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Rabble-rouser


shootingstar

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Am I?

Alot of other people would say I've sold out.... I've worked in and enjoyed some organizations I've been in...conservative, not as bold as they'd like to think. On the outside, that's what it looks like.

There were some organizations that just ...got stifling/tiring after a few yrs. But one ploughs on...to earn  money. 

And later, I moved on elsewhere. No regrets, good experience.  I'm not sure it's character-building.  More like adding another layer of things I sometimes I wish I didn't know,  but simultaneously glad that I do know. 

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2 hours ago, shootingstar said:

Am I?

Alot of other people would say I've sold out.... I've worked in and enjoyed some organizations I've been in...conservative, not as bold as they'd like to think. On the outside, that's what it looks like.

There were some organizations that just ...got stifling/tiring after a few yrs. But one ploughs on...to earn  money. 

And later, I moved on elsewhere. No regrets, good experience.  I'm not sure it's character-building.  More like adding another layer of things I sometimes I wish I didn't know,  but simultaneously glad that I do know. 

...if any of this makes sense.

 

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12 hours ago, shootingstar said:

I've worked in and enjoyed some organizations I've been in...conservative, not as bold as they'd like to think.

I think MOST people are infinitely more conservative than they think they are or like to claim the they are.  Change - new ideas, better methods, progression down a path towards a better tomorrow - is hard for individuals and organizations alike.  Most are happy sticking to the way things have always been done, so an organization may seem stale to folks seeing a broader picture, and it may appear to be be rabble rousing to the myopic "keep it the same" (or worse, "go back to the old way of doing it") folks.

Rabble rousing? To those fearing change, yes.  To those seeing that change can be good, no.

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1 hour ago, BR46 said:

This was the first thing that I thought when I saw the title 

Happier/hipper rabble-rousing can be good but still upsetting to some other folks.

3 hours ago, BuffJim said:

Unfortunately not to me. 

If I start being specific, I'll get shut down again. 

We won't learn from each other as a result. Let's just say that I was dealing with a matter on the job, where I am forced to confirm a process that is old/hardened and wrong, but it was already signed off by top tier management. After showing the sign-off to someone else ( a middle manager), we both sighed. He recommended to talk to an internal lawyer. I'm not convinced that will help much. It is a situation that is perpetuating and landed already our organization in bad media light.

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30 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Happier/hipper rabble-rousing can be good but still upsetting to some other folks.

If I start being specific, I'll get shut down again. 

We won't learn from each other as a result. Let's just say that I was dealing with a matter on the job, where I am forced to confirm a process that is old/hardened and wrong, but it was already signed off by top tier management. After showing the sign-off to someone else ( a middle manager), we both sighed. He recommended to talk to an internal lawyer. I'm not convinced that will help much. It is a situation that is perpetuating and landed already our organization in bad media light.

I think it depends on the type of wrong it is. If they are forcing you to confirm a process that is morally wrong/illegal/unethical, yes do what you have to to fight it.
If it is wrong headed/bad for the enterprise then sometimes you have to accept to go along. Let upper management screw the business up if that’s what they insist on doing. I think we’ve all been there. 

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14 hours ago, shootingstar said:

Am I?

Alot of other people would say I've sold out.... I've worked in and enjoyed some organizations I've been in...conservative, not as bold as they'd like to think. On the outside, that's what it looks like.

There were some organizations that just ...got stifling/tiring after a few yrs. But one ploughs on...to earn  money. 

And later, I moved on elsewhere. No regrets, good experience.  I'm not sure it's character-building.  More like adding another layer of things I sometimes I wish I didn't know,  but simultaneously glad that I do know. 

If your complaining was based on what you thought needed changing, it wasn't "rabble" you were rousing.

I got out of industrial chemistry research when I realized how many carcinogens I was working with and that the industry in general was not making significant - and costly - changes.  In 1980, Industrial Bench Chemist was the career with the shortest life-span of college grads and I could taste the chemicals I had worked with when I went for a run.

So, none of my complaints were "rabble" and soon I left, taking a big pay cut to become a teacher but gaining "deferred pay" in the form of a very good pension.  As I approached retirement in the 2000's, things had gotten so stressful: an average 175 total students instead of 120 with an extra class, ridiculous "No Child Gets Ahead" rules, etc. that when teachers would walk into a teacher's lounge, they'd exhale a big sigh of relief at the chance to get away from what changed from a desirable career to a nightmare.

Pensions are back-ended: they gain most of their value in the final years of work and 15 years and if you switched to a different school system, you lost your retirement health insurance and needed 15 years in the new system to get all the health benefits, so we were too far along to switch jobs.

So I spent about 5 years in hell, then retired when I had enough of a pension to retire comfortably.  Within 5 years of my retiring, all but about 20 of the 142 teachers at my school retired or switched jobs - so it wasn't just me!

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50 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

If your complaining was based on what you thought needed changing, it wasn't "rabble" you were rousing.

I got out of industrial chemistry research when I realized how many carcinogens I was working with and that the industry in general was not making significant - and costly - changes.  In 1980, Industrial Bench Chemist was the career with the shortest life-span of college grads and I could taste the chemicals I had worked with when I went for a run.

So, none of my complaints were "rabble" and soon I left, taking a big pay cut to become a teacher but gaining "deferred pay" in the form of a very good pension.  As I approached retirement in the 2000's, things had gotten so stressful: an average 175 total students instead of 120 with an extra class, ridiculous "No Child Gets Ahead" rules, etc. that when teachers would walk into a teacher's lounge, they'd exhale a big sigh of relief at the chance to get away from what changed from a desirable career to a nightmare.

Pensions are back-ended: they gain most of their value in the final years of work and 15 years and if you switched to a different school system, you lost your retirement health insurance and needed 15 years in the new system to get all the health benefits, so we were too far along to switch jobs.

So I spent about 5 years in hell, then retired when I had enough of a pension to retire comfortably.  Within 5 years of my retiring, all but about 20 of the 142 teachers at my school retired or switched jobs - so it wasn't just me!

I'm not sprinting towards retirement because of corporate wierdness I witness/read. I like my job and all the complex and mundane things that come with it. The best  part is actually dealing with people and their various departmental problems/challenges. I do sometimes get thanked by clients (internal depts.).

What I suspected for the last...well...30 yrs., was confirmed what I read in a contract. It was stunning. I feel sorry some folks who belong to a particular union. This collective agreement (which is public) was shockingly airtight and rigid, unlike other agreements with other groups where there's more transparency and recourse for individual  members for action /reporting  to other parties.  I'm a tiny cogwheel ..required to execute some steps to make this situation same-airtight/rigid unpleasant/unfair.

Then other things / rabble totally different, happening in personal life, which coincidentally why I have chosen to work abit longer --work can be a great intellectual distractor.  But only for so long. 

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