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Dealing with Stupid 17

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frusso110

frusso110

Mechanical
Feb 2, 2012
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We all have to deal with stupidity.

Stupid people.

Stupid specifications.

Stupid bosses, managers, co-workers.

Stupid company policies.

How do you stay sane at work? How do you deal with all of the above?

When a co-workers requests a moronic change to one of your drawings, how do you deal with it? When you disagree with someone, how do you respectfully disagree?

 
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"Place the dustbin/garbage can farther from your drive when you put it out in the morning. He's not going to walk an extra 20' just to place it in the middle of your drive."

Sure, he would. What other pleasure could he derive from his work, other than to know that he made a significant impact on your day?

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529
 
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It's like the guy who insisted on throwing the morning newspaper under my car. We have a two-car wide driveway and yet for awhile it would seem like on three out of four days, the newspaper was under my car (my wife's car is parked in the garage). I finally took a picture of my driveway showing how much 'space' was available and where the papers were being found each morning and mailed it, along with some additional well-chosen 'prose', to the subscription department. It must have worked as it's been several months now since I've had to crawl on my hands and knees to retrieve the paper. Either they replaced the delivery guy or someone had a truly serious talk with him.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
 
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TenPenny, he had to park in the street, get out, move the can (so the car didn't hit it), get back in the car, and then pull in.

My guess is he put liquids in the trash too many times and the bag blew, leaked on the garbage man. I will never put liquid (or ice) into a trash can. Dump it outside, or find a sink. There is not much worse than trash juice.
 
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Back in my younger days, we had a particularly cantankerous garbage man that would refuse to empty the can if it weighed more than about 20 lbs. I rigged a pullstring firecracker to the lid once, and had the pleasure of watching him scream and assume a karate-like defense pose when he set the thing off. Nowadays, I'd likely wind up in jail for a prank like that. We both had a good laugh over it, after the fact, and actually got along very well after that. Hopefully I didn't contribute to any anxiety disorder, it had to be a fresh memory every time he got to our stop.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
 
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After years of experience with this i do the following.

1 Let stupidity run its course, you are powerless to change it anyway.

2 Learn to enjoy thinking about how stupidity happens with respect to the individuals you work with.
Each person is somewhat of an enigma, try to determine how they think, but do not try to correct.

3 Support stupidity in its run to the dead end. This may be the fastest way to get past it.

4 Enjoy observing the chaos as you might watch the flame of a fire or a babbling brook.

5 Read Douglas Adams Hitchhiker series, and also the previously mentioned Putt's Law.
 
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The responsibility is to identify and articulate the concern to the responsible party, not to resolve something when you don't have the authority to do so.
 
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This topic reminds me of the old communication debate between engineers and sales & marketing. One never understands the other. Since I am both - stupidity and frustration is my normal day. Thank God for cold beer and weekends.



“Life's hard. It's even harder when you're stupid.”
― John Wayne


 
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