10 responses so far ↓

• Leah Maclean // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:35 am

  This is a great article Pete! I’m not going to comment over at Biznik because they want me to log in to comment (yuk!) so I’ll leave my comment here.

  My 20+ years in IT had me connecting with point #3 about the Knowledge Worker Age -

  “When people are managed like things, they can come to believe that choice must be earned and is beyond the reach of most people. In the workplace, they wait for orders rather than problem-solving and initiating activity, thus adding to the workload of their supervisors.”

  I’ve seen companies treat very clever, highly skilled technologists like things and instead of getting the best out of them the company got a group of clever people working on playing the company’s system back at them. Not a very good use of knowledgeable people.

  Keep up the great writing!

• Pete // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:44 pm

  Sorry didn’t realise it was a login to comment site.

  Thanks, Leah. I just said to my wife about a situation withan organisation (not an employer though) this morning, “Now that I understand the rules of this game, I can play that game back at them.” You proved my point.

• themolk // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:16 pm

  I’ll have to courses of your mild language thanks, Pete. I think you meant ‘coarse’…

  

  Other than that, I can only echo Leah’s already succicnt and correct sentiments - I’ll say what she’s saying.

• Pete Aldin // Jun 18, 2008 at 5:09 pm

  Makin a few nice typoes lately. First I said I would PREVENT parenting info instead of present it. And now this one.

  Thanks for hanging out here mate.

• Jonathan // Jun 19, 2008 at 4:52 am

  I’m having serious technical issues. At home I have absolutely no Internet. At work, my IP speed is all over the place. Early morning and just before I leave work it seems to run okay and then the rest of the day it runs so slow I can’t get gmail to run in anything but basic html and most websites won’t load in under 3 minutes if they load at all. I tried logging in to leave you a comment at the other site but it was taking too long. This site seems to be a little more accomadating, so with that long introduction done here comes my comment… wait for it…

  Oh how I wish my current “boss” would read your article and take it to heart. I have some darn good ideas (I know my mother says they are!) and had lots of enthusiasm for my job. I spent the first half of the year constantly thinking of new ways to improve the place. As a leader my enthusiasm was contagious, the school board jumped on and we were successful in our number one goal of increasing enrollment. We nearly doubled our enrollment.

  But, I have been constantly treated as a replacable part by my “boss” and now instead of worrying about how to improve the place, I think about how to protect my job and how to avoid not making waves. I could be putting forth great effort in making new improvements for next year, instead I’m spending it researching my employee rights, researching new employment, and griping about my treatment on public websites

• Pete // Jun 19, 2008 at 9:50 am

  Jonathan, do a Martin Luther: print off a copy of my article and nail it to his office door after hours. (Or maybe just slip it into his intray anonymously).

  Seriously.

  Feel free to gripe. That situation truly sux.

• Jonathan // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:57 pm

  oops…maybe I should have read your response before taking action. I filed a harassment/bullying complaint with the Diocese this morning.

• Pete // Jun 20, 2008 at 8:59 am

  Woah! Are you serious?

• Jonathan // Jun 20, 2008 at 10:49 pm

  VERY serious. Long story behind it, don’t think I want to air dirty laundry on the web though.

• Pete // Jun 21, 2008 at 12:21 am

  Fair enough. All the best with it bro.

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