I completely butchered my template while trying to add the "current image" picture. That's pretty funny. Go back to the previous entry if you want and have a look. I think it's fixed now.
There are two things in the business world that make me crazy. One is the professional who doesn't even know their own profession. This would be, for instance, the copywriter who totally sucks at English composition. This would be the interior designer with fifteen years designing custom modular buildings who doesn't know that you can relocate the doors and windows and things if you are ordering from the factory. This would be the network administrator who doesn't know a hill of beans about administering a network. This would be commercial drivers who suck at driving. I think the point of specializing is to become relatively good at your specialty, since you aren't blowing your time fooling with other stuff. You can afford, and indeed must achieve, some depth. Because people are counting on you to know your shit. These people hired you because they don't have the time to go out and become expert on it themselves.
But these days it seems to be perfectly ok to be lousy at something and still submit a bill for it. And get offended if the customer actually wants some of the expertise they contracted for.
Erg.
The other pet peeve is salespeople who don't sell. They take orders. When you contact them, you are supposed to already know exactly what you want, what your options are, what you have chosen among them, and what kinds of terms you'll agree to pay. If you deviate from the script, it totally locks up their mental systems, and they go into "can't do" mode. Their attitude is not one of enabling the customer to reach a solution that is right for them, but rather one of disabling the customer, being unyielding and unwilling to come up with an idea, or even to try. These salespeople don't inform their customers, don't gather information from their customers, don't analyze the need, nothing. They just say, "Whaddya want?" and stare blankly. Useless.
But really that second pet peeve is just another example of the first. It's another kind of professional who just doesn't know their shit.
That's fucked up.
