Back when I worked in Dubai, we used to get deadlines that would make any self respecting human being blink a couple of times, shake the coconut from left to right and again from right to left, say "you must be stark raving mad if you expect me to finish the job in the time you're saying I should" and repeat the process all over again until reality sinks in.
Doing something for a protracted period of time makes a person get used to the activity, so it is that managers get used to dumping work and ignoring above mentioned gawking and us Senior Associates (Sr. Ass' for short, no really, no pun intended - were called that) would stop doing the gawking routine, accept reality for what it is and set about our tasks valiantly.
Occasionally, in extreme cases when, at 11PM, the deadline is for 8AM the next morning, we would use the ol' noodle and fill up a file with information that has, lets say, some scope for improvement on the quality front, just to buy time until the file comes flying back to us for not being "up to standard", only to rectify it with all the relevant information and submit a fresh file.
The biggest advantage of the above approach is hidden. By submitting something that has scope for improvement, you manage to pull one off on the unreasonable manager because he is going to go through all of it, only to have to go through it again, this time when he is under pressure. So if you disregard the abuse, it is good fun, atleast in hind-sight
All this, just to meet the deadline.
Why am I saying all this? Remember my promise of 3 posts a month? Today is 30 April and I've only had 3 in the kitty this month. Pulled a fast one on you didn't I?
Damn the deadlines- people who set them should be on the lines, dead!!I was referring to the real firing lines in a war.
ReplyDeleteI have now had a working life of 15 years not to mention letting a husband and 2 kids into my life during the same period. On retrospection, the object I used the most is the clock- in all shapes and sizes. What prompted the restrospection was a circular from the kids' school stating that the bus will come in 15 mins earlier from tomorrow since the school location shifted. Another new deadline!!!
I can see that you are trying hard to meet your goal of 3 posts a month. If you have an internal deadline of one post a week, so that even if you miss a post,similar to sending the file with bugs, you will gain some time for 3 posts/month.
ReplyDeleteAlas Shoba, if only I had that much discipline, I'd be invincible! I should improve with time since I can't think of many more ways to fill up the blog with gibberish at the last minute!
ReplyDeletenice blog Anand mama! - its me the greatest boy in the world -- take a guess!!!
ReplyDeleteJUST SO YOU KNOW: ITS ME SID