Corporate phrase: “Dr Jones”

Explanation:

This is a “phrase version” of this post 

A “Dr. Jones”, is a term taken from the fan theory for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, In that Indiana Jones makes no difference to all the key ending and deliverables of the movie (Ark gets found, Nazis all die, etc etc) and all he does is make a mess and a lot of pointless noise, this matches a set of managerial behaviour, that even after causing lots of activity and running around nothing useful or helpful happens.

An example of this would be if Person “A” had been asked to do a task by a manager but they are busy, they have stated to said manager they are busy, and will deal with the task in a day’s time. That manager might not accept that, he will then escalate to a different manager, who will then allocate it to somebody else who they think might do it. That individual will then go back to Person “A”, as in reality they are the quickest way to get the job done. Person “A” will do it within a day and the net result will be just as if the manager had not escalated.

Because of that escalation, It has required about three people’s time for a total of an extra three to four hours worth of effort, meaning that the manager has actually done nothing productive and it’s only wasted people’s time. I always think of this as a less irritating form of “seagull management

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

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