Support functions in all organisations: I think they have got it absolutely wrong.
Most of them are so utterly fixated on rules and processes, one wonders if they leave their brains at home!
Their existence itself is to 'support'. That's the nature of their work. But all of them, without fail, across almost all organisations, take upon themselves a 'higher' meaning: as if their existence itself is the reason for their existence.
IT support, finance, payroll, admin... Does any of them not do this? HR, sometimes, is one exception.
On top of that, they will not hesitate from using regulatory or technical reasons to avoid answering the question Why can't it be done? Hoping that most of the people will get deterred by it. When actually almost all the time, there is no underlying technical or regulatory reason at all!
Some recent examples:
If only they could change from Why it can't be done to Let's find out how we can make it happen!
Most of them are so utterly fixated on rules and processes, one wonders if they leave their brains at home!
Their existence itself is to 'support'. That's the nature of their work. But all of them, without fail, across almost all organisations, take upon themselves a 'higher' meaning: as if their existence itself is the reason for their existence.
IT support, finance, payroll, admin... Does any of them not do this? HR, sometimes, is one exception.
On top of that, they will not hesitate from using regulatory or technical reasons to avoid answering the question Why can't it be done? Hoping that most of the people will get deterred by it. When actually almost all the time, there is no underlying technical or regulatory reason at all!
Some recent examples:
- We have to deduct both income tax and FBT on your allowance. Because that's how the government wants it. Real reason:I can't be bothered to take the effort to track your allowances.
- We can't deduct extra tax from your income, even if you give us a written request. We are not allowed to do it. Real reason: I don't have any idea how this works, no one's asked before, I can't be bothered to go read up the rules.
- I need an urgent salary advance. It is approved by the head of HR AND my manager. Oh, well, oops. Needs approval of the CFO too. By the way, we will send you a check for the advance, not deposit it directly to your salary account. And did we mention, the check will be on a different bank, so that it will take 3 days after you deposit the check for money to come in? Of course, it's the 29th already, so your normal salary would probably have come in sooner!
If only they could change from Why it can't be done to Let's find out how we can make it happen!
