Job ain't over 'til the paper work is done

Hi all

I used to have a sign when I was at Boeing of Snoopy sitting on the pot looking at the roll of paper with the message "Job ain't over 'til the paper work is done" which I was going to give to a friend who's now a human subjects testing bureaucrat (it's not her fault, she got "reassigned"). She's having a lot of trouble getting the concept across to the scientists she supports and thought some humor would help. But some place in my various moves, it disappeared. Anybody got a copy they could scan and put in the Dropbox?

Thanks

Mac (in Seattle)

Reply to
Jim McGill
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Rots o' ruck! Motivating scientists to do administrative paperwork is like trying to herd cats. The part I could never figure out is why Dilbertian management would want them to. Ya pay big bux for competent smart people and then spend their time filling out freakin' forms? DUH!

When I ran research small teams, I hired a team member to do that. Best one I ever had was one Khanh Vu. Her cheerful response to anything asked of her was "no probrem!" HR gave me hell when I hired her, though they'd sent her to me as an applicant. "We were checking the equal opportunity box: this woman can only type ??WPM and her English is somewhat marginal." Who the hell cares, I didn't seek a bloody typist! Her English was functional and sufficient for the job I had in mind. More relevant to me was that she'd taken care of feeding most of Saigon during the fall and was on the last plane outta there with her name on the VC hitlist. That ability and will-do attitude beat the hell out of perfect grammar in my book. She understood mission-type assignments even if ill-defined, and she got them done every time, on time, no probrem.

My techno-puke teammates had to do timecards letter-perfect, in black ink not blue, because federal law requires it and pencil-neck dweeb auditors checked frequently. Ya don't have to like it but ya do have to do it. Khanh took care of the rest of the paperwork bullshit flawlessly, transparently, and sometimes rather creatively...... no probrem!

Reply to
Don Foreman

||Rots o' ruck! Motivating scientists to do administrative ||paperwork is like trying to herd cats. The part I could never ||figure out is why Dilbertian management would want them to. Ya pay ||big bux for competent smart people and then spend their time filling ||out freakin' forms? DUH!

Don We have almost the same issue here. This is a sales organization, with an unspoken "no secretaries" policy. trouble is, salespeople are lousy details people. And men don't like to fill out forms. So we have some pretty good sales people with customers that receive less than ideal service levels because we/they depend on the salesmen doing what they do best (service their accounts) plus taking care of all the details behind the sale - forms, followup with factories etc. It just ain't gonna happen to any degree of satisfaction. The best sales organizatons have a field staff backed up by someone like your Khanh Vu. Obviously, that is also true for most professions where inventiveness is a key character trait. And BTW, good for you for going to bat for her.

Texas Parts Guy

Reply to
Rex B

Don

I know how bad technical types are on paperwork, I am one after all :-) My friend has essentially Khanh Vu's job, and she's basically succeeding. But part of keeping people focused is changing the message once in a while so they remember. She figured after 6 months of beating on them with the "get your paper work in or the Feds cut off your funds" stick, a bit of humor might help. Hence my hunt for my old Snoopy sign.

Jim

Reply to
Jim McGill

One of my favorite signs was one that IBM had many years ago. It simply said "Thimk".

I think my favorite of all times is now posted on the dropbox as "favorite sign.jpg".

Wayne

Reply to
NoOne N Particular

Reply to
Don Foreman

Are you sure it didn't say 'Thimka'? :)

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Disclaimer: Some of my best friends work on French cars.

--Winston Running And Ducking

Reply to
Winston

Yep. Positive. I had one on my desk for a long time.

Wayne

Reply to
NoOne N Particular

If the cars are anything like the Peugeot I once bought in a fit of insanity, your friends will never lack work. :)

Reply to
John Husvar

John

No, Simca's are worse (much worse) than Peugeots. They make Renaults seem desirable.

Jim

Reply to
Jim McGill

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