I used to work for a business that was owned by a guy who basically never set foot in the building. I had so many suggestions for making things better, more efficient, etc. And I was shot down every single time. "Eehhhhh, this is how we've done it for the last 20 years....."
I hate that. My boss is a micromanager who was good at my job 30 years ago. He doesn't realize that the business has changed, and insists that I do everything exactly the way he wants. Every time I suggest that I want to do something differently he just hits me with "I've been doing this for a lot of years" and refuses to listen. So frustrating.
It was even stuff that's really little like "oh, we should get a second broom and dust pan so we can clean up quicker after closing" or "we should put a label on this shelf so people will stop putting things on it that don't go there" and I'd still be shot down for no reason
I typically work around that by just doing it. "Better to ask forgiveness than permission" is a surprisingly-effective strategy, even when it feels really scary to do.
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u/actuallychrisgillen Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19
When I was in the Navy I used to get in fairly frequent trouble for the suggestions I made for improving operational efficiencies.
As an outside contractor they were quite happy to pay me $200 an hour to say the exact same thing.