HAVE you accidentally accomplished something this week? Here are six ways to take the edge off it:
Give constructive feedback
Feedback is unwanted criticism the recipient has to thank you for, which is immense fun. Spend hours crafting an email mixing feigned concern and savage insults, then enjoy a coffee while your victim crumples to nothing. For the greater good.
Have a meeting
Announce that whatever it is ‘isn’t really working by email’ and set up a meeting before anyone has a chance to fight back. Call it a check-in or sync chat so nobody’s quite sure what’s happening, then achieve nothing in a private room with biscuits.
Ask a strategy question
Wait until a big meeting with an idiot name like ‘All Hands’ or ‘Town Hall’ is wrapping up, then ask the CEO a strategy question. Makes you seem intelligent, insightful and focused on the big picture, so you’ll get promoted to waste even more time in future.
Be concerned
Being concerned is great because it takes up loads of time without accomplishing a single f**king thing. Make it nebulous, like ‘I’m concerned we’re institutionally inefficient,’ then meet stakeholders, meaning everyone in the company, and ask incisive questions like ‘How can we be better?’
Request a different format
Been sent something for feedback? Suggest they replacing the pie chart with a line graph and port it all into Keynote, then sit back and smile sweetly while others sweat blood on bollocks that doesn’t matter.
Set up an interactive session
Set up a whole-day session in an off-site venue somewhere difficult to find. Coax attendees into reaching the conclusion you prefer by giving them whiteboards and marker pens and forcing them to brainstorm in groups. Ask a volunteer from each group to awkwardly summarise their conclusions, which are all the same. Take full credit.
