The Poison of “On a Roll”

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“While we are on a roll” is a phrase often used when a manager has just received notification of success in a number of things or for a particularly tricky deliverable, they use it to signify that while we have this momentum of success we should keep pushing at the same level and see if we can get even more done.

The use of this phrase is one of the most innocently toxic things a manager of any level can say to someone who has just delivered something.

Let me explain.

Somebody has worked their guts off for the company or project, come up with a delivery often going above and beyond and presented it to you, You have then dismissed it most likely with no more than a “Great”, and then said, “Can I have more? and have it faster than last time”

There is a line in “Cider with Rosie” by Laurie Lee that fits this situation

“And the more I got, the more I called for more. It was like feeding a fat young cuckoo”

Every time someone does something for you above and beyond {{and I do mean every time not just the first}}. Acknowledge it. Respect the effort, feedback that you respect it and give them a moment to take a breath before you reload them with other things. If you do not respect, give them positive feedback and reward them, then what reason do they have to put the effort in? {{Now there are times when the intention behind this phrase is valid but that is nearly always to do with a third party or a set of access or resources that are not normally available, in which case be specific on what you think would be a good idea to minimise work, i.e. “while we have the XXX team on the call, is there anything else you needed them to answer for you, so we don’t have to organise another call”}}

If you are still wondering why I’m making a fuss over this, imagine you are doing housework and have just spent a hard Saturday gardening and getting some of the really nasty chores done, you complete them and invite your partner out to see your handy work. But they just reply, “Good, As you are in a tidying mood, can you do the bathroom” … do you still feel like going above an beyond with your share of the housework?

Corporate term: “Peeling the onion”

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Definition:

When rolling out or building a new project, every iteration or every action you take exposes either a new unforeseen problem or an additional action you need complete before being able to move forward.

Explanation:

This is a term actually coined by a recent client. I think I’ve heard it before, but not in general use.
This situation happens often when you’re adopting or moving around on cloud services or in company mergers, it happens where you’re dealing with new infrastructure, or after a large security update in which new rules have been applied, and not all teams are aware of the rule changes, particularly project teams who have been beavering away at their own stuff, so when they try and move out of their silo, or integrate with the corporatization in a wider sense, they end up battling every step of the way, every action they take only exposes another action or another sign off to be achieved from somewhere else before they can complete their work and moreover they are unaware of how many more are still to come.


You might hear it used in the following context :
Q: “So how long is the new system going to take to roll out”
A: “We do not know. We are still peeling the onion!”

 

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.

Corporate term: “Goodyear stripes”

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Definition:

“Goodyear stripes” are the tire marks left over your body when you have been thrown under a bus by someone in a work setting.

Explanation:

For those that don’t already know, to be thrown under the bus is to be named and blamed for something in a public fashion in a work environment {{,This does not necessarily have to be your fault. It merely means that the person doing it is using you to escape blame for something}}.

This leaves you with mental tire marks from the experience, “Goodyear stripes” is just one of the politest ways of saying you have been betrayed in this fashion.

 

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.

A decent desktop fan for your shared workspace.

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Most desktop or USB fans are dreadful examples of electronics. They are either ineffective or far worse they are incredibly noisy and vibrate a lot. If you are sharing an office with people, a noisy desktop fan is sooner or later going to lead to an assassination attempt, and as someone that runs permanently hot in all offices, I’ve always tried to use a really good, very quiet fan. For about 10 years this has been an out of date Thermatake fan.

 

It was their first attempt, and in my opinion their best one, its just a good quality fan with some components bolted on so it will sit on a desk and run off USB, unfortunately they replaced it with a run of the mill one that was all plastic and no fan, it made a dreadful noise and was no use at all. so I have been dreading the day when it finally gave out. I’ve tried alternatives, from good reputable brands, but they’ve always skimped on the actual fan itself, using rubbish imbalanced motors when they should have used a decent server or PC fan.

But there is a solution, when I started looking for a replacement to the Thermatake fan which had finally given out {{actually the cable rather than the fan}}. I thought let’s see if I can just take a decent server fan and get a USB adapter for it. And searching like that, turns up the wonderful world of high end console cooling, these are domestic fans nearly all charged off USB and designed to be either laid against or stood next to high end consoles to help with their cooling, but as they are designed for the living room they often use good quality server fans.

This is one I’ve currently found. It works absolutely perfectly. It’s deathly silent and has two fans which makes it even better than my old one, I’ve used it in an office and can’t even hear it running. So rather than looking for desktop fans, look for console cooling fans. That will probably give you a better result and your work colleagues will thank you for it.

 

Corporate term: “Surge Deliverable”

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Definition:

A “Surge Deliverable” , surge week or surge sprint, is a period of increased work, it’s not quite “all hands to the pump” but is still a noticeable increase in effort.

Explanation:

A “Surge” is something that has apparently been taken from fitness and gym culture, its primarily used on things like spin or other cardio exercises and it’s a push to reach a higher level of effort that can be sustained for a short period of time while not quite going flat out {{, the word Sprint is not used so people don’t get confused by agile terminology}}, basically it means “This week we’re gonna work really hard, but it’s not a panic and other existing priorities shouldn’t be ignored”.

 

 

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.