As the Director of Operations for my company, I spend most of my day creating efficiencies, reducing the complexity of a given task/requirement, solving problems for customers, vendors and staff-fixing things other people have broken, screwed up or simply cannot seem to figure out on their own. No two days are alike and with my range of responsibilities (Customer Service, Purchasing, IT, Inventory Control, Global Logistics, Database Management, PM for a new system)--I'm nearly always thinking on my feet.
Most of the time, I really like what I do because I'm good at figuring out how to make things 'right'...but some days, I'm literally pushed to the edge of possibility by people who...when it really comes down to it, don't listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth after having just completed a request for a solution.
Here's an idea: Don't ask a question if you don't really care about the answer...it's a waste of time for both parties involved. My time would be more productive if spent staring at the coffee maker in some instances...and that's not a joke.
I've also given up on trying to outwit the idiots with solutions...it's a lesson I learned early on but refused to accept wholly so I kept blindly trying to create solutions that 'couldn't possibly be screwed up'. I was inevitably and repeatedly outwitted by one of the most moronic people in the group with what appeared to be little to no effort. I'm rather intelligent in most cases so it's frustrating when I spend so much time trying to break something down to its core function and then leaving it there for the 'simple' to absorb and finally use without crisis. Problem with that logic is that I'm using 'logic' and the 'simple' person doesn't grasp the concept of logic-it's more like 'idiot instinct'-a language that only they, the idiots, can understand and use to exasperate those of us who attempt to apply logic to what they do. It's impossible...but the MBTI tells me that I'm an ENTJ. Logic is the core of my existence so it's tough to ignore-even when I know that it'll yield nothing but failure and frustration.
I was thinking the other day about a time, 15 years ago, when I used to breed Chinese Water Dragons. They, like all reptiles, are purely instinctual creatures. One of their defense mechanisms is to jump into water and swim to the bottom and close their eyes (if they can't see the predator, they assume the predator can't see them). One day, I had a few of them running amok in my apartment. One, Ralph (the Alpha male) was in the bathroom sitting on the bathroom counter...I dropped a book in the hallway and Ralph jumped from the counter into the toilet and went right to the bottom and closed his eyes...where he stayed for over 20 minutes (they can hold their breath for ridiculous periods of time). I remember thinking that he could have jumped off the counter and run around the corner and gotten back into his abode and hide under the giant piece of bark but he chose the toilet...and at the time, I didn't understand it at all because it wasn't what appeared to be logical to me.
I had to actually STOP and think about it...he wasn't doing what was logical-he was doing what he knew. It didn't have to make sense to anyone (including him). Now, there's a huge difference between Ralph the four year old Chinese Water Dragon and most of the people I work with....they have the mental capacity and just don't use it. People also have the ability to communicate with one another to solve problems. I couldn't very well have a conversation with Ralph to figure out what was troubling him. But, to this day, that lizard makes more sense to me than people I encounter on a near daily basis.
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