Comments

Managers must be managed like anyone else - they like cool people that ALWAYS show respect and solve their pressing challenges!!!

Dilbert is for others - too negative based for me!!! Thanks CM.

Posted by Freeman at November 23, 2004 3:50 PM

To much management, to much do it this way, to much stay focussed on the way we do it here.. Don't change the process, our process is best.. and please don't THINK.>>>> UHHHH!!! That's what I was told when I worked for the leader in their industry. Funny how things work out the company has since decided to merge with a rival and the brand will disappear all together!

Posted by PJm at November 23, 2004 4:00 PM

Induvidual drive got me chased out of the big companies.

Drive is for entrepreneurs and business owners.

Individual drive is not good for most employees because such thinking poses a threat to everyone around them.

I left the W-2 world and opened my own business as a 1099 contractor and having drive to succeed pushed me farther than I would have ever gone in a big company.

Posted by Erick Blackwelder at November 23, 2004 9:53 PM

Tom, even scarier...Lucy Kellway in yesterday's FT pointed out that she had lunch with a senior manager who told her that the biggest problem he faced was employee's who are too intelligent, too dissenting and too creative. He feels that this is very disruptive to the business because they don't do what they are told or they do it grudgingly and so don't do it well. He also thinks diversity is dangerous because in his view too many different ideas lead to chaos. He even cites an incident where one of his minions ( super smart) wrote a report that was full of nuance and complexity and he just threw it out saying if he couldn't "get it" in ten minutes he wasn't interested.
Now, as a self professed nympho for info who is fanatic about new learning and totally geeked by creativity, design and wierd and wacky people, this scared the shit out of me. So I emailed the journalsit and she says this attitude is the norm in the great majority of businesses in this country. I have just started on this work and career thing and it looks like everything is stacked against the kind of person I am. It's all over. They have won. And then I thought, "bullshit". Every system has a glitch, and so it is my intention to find it and exploit it to the maximum. What's the alternative? keep my nose clean and hope for the best? Never.

Posted by Fredd at November 24, 2004 4:39 AM

"Are bosses truly the idiots Scott Adams/Dilbert claims?"
A lot of them, yes.

What's a highly desirable trait for these guys? Loyalty. The employee sticks with the boss because he/she's the boss. Don't think, just do. Ugggghhhh . . .

Posted by Ron at November 24, 2004 3:39 PM

Scott Adams insightfully spotlights the bottom feeders - employees, managers and consultants - that so often burrow into the bowels of old guard companies. Although conniving administrators and showboat politicians are considered "bosses", they should never be confused with leaders. Regardless of organizational position, leadership is earned by finding the right raw talent, adding personal value and building the relationships and confidence needed within the team to make something special happen. Companies who build their culture on REAL sustainable leadership and have the fortitude to drive out the parasites (starting at the top) are rare - which is one reason for the consistent turnover in the Fortune 50. It's also why blind corporate loyalty is (and should be) dead and gone.

Posted by Tom C. at November 24, 2004 9:46 PM