help, & Job/Career Advice
- Thread starter Grand Potentate
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Besides spouses, teaching your kids to drive, there was an hour dedicated to dogs. What breeds, propensities of the dogs, one dog liked to jump out of moving cars, so and so forth. I was asked whether I would consider owning a dog.
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Will Steve Jobs' management style get you to the top? - BBC News
Yes - screaming at your staff works.
Yes - screaming at your staff works.
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What do you guys think about the European counter terrorism sector as a career? Specifically tech for that sector.
This question is unrelated to Paris, although it has made it much more topical.
This question is unrelated to Paris, although it has made it much more topical.
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As someone who looked into intelligence from the previous decade and its call to duty, you'll probably need a special certification and entrance is probably around set exams conducted at certain times a year.
I didn't know you were in Europe.
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It's a private sector company with a lot of public sector contracts. Pay doesn't seem too bad, but it seems like the pay curve is nowhere near as steep as finance, and you really need it to at least somewhat enjoy London, let alone being able to afford buying an apartment and sending your kids to good schools.
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I think you'll still need to spend a few quid to get some clearance to handle sensitive data?
In London? You mean by a tube station no further than Zone 3? I'm not sure those are for mortals unless it was renovated in the last last century.
Everyone I know moved out to town after they got married and had kids. Working in the City, renting a flat and being single is apparently irreconcilable with property ownership, monogamy and child rearing.
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No, won't have to spend anything myself. Anyways, I was wondering if you know anything about career progression in that sector?
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That doesn't look at all like my employee handbook, but it does remind me of the human resources meeting I was in when all the discussion was about time off. Reckon it says something when discussions about workplace policy revolve around how the bloody hell do I get out of work.
Why don't you look up on meetup or eventbrite for some industry event or community?
I would assume it's like any other profession - individual contributor > superstar individual contributor or individual contributor > people manager.
Why don't you look up on meetup or eventbrite for some industry event or community?
I would assume it's like any other profession - individual contributor > superstar individual contributor or individual contributor > people manager.
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How about finding a different job? No one is stopping you from leaving if you're unhappy.
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More. Ladies love it, the rakish man with the cigarette
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Plus, hot women smoke. Carry a pack around with you and you'll always have an ice breaker.
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Not in the civilised world.
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Jesus you're boring
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Because smoking is so exciting and edgy?
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Yes, but if I leave every time I'm unhappy, it could be every few days. Plus, I love the industry. I've been in it all of my adult working life and can't see anywhere else where I'd get paid to do the same, get to work in the city and have the same relatively low amount of pressure.
I was thinking about the other article about how sitting at the office all day is equivalent to three cigarettes. I'm sitting, I'm suffering and I'm smoking - should have succumbed to the fags a long time ago.
For the past three months, I've felt like rather like a cloud has been lifted off of me. I'm still frustrated with my peers and whoever at work but I'm being consulted by my interim boss and even his boss as well. Now I'm wondering whether my ex boss shielded me from all of this because he wanted to control it or he simply spoke on my behalf or he had other ways to work around the issues without me. My war with my archnemesis is going well. I lost a lot in 2013, but I'm winning now. It's like a chess game where we're out of pawns, bishops and are now down to the key final pieces. I was able to hire well and add another piece to my arsenal.
I was with a peer from another department and he remarked I was happier and he said it's all due to my ex boss disappearing. We had our weekly, for I never really saw him past weekly, struggle but could a clash of personality types be so stressful to oneself? I wouldn't say he was a bad boss, but our style and approach to work led to different expectations of goals and different definitions of success. If I am truly happier now, then it means I couldn't adjust myself.
I get a new boss next year. Another person on a secondment. I guess if I devolve back into moaning about my professional life and then my personal, Rambo will again send a private message to assess my sanity.
Anyway, I've decided to see one more chapter written in this book before I make my decision.
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I meant same industry, different firm. Anyways, glad you're happier now!
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I'm in the back office pushing paper.
In Canada, there are a few firms that are headquartered here and global elsewhere, but they're massive behemoths in this country compared to mine. I'd say all the people I deal with in Americas is probably not even half the staff they have in this country. There are a few competitors which are like my firm which have a regional office in Canada and/or the States. However, many of those are consolidating, which means one set of paper pushing staff. Also, many big name or second tier firms now centralize back office paper pushing at the head office so what's left in a place like Canada are only the client facing staff.
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Oh, thought you were front office. Too bad!
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What do people do on their days off from work?
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Days off?
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I have a week off. I'm running out of things to do without checking my work mobile or getting the work laptop out.
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Travel to distant lands
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Okay, I have a week off and I'm flat broke from Christmas.
Going to a strip club all day isn't an option either.
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Travel to not so distant lands
QuandoDio
Well-Known Member
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Try to fuck a trannie? Push an old lady in the street? Moon some kids? Door-to-door evangelism?
LKP
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Tried Cow Tipping?
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I actually have a serious problem to share, but I'm a bit too ashamed right now to reveal it. Perhaps another day of introspection will help.
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Share. We can put our assholity on hold to help you out
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Speak for yourself.
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The issue is that I'm getting some strange feedback about myself in my division - chiefly from folks in other departments that are around my level (so my boss' position, his/her peers and their directs). It boils down to the impression that I don't voice my disagreement with something that is inherently wrong - the word wrong is used especially in situations when I have to go against practically all of my peers under my boss. Perhaps the only the exception may be the interim boss, but he and I would still constitute a minority amongst the peers.
Full disclaimer: People against my principles, for my principles, or offering the peer feedback have all been with the firm for at least 10-15 years. I haven't heard much from the management in departments that were rebuilt from ground up in my division. Perhaps they're trying to find their own feet too.
My personal belief is I will refuse to do anything unethical or immorally wrong. I won't pretend to accept the task and never do it. I won't sheepishly do something half-hearted or not up to quality, I will just stop and not do it. I've done this once before when I was asked to do something to accommodate and smooth out the transition of accounts someone was bringing in from a competitor and I flat out said I won't do it to my boss (think about it like literally photocopying confidential material stolen from the person's past firm). That was in the past and in my old firm.
For all other disagreements, I always maintain that there is a space for debate either in your boss' office with you individually or in a meeting with your peers, but the ultimate direction and decision is made by the person in charge. Once that decision is made, you as a manager of the company have the obligation to execute it as if it's your own decision because ultimately you support the company. To you, your own boss is the face of the company. To your staff, you are the company to them.
I find it disingenuous and will often call out folks who: 1. Say they will do it and not do it hoping it will go away. 2. Say they will do it but won't commit 100% of to a quality outcome. 3. Say they will do it but try to sabotage it, "Well guys the boss told us we need to do this, so let's find a way to do it...I never agreed in the first place...." The last one irks me the most as I always say to folks in a team decision meeting if there is a voice of opposition, I want them in here, otherwise we're moving forward. I would never be caught dead being disloyal to the company and to the boss in executing something that is deemed effective for the company.
Partially, my beliefs were shaped, as I see it, "growing up" in an American firm, but perhaps it has nothing to do with national culture and instead with corporate culture. Lots of Democrats work for Republican administrations and vice versa but if the President makes a decision in the White House, you go ahead and support the decision and execute as if it's your decision. I was also raised by my father never to air out family disagreements outside of the family. There's a space to be negative and there's other folks you want to show a positive united front.
Now I don't do anything that is morally right or wrong. After all, I'm in a division that pushes paper and there's precious little opportunity to be put in that type of situation. Whether we push red pieces of paper or blue pieces paper with our left or right hand, I don't think there is anything ethical in 99% of the decisions made at work. As I always say if we try one method or process and it doesn't work, let's just switch gears. The worse thing we could do is paralyse ourselves without making a decision.
I'll be modest and say I'm more well spoken than most. In the past year or two, out of frustration or out of the need to cut to the chase, I've been downgrading my vocabulary at work and my tolerance has shrunk for repeating the same episodes of ineffective behaviour over and over again. This usually comes across as sarcasm, but I feel I'm being more blunt without resorting to vulgar language in the workplace.
I also want to be respectful that I joined the organization at a management level from managing in a different style at another company. Local tribal customs ought to be respected, but I do see that a lot of it can be improved. The folks in my firm see it as well, or at least they pay lip service to it when the division boss inquires.
So how do I go about changing this perception? Why do people feel I'll gleefully become a stormtrooper for the Nazis or seal up a loyalist town and conscript all the men into the Syrian national army for Assad?
This analogy of debating and decision making did come up with my ex-boss but I believe it was in the context of whether I agreed with his direction for the department and why I bother to come to work everyday.
Full disclaimer: People against my principles, for my principles, or offering the peer feedback have all been with the firm for at least 10-15 years. I haven't heard much from the management in departments that were rebuilt from ground up in my division. Perhaps they're trying to find their own feet too.
My personal belief is I will refuse to do anything unethical or immorally wrong. I won't pretend to accept the task and never do it. I won't sheepishly do something half-hearted or not up to quality, I will just stop and not do it. I've done this once before when I was asked to do something to accommodate and smooth out the transition of accounts someone was bringing in from a competitor and I flat out said I won't do it to my boss (think about it like literally photocopying confidential material stolen from the person's past firm). That was in the past and in my old firm.
For all other disagreements, I always maintain that there is a space for debate either in your boss' office with you individually or in a meeting with your peers, but the ultimate direction and decision is made by the person in charge. Once that decision is made, you as a manager of the company have the obligation to execute it as if it's your own decision because ultimately you support the company. To you, your own boss is the face of the company. To your staff, you are the company to them.
I find it disingenuous and will often call out folks who: 1. Say they will do it and not do it hoping it will go away. 2. Say they will do it but won't commit 100% of to a quality outcome. 3. Say they will do it but try to sabotage it, "Well guys the boss told us we need to do this, so let's find a way to do it...I never agreed in the first place...." The last one irks me the most as I always say to folks in a team decision meeting if there is a voice of opposition, I want them in here, otherwise we're moving forward. I would never be caught dead being disloyal to the company and to the boss in executing something that is deemed effective for the company.
Partially, my beliefs were shaped, as I see it, "growing up" in an American firm, but perhaps it has nothing to do with national culture and instead with corporate culture. Lots of Democrats work for Republican administrations and vice versa but if the President makes a decision in the White House, you go ahead and support the decision and execute as if it's your decision. I was also raised by my father never to air out family disagreements outside of the family. There's a space to be negative and there's other folks you want to show a positive united front.
Now I don't do anything that is morally right or wrong. After all, I'm in a division that pushes paper and there's precious little opportunity to be put in that type of situation. Whether we push red pieces of paper or blue pieces paper with our left or right hand, I don't think there is anything ethical in 99% of the decisions made at work. As I always say if we try one method or process and it doesn't work, let's just switch gears. The worse thing we could do is paralyse ourselves without making a decision.
I'll be modest and say I'm more well spoken than most. In the past year or two, out of frustration or out of the need to cut to the chase, I've been downgrading my vocabulary at work and my tolerance has shrunk for repeating the same episodes of ineffective behaviour over and over again. This usually comes across as sarcasm, but I feel I'm being more blunt without resorting to vulgar language in the workplace.
I also want to be respectful that I joined the organization at a management level from managing in a different style at another company. Local tribal customs ought to be respected, but I do see that a lot of it can be improved. The folks in my firm see it as well, or at least they pay lip service to it when the division boss inquires.
So how do I go about changing this perception? Why do people feel I'll gleefully become a stormtrooper for the Nazis or seal up a loyalist town and conscript all the men into the Syrian national army for Assad?
This analogy of debating and decision making did come up with my ex-boss but I believe it was in the context of whether I agreed with his direction for the department and why I bother to come to work everyday.
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So are they asking you to falsify documents or have people beaten? Who's complaining about you doing what the higher ups are asking for?
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fwiffo - I don't know if you are as oblique as this in communicating at work - but I have no fucking idea what the issue is.
Sounds like they are asking you to physically torture an underling each day or to sign false documents to import ice?
Sounds like they are asking you to physically torture an underling each day or to sign false documents to import ice?
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No, I'm not waterboarding people either.
The complaints are from someone slightly below my level but still a people manager from another department. In addition to that there's his boss, who is at my boss' level.
No, I'm not oblique. I'm trying to soften some of the edges so people can't search on Google and identify me - or worse, themselves.
I don't think it has anything to do with my first tenure in the States. It had something to do with my ex boss who was parachuted in from Germany. I supported and tried (my best) to implement the program. They happen to think it's wrong and it won't work, but I didn't have that luxury as I worked directly for him. As I said it was simply organisational structure and processes and we could go one way or another and incur pros and cons that even both of them out. Because they're Canadians, they're whatever, they feel it was the wrong (or less effective) approach and I should speak up and fight against it.
In short, they believe my ex boss regime was bad. I'm someone who supports bad regimes willingly. I'm not just in the Wehrmacht in WW2 Germany, I volunteer for the Waffen SS.
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My work mobile says I have about 650 e-mails in three work days. I had about 60 or so on the weekend. I'm getting anxious not checking them.
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That's standard, no? I receive 500 on a good day.
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Yes, but it's going to tempt me to go in on Monday and just select everything not directly sent to me (no CC), not from my boss, or my boss' boss and just go "Mark as Read".