Work Experiments.

For some time now bizarro gnome and myself have been conducting a social experiment at work. We are testing how many times you can say 'no' to things before your boss either makes you do it or fires you. Turns out neither happens!

We are trying to reverse engineer the propaganda that many 30-somethings were taught by osmosis that you always, no matter what it is, deliver on what your boss asks you to do. You know, climb that corporate ladder, last car in the carpark and all that. Incidentally the participation in this experiment has been statistically correlated to high levels of disillusionment at work...who would have thought ;-)

Basically whenever you are confronted by someone of authority trying to palm work off onto to you that you are just not interested in doing you simply push back with 'no I am not doing that'. Then you allow a long silent pause to pass and offer no further solution...although we have found that a shoulder shrug works quite nicely here for emphasis. Then you simply sit and wait for their response.

Initially when we conducted this experiment we thought that our bosses would come back with something like "it's your job, I pay you so you will do it." Which because we are so pathetic and slaves to the corporation we would have groaned but done it. But apparently just saying "no" and offering no other solution renders a state of confusion to which they say "ok" and make it someone else's problem.

So far this strategy has been effective for the past 6 months. This is not to say that we haven't been busy but that we have been in more control of the crap work we take on, on top of the crap work we are already doing. So effectively the mean score of crap work stays the same but the percentage completed is reduced.

I am not advocating this strategy for those who wish for rapid career advancement. However, if you feel you aren't looking to impress anyone, try it, you will be surprised how well it works.