Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We are usually happy to have outsiders walk in and help us. Help, however, comes with our conditions.

We have so much work to do here, we will never catch up. Help? Of course we will accept help. What kind of help? Well, you know, someone like me, just like me, and who agrees with me and how I have been doing things.

I have heard the above dozens of times in my working life. Someone desperately needs help and will eagerly accepts it. There are, of course, a few conditions.

But, what kind of help? Do you need a carpenter, plumber, programmer?

Simple, just send some competent people here. I will let them know what to do when they arrive.

When the helpers arrive, they are given one simple task: the other person’s job for them so the other person can do something else, something they would rather be doing instead of their job.

And how does this I-don’t-want-to-do-my-job so you-do-my-job-for-me person manage this work management? Simple, the helper cannot talk to anyone about what happens here. You know, it is, well, uh, proprietary, trade secrets, that kind of thing. Can’t let it out what happens here.

Need help? Really need help? Or do we just want someone else to do our job for us?