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was not Schweitzer per se, but rather what he said about not expecting or waiting around for bush/gopers to do anything that needs to be done
it's a similar situation I have at work where we really don't have a full time manager, we have a couple of heads of departments who are next to useless.
there are 3 of us, myself, the purchasing manager and the tech service manager - whenever and wherever we can - if something needs to be done we just go ahead and do it, let the department heads know about it later
the so-called president of the company is based out of St. Louis (we're in PA) and we see him maybe 4 times a year for a couple of days at a time with very little interaction with anybody
if we need anything in terms of equipment or policy decisions that we can get through a back door - we figure out how to initate rule#2 of my business rules to get it done
Rad's business rules:
1. Logic does not apply 2. When the right person gets pissed something will be done 3. if you don't own the company then you are expendable
a recent example of rule#2: my printer died, I located one through a vendor we deal with for office supplies. It was about $80, I put in a request with the purchasing manager and was told he couldn't authorize computer equipment, I would need to get authorization from computer department in St. Louis
so I sent an e-mail, explained my printer died, sent the spec/cost, and received an e-mail back that said "that's a shame" period.
well, my job involves the need to print serial number labels, brouchures, tech manuals, invoices etc.
so I went to the "president's office" swapped my busted printer for his (same model etc). the "president" showed up a week later, when he went to try to print he discovered his printer was broken. He went to purchasing manager, told him to get a printer, purchasing manager said he needed permission from computer dept. in St. Louis. President told him the hell with that just take the money from petty cash and get him a printer. so he did
two days later president returned to St. Louis, I took the printer I had swapped earlier and swapped it for the new one (all the same make / president is not very computer literate so when he returned a few months later he didn't even notice the swap)
point is - it was necessary to get "president" pissed in order to get something done.
in this case governors and others are pissed that nothing is getting done so they are saying the hell with it - we do it ourselves
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