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Another insidious motive for the avoidance of writing: keeping things off the record. Writing requires you to put your name on your ideas. It promotes other p
by d23 6y ago
Another insidious motive for the avoidance of writing: keeping things off the record.
Writing requires you to put your name on your ideas. It promotes other pro-social traits, like being vulnerable. It's a lot harder to do negative politics if you're required to take your claims to paper. It's a lot harder to spread misinformation if you have other folks in the organization that can easily go look up your claims and fact check them.
Taking everything "offline" is a great way to bully, lie, cheat, and steal without fear of accountability. It hides incompetence. Weak leaders avoid writing lest they be exposed.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y agoI used to work with an IT person that Absolutely. Would. Not. Put. It. In. Writing. It was infuriating. I'd send him an email, spelling out a need or a project, and he'd walk three stories of stairs to come into my office to make his commitments. For me, I believe in being held accountable. You may have noticed that I take a rather unusual tack with my HN ID. I have full access and traceability in it. I have my personal brand attached to it. That encourages me to be very careful about what I post. I would love it if we were all more careful about what we post and say. I have no control over others, so I make sure that I abide by my own standards.
- jacques_chester 6y agoThe standard tactic in such situations is to send another email. "Hey Gerald, thanks for coming to see me. My understanding of your points was X, Y and Z. Let me know if that's wrong". Either they reply or don't. Either way you have established the paper trail. Possession might be nine tenths of the law, but the other ten tenths are coming to court with written evidence to defeat verbal evidence.
- brian_cunnie 6y agoI've written those types of emails you describe, Jacques: "My understanding is..." It's an excellent way to leave an audit trail.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y agoThis guy dealt with that, simply by not replying or acknowledging the email, then claiming "That's not what I agreed to." His boss would support him. It worked, most of the time. Scott Adams once wrote a book: "The Way of the Weasel." It has some techniques in there that are remarkably familiar.
- aurelianito 6y agoIf that's the case, look for a new job. The current one is FUBAR.
- jacques_chester 6y agoFor sure, but sometimes the boss has a boss. Or takes you to HR. Or some other thing you didn't think of in advance. In all these cases it didn't matter tactically, but it did strategically.