Comments for Sith Sigma

Comment on Attitude + Aptitude = Great Employees by BubbasFat

BubbasFat — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:07:41 +0000

One effective way of stealing HIPO employees is an often under appreciated, yet effective and potentially blinding technique I have seen used in the past by evil masters; Freezing in carbonite.

You isolate the individual, freeze them in carbonite and then ferry them back to your star system. This also works well for college job fairs. Just don’t let the carbonite fall into the wrong hands, like a fraternity.

In my line of work it can be tempting to lure potential future performers into my business, however you must remember it can also be considered poaching.

Comment on We All Answer to a Dark Lord by Darth Sidious

Darth Sidious — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:53:59 +0000

Thanks Vader! I’m glad that you recognize my Dark Lordness.

Comment on Deadlines by Darth Sidious

Darth Sidious — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:15:08 +0000

You guys make some very valid points. I think Lord Vader is generally frustrated by people who promise him that something will be done on a Monday, and come Monday… they’re now saying end of Monday. So to keep confusion and excuses at a minimum, when you promise a day - the company has defined that as end of business of that day, or morning of, for consistency purposes.

Once I saw him choke out a General using the Force just because he accidentally let, what seemed like, an insignificant ship get through.

Comment on Deadlines by Linda Griffin

Linda Griffin — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:23:32 +0000

Every deadline/target date is not equally important. Any project of more than a couple of days will(should) have several intermediate targets that demonstrate progress towards the final result. Missed intermediate targets are a definite red flag that something needs to be adjusted and gives you and your manager the opportunity to make corrections.

Comment on Don’t be difficult to manage by canon

canon — Sat, 03 May 2008 11:51:24 +0000

I ahd an experience with a manager who used to make it diffcult for me to do my job. how would you cope with this and deal with this. She used to never let me do the things that I was supposed to do and when I did them would do nothing but complain about the way I did them. I began to be in a lose lose situation when if I didn’t do the job, she would complain about why I wasnt doing it. When I did do the job then she would complain and shout at me about the way I did it. At the same time, she doesn’t want to lose me as an employee. I can relate to some of what has already been said, but I think that my situation is far worse. My manager sidelines me on purpose and then complains to others about my so called incompetence.

Comment on Deadlines by aqua

aqua — Sat, 03 May 2008 11:44:42 +0000

Hi.

I had a very bad experience with a manager who used to set me unbelievably tight deadlines. It had a very bad effect on me and now that I have left that prison, I still am very badly affected in the way that I will sometimes purposefully miss deadlines just to see what the reaction of my manager is. If they are flexible, I know that I can stay and work effectively for them. If they are completely unreasonable and do not communicate effectively then I know that it is time to find a new job with a better manager.

Comment on Don’t be difficult to manage by aqua

aqua — Sat, 03 May 2008 11:39:41 +0000

Hi, I found this extremely helpful.
I was in a pretty diffucult situation and wondered whether you could help. I did everythign my manager wanted, but the expectations just kept getting higher and higher. I was recruited alongside another employee, and we both were appointed for teh same job. We became very very competitive and hardly spoke to one another. My manager took advantage of this and then decided to keep the other employee and constuctively dismiss me. This has had a very negative effect on me and I just wondered whether you could help me make sense of it all. I can relate to some part of your writing in that I did become a bit like the lone warrior at one stage. Problem was that I didnt really find any support anywhere and now think that I have to start at zero.

Comment on Employees Abusing Sick Days by Darth Sidious

Darth Sidious — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:10:12 +0000

Jennifer, you make a very valid point. The bottom line goal of management is to get results through your people, so those who are sick every 5 minutes won’t be getting much results done.

Comment on Employees Abusing Sick Days by Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:13:31 +0000

I work for a company that gives UNLIMITED sick days. Those who abuse them, do not last long because they are not generally the type of people that fall into the category of high performers. When you have a specific number to shoot for, you will try to hit it. When you know you can call in sick whenever you want, you don’t really pay attention to how many times you call in sick, you just call in sick when you need to. I had to look up how much sick time I took - 2 sick days in the last six months and I am in no way unique. We tell people to go home when they are sick - we don’t want what they have.

Comment on Deadlines by David

David — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:03:12 +0000

Yes, but unless the task takes a single day, there should be status regarding the progress of te task towards the deadline at appropriate times. If its a two week project, then one would expect 50% completion on a week. The task status should be updated, by those assigned to it, in a project management tool.

A manager that walks in the day of a deadline and is surprised by the status (late status in this case) has bad management practice.

Cheers,

Davo