Real Life Lessons
 

Some lessons are sentimental. Some lessons are cynical. Some lessons are real and substantial. Let's share the lessons that can be applied in our real life that will help us get the things we really want done.

My lesson comes in the form of a brief story.

My second job ever was a tech support position for an ISP. This company had crappy computers. I spent a lot of time complaining about the computers, but 18 months passed and nothing was ever done about them. Enter new hotshot employee who agrees that computers suck. Well, this guy didn't complain about them like I did. He drafted up a simple document that illustrated the cost of replacing the computers and their benefit for the efficiency of the department. He received instant management approval.

The lesson learned was that if you want something from someone, you have to speak their language. In terms of speaking to management, it is a simple matter of weighing cost/effort against benefit. It is also a matter of clearly defining what is needed and estimating the residual effect. Since I learned this lesson, I have applied it to how I conduct myself in the professional world and in other areas of my life.

Anyone else have any real life lessons to share?

I have learned that passive aggressive statements about the effectiveness of assertiveness are perplexing.

Shit doesn't happen. People fuck you.

That I have grown tired of stepping over the bodies of people I couldn't save....

I have learned that,
the moment I feel complacent and rightly deserving of a coasting
rest period,

Life tasers me to pick up my bundle of skills and move on to the next...
scary unfamiliar rug pulling challenge.

You guys seemed to have missed the point of the thread.

I was once the lead controls engineer for an engineering company designing and building refineries. One of my tasks was supervising designers to complete drawings for the installation of control instruments. The company's files were full of installation details which could be copied and retitled for any project. This is done all the time and to do them from scratch would take 10 times as long.

One designer refused to use them because she thought it was plagiarism. My boss and I both disregarded her concerns and instructed her to use them anyway. She complained to my boss's boss and his boss's boss untill finally we were called in to explain this unethical thing we were asking an employee to do.

Of course once we explained the situation they all agreed there was no malfeasance but I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I would have taken a bit more time in explaining things to her. Maybe it was because she was from an Eastern European culture and had an unusual understanding of plagiarism. She was under the impression that I did not think she was skilled enough to do them herself and was therefore making her use the work of others.

Always have a drink before dealing with companies who have proprietary materials specifications. It makes your life a gigantic pain in the ass if you're an external customer.

I've had more jobs than I care to admit and I think one of if not the primary reason is my total reluctance to conform to the politics of office behavior. I don't kiss ass, I don't keep quiet and I do my job faster than most, which has quite often led to questioning my methods, but always been found to be legitimately done and done well.
However, I've learned that it doesn't matter how well you do a job, it's how well the management accepts you. That doesn't mean one should slack off as long as they kiss ass, but finding a balance is paramount.
There will also be times and jobs where it truly doesn't matter what you know, but whom; if you work someplace where management and certain employes are offsite friends and you aren't and there's cutbacks...guess who goes first.

I was on a search committee to fill the supervisor position in my department. One of the three chosen to be interviewed was someone I knew and had interacted with in a community organization. As discussion took place during a search committee meeting I was asked my opinion regarding this individual . And I gave it. I was concerned about the leadership ability of the individual and the ability or inability of the individual to designate responsibility. I was also concerned about the tendency of this person to be habitually late and to miss meetings. My opinion was asked for partly because I was the only one on the search committee who would work with this person on a daily basis. Within hours I was summoned by the "head honcho" to a private meeting in which I was told that my concerns were not something for me to worry about. The head honcho and the HH's right-hand person were the only ones who were to be concerned about such things and would handle any problems as they came up. I was put in my place and told to stay quiet and do my job. Sure, they hired the person. Wouldn't have been so bad if my new supervisor hadn't been told everything that I had said. Made the next two years a working hell until I escaped. My lesson from all of this: You may be asked your opinion, but most of the time the person asking you already knows what they want to hear, and it would behoove you to assess the situation accurately.

Back when IBM PCs first came into use we began using them as visual interfaces for operators to control industrial process plants. PCs were new and few people knew how to use them very well. On the control systems I designed I kept an exact copy of the software on my office PC as the one in the field so I could walk through any changes with the field personel.

On one plant's system you had to hit the F10 key in order to compile after any changes were made. I was working on the phone with one of our startup engineers making a small change and when we were done I instructed him to hit F10 and we were through. We went through this 3 or 4 times and each time after hitting F10 he would say nothing is happening. I even had him load the software from scratch but still nothing.

After about an hour of this I said "It's working perfectly on my system so let's try again". We reloaded and I told him now make sure you hit F10 when your through. The startup guy said "Damn it, it just doesn't work but here goes, F, one, zero". After I explained I meant function key 10 all was well.

Spending the entire time of 8am - 5pm with productive endeavors in places where your superiors can easily find you makes it easier on them. Which makes it easier for them to like you. Leaving your office door open for visitors is occasionally tiring, but reminds them that you're there.