The "useless ideas" guy.

[Penis Drager 2.0]

Imagine you're a worker drone at some company that's been doing things mostly the same way for the past few years you've been working there. It's a system that works. It's a system that has flaws. It's a system that introduces a few annoying tasks that no one wants to do.

Enter stage left: Useless Ideas Guy!
He's been working here for 2 weeks and sees these problems.
He has a solution. It only requires a total reboot of the entire production process. It can't be tested in a controlled environment because of the scope. And it relies on everything working exactly as planned.
If you anticipate any problems that may arise, he has a band-aid. If you push him far enough, the resulting system ends up being more patchwork and inconvenient than the system you already have.
But that's fine. You just don't understand how brilliant the idea is because you're stuck in the default paradigm.

Anyway, this thread is about Psychologizing on this common workplace attitude and personal venting if applicable.

 

[oldTireWater]

Yeah. I think we've all known someone like that if we've worked for a large organization. "The Good Idea Fairy" is a tired term but it fits.

I try to caution people that I work with not to be that guy by reminding them there are no good ideas left. If it were a good idea someone else would already have had it. If you think you've got a good idea it's a clue that you're about to make things worse and piss everyone else off.

None of us are as smart as we think we are.

 

[Beelzebub's Lawyer]

I assume the guy is in some middle management position because otherwise, he would just have to do as he's told and shut the fuck up.

This is a problem with I've encountered with managers pretty much everywhere.
They know better because they're above you in the company hierarchy, they're the sergeant, you're the private, you just need to listen.
What one should do is is get documentation of everything he says and does, then put it together nicely for the higher ups along with a detailed explanation of why his ideas won't work.

If that won't do anything (and it often does nothing because middle management sticks together and they cover for each other), get another job.
I'm freelance right now because I'm tired of shit like that.

 

[generic sauce]

Just say that you have tried it and it didn't work.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

But that's fine. You just don't understand how brilliant the idea is because you're stuck in the default paradigm.

I'm just going to make a counterpoint here: Some, many even, organizations are effectively retarded and their processes can undergo basic improvements at very little cost. I'm thankful for the existence of India purely due to this example: Imagine trying to get them to use toilets, and having all of these talking points recycled against the notion.

Anyway, my focus is on computers, and let me lament that it really is at the level of don't shit where you eat or shit in the toilet for the most part. The average programmer can't even describe what he does in a satisfactory way, nor does he truly understand what his work should do.

For physical work, however, I'd concede that changing well-worn processes is probably a bad idea.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

I literally just quit my job over such a person, except that instead of responding to problems with a band-aid, the solution is just to not fix them at all. After all, if they don't understand it, it must not be important.

 

[Lizard Pope]

None of us are as smart as we think we are.

I am precisely as smart as I think I am. I'm a fucking idiot in many, if not most, aspects.

 

[Meat Target]

They're called consultants, and big corpos love them.

If the idea succeeds, management can run with it. If the idea fails, management can blame it on the consultants and avoid the accountability. And the consultants don't care in case of the latter, because they already got paid.

 

[IamInLoveWithBigBrother]

If there is one thing the wagie life taught me is this: if you observe an issue within the organisation the situation falls into the following categories:

A. The problem is impossible to fix due to the laws of reality.

B. The problem can be fixed however doing so would bother a few, yet very important and influential people within the organisation.

 

[regalterry]

For physical work, however, I'd concede that changing well-worn processes is probably a bad idea.

IIRC the way Toyota achieved their gains in efficiency was by requesting every worker to submit his ideas on how his specific tasks could be made more efficient, and then actually implementing the best ideas, but incrementally, careful not to cause too much disruption.

It's obviously far more complex than just that, but actually showing workers you're willing to listen and trust their expertise and skill within the narrower context of their position must have been a big motivation for less extrovert workers to come forward with their own ideas.

Eventually they got so good at it they began selling others their method.

Another good example is Ford, and all the changes he made to optimize the workflow, from deciding to use electricity to power the machines in the factory so they could be placed more optimally, to the conveyor belt, to breaking down assembly into specific tasks, and even raising wages of his workers and granting them the weekend off to ensure they were well rested and motivated to be more productive.

Having someone that wants to improve things isn't always bad, it's just that 99% of the time that person is a retard that has no idea what he's doing.

 

[Male Idiot]

Green reddit's venting thread? So soy.

Someone tried to do a mandatory Honda idea stuff for every people at a workplace. Ngubu the janitor wrote in he wanted new mop. He was good janitor.

This system worked when your workforce was specialised high iq high trust japs. Doesn't work otherwise.

I had quit the job later when the new boss, shipped from foreign land, was this guy. Except making it better meant making it more glitzy and modern. All in all it was a bloodbath, breaking a system that worked fine for two decades.