There are few things more ridiculous and time wasting than the idiotic weekly reports we have to submit. People put all sorts of nonsense on those reports. Some kiss ups think it is a good place to make it sound like important progress is occurring. in my entire career I have never heard any feedback on those reports. They seem to go into a black hole.
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I had a supervisor who insisted every direct report cc him on every single email. He did zero work, .
se–––––y harassed people, looked at pr0n on his work computer at work, and had the worst breath. I went back through all of my emails from him from 3 months and they were all “FW: ....” He contributed nothing, just cascaded messages. He still works at the company but got shuffled off to his home country.
If executives can take the time to digest the data themselves they don’t need you clowns.
There is nothing more dangerous than management seeing the raw performance data. Middle management demands customized subjective narratives they can twist and spin into good news no matter how catastrophic the truth may be. Upper management falls for it every time.
On that note, why do we have to create manual report summaries when the exec could just look at the online info in power bi? You think I’m joking. I’m not. Where is the accountability for behavior change at these levels of the org? You’ve slashed our headcount, got rid of people who knew what they were doing, yet continue to expect the same customized reports that we fed you in the past. Yeah, that’s motivating. Motivating me to look for another job and get out of this craziness.
Maybe this is all that managers at Chevron are qualified to do? Chevron is still a good ol boy, command–and–control “management”.. Golden handcuffs. Get fitted, get used to wearing them and then keep your mouth shut. Sad, considering we are one of the few majors with a Chief Human Resources Officer in the C–suite. The management reports are a symptom of a deeper underlying issue. The Chevron Way? Window–dressing, like our recent venture into alternative energy. Change is being forced on Chevron and the MW doesn't like it one bit. Don't look for much to change anytime soon, except the next layoff announcement. But thats not really a change.
Digital dash would be great. This nonsense is still via email or Excel. And it is typically for MD audiences. Pathetic.
More “check the box” busy work to look like something productive. Don’t bother your supervisor or manager about these weekly reports. It’s more about quotas to them than real substance. I’ve been there and done that. I got to the point in the past where I began perusing the online reports for the better ones, and copying them to a master sheet I created for myself. So every week when one I had to submit report to help fulfill my bosses quota, I copy and pasted other people’s submissions from weeks or months past. I doctored up some words and added new content to make it my own. Only spent 5 minutes or less and saved my report for later recycling in a few months. That was my contribution to the waste–of–time–initiative. Several times, my boss praised me with good feedback. Everyone is happy and I was able to get back to real work before my first cup of coffee got luke warm.
Why not automate the reports with a digital dashboard?
Because this is the weekly whining board where we get to vent about whatever we want when we want.
So talk to your manager about changing the reports. Why complain here?