On Employees Educating Employers? 79
ramannoodle asks: "My employer currently makes many decisions that I feel would save them a lot of money by going about it in a different way. I have presented many of these ideas to them, but being the not-so-great sales person that I am, I feel in some ways that by voicing my opinion on these things, I am jeopardizing my standing with the company. Is it the right thing to do to continue educating my employer on issues they do not want to hear, but will save them money and just risk being one of the many unemployed honest IT professionals out there? Do I hide what I know from them by keeping my mouth shut and just doing what they tell me so I can keep my job and feed my family? It's a tough economy out there, and is it worth being over-enthusiastic about helping the company?" We touched on this issue for contractors, but what about actual employees?
I tried this. I got fired. Listen up. (Score:5, Informative)
Don't sweat it.
Just kick back, take the paycheck, and do what is asked of you. Do it well if you want satisfaction of a job well done, do it just well enough to avoid being fired if work is just someplace you go between 8am and 5pm.
Really, unless your job description specifically allows you to suggest and make improvements to processes (and the company culture is *clearly* open to such things), don't try to get into the inner circle - you'll only target yourself for the next round of cuts as 'that guy who's always being negative'. In my case, by suggesting other ways to do things, I was seen as 'negative', even though I didn't say 'don't do that!', merely 'you know, this way may be better...'.
Attain a state of Zen - You are an employee. They pay you to show up and do what you're told for eight hours a day. In exchange, they give you money. Nothing more. To try to attribute higher meaning or greater value to your job where none exists is just adding to your stress levels.
Why yes, I am bitter. But now I have experience, and I have attained Zen.
One for all, all for one (Score:3, Informative)
If you feel that your selling skills won't win over the decision makers, find someone else in the organization that shares your feelings, and have them help sell the company on your ideas.
A lot of times it is difficult to go at it alone, but with a network of support, you'll have people backing you up and raising the level of awareness.
Discuss your ideas with a smaller group, a make a game plan for bringing it up to management. Look for advocates, and someone to champion your cause.
If you can save money, or avoid problems the company should appreciate the efforts. Sometimes you just have to work through old-thinking.
Not just in IT, but manufacturing too (Score:3, Informative)
My dad, after being the best engineer in one General Motors facility, had his job outsourced to Detroit where "corporate" could do it better, faster. He knew that when folks were designing a chiller installation on the second floor, it would violate the load per square foot rating for the roof (i.e. collapsed roof if you get it wrong). He also knows exactly how deep/where gas pipelines lay across some arbitrary field on a 2 sq. mile plant (i.e. dig in the wrong place and the big explosion hits the national news) [true story: they had the backhoe in the field when they discovered this mysterious pipe in the wrong place... hmmm?]
So it would go to stand that maybe they should listen to a man who knows the blueprints to the plant by heart, and where to find all these prints.
GM opened a formal "suggestions" program where they offered real prizes/points for projects that would save the company money. From ways to reduce the number of steps an assembler took to get parts (read: time vehicle sits at one station) to ways to reduce heating/air conditioning costs. The program worked really good and my dad says he submitted dozens of ideas. Of the dozens he submitted, they gave him point awards for, say, a dozen. Of those dozen, maybe four were actually implemented.
Why mention this here? Even in an organization with thousands of corners for improvement, they still don't listen well and implement even fewer of the things they actually get into their thick skulls. You are no different.
In fact, if you want to avoid tarnishing your reputation, make your first suggestion be the start of a similar suggestion program whose sole focus is awards go to those whose ideas save the company the most money for the least amount of work. Of course, the program only can last so long or the employees won't think about doing their real job. Prizes were given like credit card companies do their "spend money and get points" reward systems.
Re:Learn the soft sell (Score:3, Informative)
I've made the transition from code monkey to marketing monkey. I end up helping a lot of sales reps on calls because of my technical background and ability to "geek-meld" in one sentence and pitch "value propositions" in the next.
There are several key parts to the pitch:
o Give the other guy an out that makes him look good.
This means opening with "I might be missing something but," or "Would it contradict the big picture if we..." In each case you give the receiver of the idea a chance to explain what it is their doing and educate you.
o Read the crowd
A good DJ doesn't just play songs, he guides the crowd and builds energy. He spends a lot of time looking at facial expressions and watching how people dance -- what are they reacting to? What kicks the energy up a notch? What makes them roll their eyes, etc. You have to do the same with your audience. If they're being terse and not really responding, back off. They don't want to talk about your suggestion and pushing it is only going to irritate them. If you manage to make them stop and think about it, don't jump in too quickly. Let them ease into the idea. Don't forget to show the benefits to them in terms of how it'll make them look, etc.
o Be ready to drop it
This is crucial. Your idea may not fit in a bigger picture an established process, or you may be improving something that doesn't present a really good return. (e.g. optimizing the snot out of a loop that that takes 1 second to run, once an hour isn't nearly as useful as optimizing the loop that runs 1000 times a second) Of course, you may simply be simply be stepping on a toe and the person wants you to back off. Don't write off the possibility that the current idea is too far down the path to change (e.g. don't put someone in a tough spot because they just spent $500k on web caches when squid and some PCs would have sufficed -- the money is spent and you can only make people look bad)
o Don't repeat yourself and be ready to support the existing idea
If the idea was heard and rejected, don't keep going back in a huff. You'll only annoy and piss off everyone. Once you've done your pitch and it has been ignored/dropped/whatever, support the decision that was made. Your ideas will be better received in the future when your managers know that you'll still support the team.
Best of luck...