Some people would rather choose to continue doing something inefficiently if improving it means they'd have to do an extra thing or two or, heavens forbid, learn something new to be able to do it. I'm talking about several layers of management here. No matter how inferior their way of doing things is, you must do it that way to preserve the status quo. It makes me want to tear my hair out. I'm thinking about going over their heads with this, but I'm worried about how they'd retaliate.
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Have you tried calling the help desk lately for an equipment upgrade?!?
Don’t spend your time and energy working on fire drills and use whatever resources available to add additional skills to your resumes. Always keep that updated, especially at this place.
This is the exact type of thing the company claims it wants you to do!
If you haven’t done so already, submit it to your manager in writing as a process improvement, explaining what would be changed and how it would work better. Include it on your goals or mid year review and discuss it at that time if they don’t get back to you.
If you know anyone with influence that isn’t going to make the situation worse, maybe discuss it with them and even get some advice. However I would not go over your manager’s head or do anything to make your manager look bad, and I definitely wouldn’t go over the heads of several layers of management.
Yeah AIG sucks and doesn’t care about its employees but as long as you’re still working here, you can still do your best if that’s what you want to do. At least put it out there and maybe you’ll get an extra percent on your STI next year.
The risk-reward equation at AIG isn't good. Top down mentality. You risk alienating your manager and damaging your career for little to no benefit.
There is very little incentive to try and make things better. No raises, cost of living adjustments, company holiday parties, etc. The only constant is the threat of being laid off so some executive can look like they are doing a good job and get paid more for it. Even though in reality they are doing next to nothing.
Been there, done that. I didn't go over my manager's head, rather I just started implementing more efficient strategies on my own. My productivity became rediculously high (over 200% conservatively), which basically resulted in my manager becoming an insecure child and stonewalling any progression I may have been able to achieve. Now I just view 1:1s with middle management as a big joke, as I don't view it as having a conversation with an ambitious professional adult but a scared kid who probably got to where he is by either nepotism or the misguided mentality that hard skills are basically useless (which everyone knows isn't true).
This is AIG. The odds of any of you being here long term is almost nil so stop trying to fix this wreck and find a real career outside of AIG. Or just keep complaining, who cares?
Here's one more cost people don't take into account. Are you thinking of the vastly increased potential for error when switching how things are done, and taking that into account in your cost benefit analysis? This is why updates need to be made with for the most efficient methodology for the next 5 years, and not the most efficient methodology for the next 5 minutes or months. This is insurance. Think long-term improvements.
Sometimes people don't take into account all the costs of constantly changing methodology. Are you thinking about the costs of teaching other people your new methods? The costs of someone in half a year thinking of yet another methodology that they want to switch to? The costs of you leaving in half a year and nobody knowing how you updated things? Does doing an extra thing or two, as you say, decrease the efficiency?
Regarding going over people's heads, that is a big concern, and you have to consider if the benefit is more than the cost to you for this one item. You can mitigate it by making your proposal slightly different, but same in essentials, and then getting someone off to the side of you to suggest it to the upper levels, instead of you.