Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊

Register Log in

[Misc] Busting for an argument at work :)



G

giveusfalmerplease

Well-known member
Sep 21, 2006
1,988
Not quite a million miles from Brighton
I'm really looking forward to an argument that's building at work. Sometimes when you just know you are right and can prove it but another refuses to accept they are in the wrong, regardless whether it was accidental or not.

I'll give you a hypothetical example to illustrate the point:
-> You invite a builder to your house to do some work (ignore covid for the time being) and say "I want bedroom one and bedroom two to look identical, same carpet same wallpaper, colour etc". One room was recently decorated and the other is clearly run-down and due a redecoration. Builder says fine, gives you a quote that you are happy with.
-> Time passes, builder does the work. You come home to find he has trashed the good room to make it like the bad one!
There you are he says now they are both the same, hope you like it!!

This is the situation i face at work but of course not decoration related. A team in our firm , instead of "upgrading" one of our systems to work like the new one have deemed it logical to "downgrade" the new one , taking away functionality.!!

Now, our firm naturally has a culture of "we are all a team, not individuals' and i have not signalled anyone out for criticism but their leader stubbornly refuses to admit they got it wrong. I'm doing my best to keep my cool as it will only be me that gets it in the neck if i dare to upset anyone.

So having said at the beginning of this post i'm looking forward to an argument, maybe im more looking at a way to get what i wanted without offending some idiot who doesnt have an ounce of common sense...There, i said it..i know i cant say it at work..i feel better already..
 




portlock seagull

portlock seagull

Why? Why us?
Jul 28, 2003
17,071
Best way to win an argument at work is not to have one.
 


M

METALMICKY

Well-known member
Jan 30, 2004
6,059
giveusfalmerplease said:
I'm really looking forward to an argument that's building at work. Sometimes when you just know you are right and can prove it but another refuses to accept they are in the wrong, regardless whether it was accidental or not.

I'll give you a hypothetical example to illustrate the point:
-> You invite a builder to your house to do some work (ignore covid for the time being) and say "I want bedroom one and bedroom two to look identical, same carpet same wallpaper, colour etc". One room was recently decorated and the other is clearly run-down and due a redecoration. Builder says fine, gives you a quote that you are happy with.
-> Time passes, builder does the work. You come home to find he has trashed the good room to make it like the bad one!
There you are he says now they are both the same, hope you like it!!

This is the situation i face at work but of course not decoration related. A team in our firm , instead of "upgrading" one of our systems to work like the new one have deemed it logical to "downgrade" the new one , taking away functionality.!!

Now, our firm naturally has a culture of "we are all a team, not individuals' and i have not signalled anyone out for criticism but their leader stubbornly refuses to admit they got it wrong. I'm doing my best to keep my cool as it will only be me that gets it in the neck if i dare to upset anyone.

So having said at the beginning of this post i'm looking forward to an argument, maybe im more looking at a way to get what i wanted without offending some idiot who doesnt have an ounce of common sense...There, i said it..i know i cant say it at work..i feel better already..
Click to expand...
Methinks that a course in conflict management might be useful. One of the key concepts is to focus on the problem and not the people. Often easier said than done but can diffuse situation.
 


father_and_son

father_and_son

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2012
4,646
Under the Police Box
Who says that downgrading wasn't the best/logical option? It may not seem it to the uninformed but maybe there is key architecture in the organisation that cannot handle the upgrade and so downgrade was the right solution?

OP really sounds like the annoying tw@t in the office who thinks he can do everyone's job better than they can but in reality knows nothing.

Best let the subject matter experts deal with their field of expertise and stick to your own, however inflated your opinion of yourself is.

(And no, I don't work in IT, but I am a 'power user' so have to negotiate non-standard regularly and I know telling them they are all idiots is rarely the route to the best service!)
 














Baldseagull

Baldseagull

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
10,946
Crawley
giveusfalmerplease said:
I'm really looking forward to an argument that's building at work. Sometimes when you just know you are right and can prove it but another refuses to accept they are in the wrong, regardless whether it was accidental or not.

I'll give you a hypothetical example to illustrate the point:
-> You invite a builder to your house to do some work (ignore covid for the time being) and say "I want bedroom one and bedroom two to look identical, same carpet same wallpaper, colour etc". One room was recently decorated and the other is clearly run-down and due a redecoration. Builder says fine, gives you a quote that you are happy with.
-> Time passes, builder does the work. You come home to find he has trashed the good room to make it like the bad one!
There you are he says now they are both the same, hope you like it!!

This is the situation i face at work but of course not decoration related. A team in our firm , instead of "upgrading" one of our systems to work like the new one have deemed it logical to "downgrade" the new one , taking away functionality.!!

Now, our firm naturally has a culture of "we are all a team, not individuals' and i have not signalled anyone out for criticism but their leader stubbornly refuses to admit they got it wrong. I'm doing my best to keep my cool as it will only be me that gets it in the neck if i dare to upset anyone.

So having said at the beginning of this post i'm looking forward to an argument, maybe im more looking at a way to get what i wanted without offending some idiot who doesnt have an ounce of common sense...There, i said it..i know i cant say it at work..i feel better already..
Click to expand...

Have you asked why they chose to align A to B rather than B to A? There could be a good reason that you are unaware of, and you will make yourself look a proper tit if you let them have both barrels without having gone through the process yourself to fully understand all the issues.

In my work in the past, we have had to "downgrade" one or two rooms to the lowest common denominators, as the only way to provide uniform user interfaces without the expense of upgrading the many lower spec rooms for which there was no budget. The object of the exercise was to reduce the calls for support from people used to using the higher spec rooms and not being able to find the functionality they expected in the lower spec rooms, and people used to using the lower spec rooms suddenly seeing an interface that had options they didn't understand if they then used the higher spec rooms. It worked and less support calls were made, but it was frustrating for those users who understood what they were doing and had lost access to functions that they knew existed but had no way of accessing now.

In short, it may be that what you see as the superior room is in fact a bewildering nightmare for other people, and it is easier to give the majority a simplified, if less functional, system to work with.
 




Cheshire Cat

Cheshire Cat

The most curious thing..
Nov 4, 2006
11,436
Sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off...
Why bother. Really, who cares. Just accept that your company is populated by losers.
 




sparkie

sparkie

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2003
12,504
Hove
Cheshire Cat said:
Why bother. Really, who cares. Just accept that your company is populated by losers.
Click to expand...
Is the right answer.

When you look back on the various companies you've worked for over the years you realise that a lot of it is not worth getting stressed about. The goons in the office, the silly self assessment forms, the made up personal goals in order to tick boxes... all gone, all forgotten. No point in any of it. Just froth. What a waste of mental energy. C'est la vie. It makes no difference. Embrace it, enjoy it. They messed up. They own it. Who cares ?
 


M

METALMICKY

Well-known member
Jan 30, 2004
6,059
Baldseagull said:
Have you asked why they chose to align A to B rather than B to A? There could be a good reason that you are unaware of, and you will make yourself look a proper tit if you let them have both barrels without having gone through the process yourself to fully understand all the issues.

In my work in the past, we have had to "downgrade" one or two rooms to the lowest common denominators, as the only way to provide uniform user interfaces without the expense of upgrading the many lower spec rooms for which there was no budget. The object of the exercise was to reduce the calls for support from people used to using the higher spec rooms and not being able to find the functionality they expected in the lower spec rooms, and people used to using the lower spec rooms suddenly seeing an interface that had options they didn't understand if they then used the higher spec rooms. It worked and less support calls were made, but it was frustrating for those users who understood what they were doing and had lost access to functions that they knew existed but had no way of accessing now.

In short, it may be that what you see as the superior room is in fact a bewildering nightmare for other people, and it is easier to give the majority a simplified, if less functional, system to work with.
Click to expand...

This.........................I think ???
 


G

giveusfalmerplease

Well-known member
Sep 21, 2006
1,988
Not quite a million miles from Brighton
father_and_son said:
Who says that downgrading wasn't the best/logical option? It may not seem it to the uninformed but maybe there is key architecture in the organisation that cannot handle the upgrade and so downgrade was the right solution?

OP really sounds like the annoying tw@t in the office who thinks he can do everyone's job better than they can but in reality knows nothing.

Best let the subject matter experts deal with their field of expertise and stick to your own, however inflated your opinion of yourself is.

(And no, I don't work in IT, but I am a 'power user' so have to negotiate non-standard regularly and I know telling them they are all idiots is rarely the route to the best service!)
Click to expand...

Really , so as a so called Power User, you would be happy if your firm replace MS word on you laptop with Notepad? After all they both allow you to write documents? Who needs paragraph formatting? inserting a picture - nah thats old hat..Or maybe you will sacrifice the Latest iPhone XI for a Nokia 3310? Both allow you to make phone calls and have a screen with graphics on them? You get my gist - im not talking about a minor removal of functionality here

Can you really name even a single downgrade in todays world you would consider as the right thing to do?
 




BadFish

BadFish

Huge Member
Oct 19, 2003
17,102
These things are usually not totally one person's fault. Sounds like the OP has left a grey area in his explanation of the work required. What is it they say about assumption?

Personally I would be treading carefully and focusing on solving the problem rather that spoiling for a fight. Life is too short for one thing.



Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk
 


jackalbion

jackalbion

Well-known member
Aug 30, 2011
4,024
The funniest thing I ever saw at my work place was a senior member of staff punch a printer because it had been upgraded to a system where it was required that the fob to enter the building was used the activate the printer, and the said member of staff could not get it to work. Not overly relevant to this but still funny.
 


S

Shropshire Seagull

Well-known member
Nov 5, 2004
8,496
Telford
Classic IT failure scenario is this.

An ambiguous requirement is "I want A & B to be the same"

A half-decent business analyst or requirements manager would follow this statement up with: "So, do you want A to be changed to be like B, or B to be changed to be like A" - then there is no ambiguity.

Both parties equally to blame - clear communication failure - not for the first time and won't be the last.
 


father_and_son

father_and_son

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2012
4,646
Under the Police Box
giveusfalmerplease said:
Really , so as a so called Power User, you would be happy if your firm replace MS word on you laptop with Notepad? After all they both allow you to write documents? Who needs paragraph formatting? inserting a picture - nah thats old hat..Or maybe you will sacrifice the Latest iPhone XI for a Nokia 3310? Both allow you to make phone calls and have a screen with graphics on them? You get my gist - im not talking about a minor removal of functionality here

Can you really name even a single downgrade in todays world you would consider as the right thing to do?
Click to expand...

As stated, I am not in IT and nor do I know the infrastructure of your company so cannot comment on the specifics. However there is a number of scenarios where 'lesser' software, working for everyone, is preferable to new software which doesn't work on every machine or a critical server. Using it might mean a considerable capital expenditure or the difficulties of maintaining multiple versions (a security and admin nightmare in many cases).

The point was... IT staff do know why they do things, the reasons may be very technical and what they won't do is make such an arbitrary change just to piss off some guy in accounts who thinks he knows everything because he built his own gaming PC once... That pettiness just isn't worth the hassle.

New, state-of-the-art software is generally easier to maintain, more secure and, obviously, more powerful. But it comes with hardware and software compatibility issues, training requirements and an up to date infrastructure. Any of which could be reasons to compromise. New software may be too INsecure because new functionality requires internet access or off-site rackspace or can't be centrally controlled.

Why not ask IT why there is an issue? Not to try to solve it for them, but just to calm yourself that someone knows what they are doing.
 




T

Tokyohands

Well-known member
Jan 5, 2017
940
Tokyo
If it's an argument at work you're busting for you should come and work for me. The punch-ups are less often as we've all worked together for a long time and grown up a bit, but there's still plenty of shouting, f-ing off and occasionally a PC monitor or chair launched across the room, followed at the end of the day by beers and a laugh. It's brilliant.
 


bhafc99

bhafc99

Well-known member
Oct 14, 2003
7,085
Dubai
Just get Bielsa in to sort it out. He’ll probably upgrade the code for both rooms as a freebie too, he’s that amazing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Albion and Premier League latest from Sky Sports


Top
Link Here