I know I'll never change, I'm too old to really change my personality - short of some life-altering event, but somedays I'd really like to be able to tell a few folks what I'm thinking as opposed to just sitting and staying quiet.
Case in point: Work has changed to the point that I'm really pretty unhappy now. There are several reasons - Death March project... horrible morale... and then the thing that's bugging me the most right now: unrealistic (almost to the point of insanity) management. Allow me to explain.
If you ask someone to build a bookshelf and give them the tools and things they need, that's a job. You have the direction... the tools... the materials... away you go. But what if I asked you to build a bookshelf but told you that you had no tools. Now it gets a little interesting.
Maybe you can borrow the tools from someone, but you're at their schedule then. Maybe you can get help putting them together, but again, you have to ask nicely, and maybe they can help, and maybe they can't. Now let's say in addition to no tools, they say "Don't build it like this... build it like that." where one manager says this and another says that.
It's right out of Office Space again. One manager says "Keep track of these machines. They are your responsibility." Another says "Hey, we need machines here" and orders them. I am forced to realize that I can't make both happy - if I sit back and let the one order the machines, then the first will get angry that I wasn't keeping track of things. If I don't - well... that's impossible, isn't it? My manager ordered them - what right or authority do I have to countermand that order? Zippo. None.
So the machines sit there for a year or two and then the first manager asks what's up and I tell him. He then tells me to keep track of these things, like he told me before. I explain that I didn't order them and had no power to reverse the second manager's decision.
"Oh... yes, I see... well I'm not trying to place blame, but you need to keep track of these machines."
Well, Mr. Dufus... I can't do that, can I? You tell me how I'm going to reverse a manager's decision and I'll gladly do it. But where I come from, that's impossible. After all, he's higher on the org chart and all that. And if you're not placing blame, then why the lecture on what I should be doing? Seems we need to take an elementary logic class and see what logically consistent means.
So where am I the patsy? In that I'm too timid to say this to them directly. I should. They deserve it, but again, they are "the bosses" and I'm the "developer". I think "Hey... just let them vent, take the paycheck and walk away laughing about the silliness of it all" But that's hard to do when you're getting a "stern talking to" about something that's within your power to change.
The ultimate choice is mine - stay or leave. And if I leave they'll soon see what it's like to be without me, and I'll see what it's like to be without them. I have a feeling that there's a lot of this going around - more or less. This is stupid... dumb... dumb... dumb... but it's not really something you quit over. At least not on it's own. But I tell you, I'm getting really fed up with this crap, and someday soon I'm liable to say what I feel even if it costs me a bit. There's just so much insanity I can take without saying something.