STRIP FOR Oct 19, 2008
Comments
User Name: Spruijtje
Oct 20, 2008
0
User Name: tk3141
Oct 20, 2008
-8
I might be reading the comic wrong, but there's a grammar mistake on the last slide, isnt there?
It should read "Why is it the squirrel...", the "it" is missing from the slide.
It should read "Why is it the squirrel...", the "it" is missing from the slide.
User Name: IntoTheCrimsonSky
Oct 19, 2008
0
Rofl! I love this. Even though I don't work in an office, I've come across these people.
User Name: eigentourist
Oct 19, 2008
+3
Has anyone ever tried to feed the idea squirrel a poisoned idea?
One of those ideas that sounds brilliant on the surface, but after a little research, is found to have a nightmarish flaw that would lead to catastrophe?
I have found that it's not that hard to get the squirrel to steal a poisoned idea, but it's very hard to kill him with the poison. In a nutshell (no pun intended) he'll try to force anyone around him to drink the poison first.
My experience with idea squirrels is that when he steals the idea, and the idea is implemented, and then the disaster appears on the horizon, the smart ones will go to the boss and whine about work overload, and ask for you to be added to the project. If that happens, naturally, you'll be stuck trying to make it all work. And naturally any failure will be yours to shoulder.
So you (and any other competent person in the department) have to start an "I'm on a mission-critical task and I cannot be disturbed" campaign early on to hedge against this. Let's assume you succeed in avoiding conscription for the time being.
As the disaster approaches, the squirrel quickly reaches a nothing-to-lose situation and escalates his tactics correspondingly. Before all hell breaks loose, someone has to say something that reminds everyone that this idea belongs to the squirrel, and perhaps it should have been researched a bit more thoroughly.
That raises the stakes even further, as now the squirrel's credibility is squarely on the line. If he's not very resourceful, he could go down at that point. But if he is - especially, if he's the darling favorite of some upper-level figure, he may be able to create a campaign of denial and misdirection that will divert all the blame onto some innocent person (possibly you.) Documentation will be a critical matter at that point, so that lies and innuendo don't become acknowledged as truth.
In the end, you may find that rooting out and eliminating a well-connected idea squirrel requires taking very high levels of political risk yourself. The last battle of the war may well be a brute-force contest of your credibility versus his, and in this conflict, it's much better if you're not alone.
I suppose one could generalize this whole story onto many kinds of villains in the workplace. I've been in this kind of situation more times than I can remember, and the older I get, the more risk I am willing to take - mostly because I'm not willing to reach the end of the road and look back on a life of silent complicity with evil.
One of those ideas that sounds brilliant on the surface, but after a little research, is found to have a nightmarish flaw that would lead to catastrophe?
I have found that it's not that hard to get the squirrel to steal a poisoned idea, but it's very hard to kill him with the poison. In a nutshell (no pun intended) he'll try to force anyone around him to drink the poison first.
My experience with idea squirrels is that when he steals the idea, and the idea is implemented, and then the disaster appears on the horizon, the smart ones will go to the boss and whine about work overload, and ask for you to be added to the project. If that happens, naturally, you'll be stuck trying to make it all work. And naturally any failure will be yours to shoulder.
So you (and any other competent person in the department) have to start an "I'm on a mission-critical task and I cannot be disturbed" campaign early on to hedge against this. Let's assume you succeed in avoiding conscription for the time being.
As the disaster approaches, the squirrel quickly reaches a nothing-to-lose situation and escalates his tactics correspondingly. Before all hell breaks loose, someone has to say something that reminds everyone that this idea belongs to the squirrel, and perhaps it should have been researched a bit more thoroughly.
That raises the stakes even further, as now the squirrel's credibility is squarely on the line. If he's not very resourceful, he could go down at that point. But if he is - especially, if he's the darling favorite of some upper-level figure, he may be able to create a campaign of denial and misdirection that will divert all the blame onto some innocent person (possibly you.) Documentation will be a critical matter at that point, so that lies and innuendo don't become acknowledged as truth.
In the end, you may find that rooting out and eliminating a well-connected idea squirrel requires taking very high levels of political risk yourself. The last battle of the war may well be a brute-force contest of your credibility versus his, and in this conflict, it's much better if you're not alone.
I suppose one could generalize this whole story onto many kinds of villains in the workplace. I've been in this kind of situation more times than I can remember, and the older I get, the more risk I am willing to take - mostly because I'm not willing to reach the end of the road and look back on a life of silent complicity with evil.
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