Last Friday I spoke to my boss and complained about a colleagues lack of communication to me. I adopted my 3 strike method. Wait for something to irritate you. Wait for it to happen again as a confirmation. Wait for it to happen once more as the strikeout. Now raise it with the boss. So what happened was that this colleague would fail to update me on work/decisions that were directly related to my work. Example:

(oh, i'm going to throw a curveball at you. the "colleague" is actually my boss' boss. in my opinion, that shouldn't matter).

Customer asks Derf "How much does this cost?"
Derf forwards the question to Colleague.
Colleague asks for price from Consultant.
Consultant gives price to Colleague.
*days pass*
Derf meets with Consultant by chance
Consultant informs Derf of price

The problem that this caused was twofold:

A. We look like an ass in front of the Consultant because we are obviously not informing one another.
B. We look like an ass to the customer for having let X number of days pass idle.

So I report this to my boss on Friday. My boss discusses this with the employee on Monday, and lets me know the results. Here is her feedback to me:

1. Colleague doesn't think there is a communication problem.
2. If I have ideas, I should put myself forward and suggest them.

So firstly, there is a refusal / inability to acknowledge that problems A and B exist.
Secondly, ideas have nothing to do with it. No one was talking about ideas. This was a simple question, requiring a simple answer. God knows what my boss was trying to say here.

Lastly, (and this one killed me, it truly did) my boss said this:

"Sometimes when my boss doesn't update me, it's partially my fault for not asking"

What the holy fuck?

I told her, politely, "That sounds strange to me. It's not what i'm used to."

She indicated that this is a concept that is dissimilar the culture in the last company I worked for, so I have to adapt to it.

What the ... fuck? That is one of the most retarded things I've ever heard. Firstly, there is a very easy and clear flow of communication that occurs when two humans converse. A question is asked, which may or may not be deferred, but in either case, the question can only be answered by the other human. It is the most efficient form of communication. It flows like so:

Question > Delay > Answer

Why must it be:

Question > Delay > Question > Answer

This is not culture related. It is retarded vs. non-retarded.

Now, one offs do occur. I accept that. I don't care. But when someone seems to have adopted this form of communication, it's counterproductive.

This is not the end of it. I will have another conversation with my boss.

I immediately had to think about those courses they give to managers etc that your boss clearly must have followed.

Where they learn how to stay completely vague when you're asking something simple, add some random remark to a conversation, preferably something that you could find as a slogan on a box of cornflakes, or in a fortune cookie. Preferably something without any meaning or relevance to the discussion.

Maybe your boss just has some cards with phrases that might come in handy and he/she is just picking one.
(If you have ideas, you should put yourself forward and suggest them -> oh yes, i'm going to use that, always works )

I feel your pain man.

Applied to 15 jobs today. Let's see if I get a reply for any of them.

I feel your pain man. Even if you don't work at a massive company, there's always some link of the chain that goes "NOPE" when you are trying to build an efficient workflow. And since that part is almost always higher up for slobs like us, it's incredibly frustrating.

The e-mail thing is the worst yeah. I think it's partially because of the "covering my ass" culture that exists in these corporate structures. Making a decision on this project? Better cc in every supervisor. Ordering new paper clips? Better cc in every supervisor. Taking a shit during my break? DEFINITELY cc in every supervisor!

Apart from the obvious incompetence of some supervisors, this endless stream of e-mails with only maybe 5% being useful to them is killing their ability to process anything efficiently. I'm only in a pretty low expert position where I work now and I get around 30-50 e-mails a day I think. A max of 5 of those are usually relevant to anything I do. And you have to keep in mind I'm not even important, So not nearly everyone ccs me in anything (thankgod).

It's mostly the sycophants and incompetent who do it, too. I don't need to tell my boss about everything I do. I can work independently, and I take care of shit when I have to. And if I screw up, then that's on me. They should feel like they can delegate to me, not that I can't function without them there to nod their heads and say "good job Ox". Of course, sometimes that gets a little extreme...a few months ago I was basically running the entire team (30-40 people) when all my supervisors were on some sort of management meeting for a week without almost any prior notice. It was pretty ridiculous. Luckily it was only for one week, but really, I was doing all the manager's tasks without any of the power of information.

ANd on a side rant note: I've been trying for years to get into various big international organisations (the EU, NATO, UN, whatever) to get some of that sweet money in a nice position. So applied many many times. Never even got a callback (obviously I did get to do the open exams). Now, a girl I know here just graduated as a lawyer and was working in her first job fior 2 months and felt really unhappy with it. I told her to keep an eye out for some of these international jobs, you never know. FOund a lawyers job with a EU agency. She applied, got a callback the same day. Now she's going for an interview in a few weeks.

While I'm happy for her (I hope she gets it, benefits are craaaaaaawzzzyy), it does reinforce my belief that I am entitled to punch anyone in the face now who says "don't say that" when I say I have a worthless degree and should have studied something else. 10 years, 50+ application (I would guess?), not a single callback. 1 day, 1 application, 1 callback. WTF. W.T.F.

Is she hot? That could explain something

She is. But they hadn't seen her face, I think. I'll have to ask if she sent her picture along with her CV haha.

To Derf, talk all you want, you have to write it down, hell make a map with an arrow and huge text "LOOSE MONEY HERE" then theres a mild chance someone takes notice. Just talking about it gets you nowhere.

My brother's been trying to get me to run for a NATO position for some time now, i always tell him to shove it . Id rather try and fail at something i want to do rather than chew through the bureaucratic (now thats a word, right?) sh*t in some foreign country doing something i don't really care about. Id rather invest that time into my own unit ( www.meredivisjon.ee ) and work with people and not with offices and secretaries.

Before you turn down an opportunity to work for NATO, you might want to consider that all NATO employees are exempt from any income taxes (both national and international).

Selection is very much based on gut-feel of the candidates personality. This happens in both the conscious and sub-conscious. There is an element in most places of work where your face must fit the bill to be considered. There are retards and fuck-ups in the world, and there are also saints. A 22 year old female law graduate paints a prettier "saint" picture than the 30-something literature graduate. They think you're a retard, Ox. Recruitment is mostly based on this kind of thinking in my experience. Potential is invisible. Passion is invisible. Malleability is valuable to incompetent managers.

Yes, P, good advice. I have started writing it down as a report in the form of a recommendation regarding something that I see as the over-reaching problem. It will take a while to write between work and doing other things.

As for the jobs I applied for, again, none replied.

Yeah you're probably right. I do try to explain to people I know and work with that my professional career is pretty much a dead end already, but they don't seem to want to believe me. I don't say it in a dramatic or sorry-for-myself way, just as a matter of fact. I have a (useless) degree, and then several years of work experience in different domains, in varying degrees of responsibility and with various tasks, but always around 2 years at a time and broken by a year of unemployment recently. To get good jobs, you either need to have a good degree and get a nice entry position in your field the moment you leave uni or college, or you build professional experience in one field/position for 3-5 years before considering moving up. I don't have either, which makes me a less-than-desirable candidate for most employers. It's no surprise that I tend to do a lot better in anonymous exams than in straight up applications.

Not that I'm too depressed about it. I made my choices and was dealth the cards I was dealt, so you can only put your head down and keep trying. I can't go back and change the past so better look forward. And to be honest; while a lot of my friends are having success in their respective fields and building a nice life for themselves, my life is more interesting than theirs in some ways. It's not necessarily bad, just different.

Still, would have been a lot easier to get one of the well-paying jobs with a sense of professional authority, would have helped me in different aspects of my life.

P.S. she's 24, but yeah, other than that she probably does fit in your description of a 'saint'. Good uni results, work experience in a private firm during her studies, and now (hopefully for her) ready to jump into the big money/stimulating work environment that is the EU.

You were dealt this card from an early age: