The Expert (short comedy video)

[PartialDischarge]

Discovered this video yesterday, watched it like 5 time and still laugh   
A satire of the real corporate world and meetings with clients

[Benta]

Absolutely brilliant!!! I've been to similar meetings so many times.

Thanks!

[Halcyon]

You just brought back memories of a previous company I worked for.

We literally had meetings about having meetings. It got to the point towards the end where I just hid somewhere in the building a did my work. When I asked later if I had missed anything, the answer was almost always "no".

 

[HwAoRrDk]

It's a classic video.

You've no idea how closely this represents what used to go on in a previous job of mine. So glad I got out of that place. This kind of stuff used to drive me mad! It would've been quite bearable if it weren't for the clients.

[alsetalokin4017]

... and then there's specification creep. You've somehow satisfied the initial requirements, and then a day before rollout or delivery to customer, the news comes down from marketing that you have to add four circles, one of which is square...   

[Brumby]

I don't know how many times I've been in design discussions and been asked if 'this' or 'that' was possible ... and the answer could NOT be given as a simple Yes or No because there were qualifications that needed to be addressed.

I would never let these pass through without such qualification - because I would be the poor sod who would have to write the specifications and oversee the development.

I'm sure there are several nodding heads at the moment..... and many of those with horror stories.

[PartialDischarge]

I would never let these pass through without such qualification - because I would be the poor sod who would have to write the specifications and oversee the development.

Problem is the Project Manager or the Marketing Manager will "compel" you to do so whether you like it or not. Eventually people will say yes and thus one of the youtube comments:

As an engineer, I eventually learned to just agree with them and then did whatever actually needed to be done- knowing they'd never even know the difference.

[Brumby]

I will admit to nothing.   

[ElektronikLabor]

A possible solution:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYZia4_WcAQ-EoT.png

[Ash]

You just brought back memories of a previous company I worked for.

We literally had meetings about having meetings. It got to the point towards the end where I just hid somewhere in the building a did my work. When I asked later if I had missed anything, the answer was almost always "no".

 

Wow, you're not the only one... Same here.. it was a "semi-academic" environment, A "Cooperative Research Centre" (a CRC*) back in the 90's for me..

Meetings about having too many meetings - all staff required. 

Ash.

* A CRC is/was a government/commercial/academic partnership that was one of the ways the Australian government attempted to stimulate innovation. Other than the meta-meetings, it was a pretty good place to work

[IanMacdonald]

Some years back, conversation with client:

"We want you to set up an Exchange server and make it the mail hub for our organisation. Can you do this? "

"Yes, provided you have what's required."

"We have bought Exchange Server licenses."

OK. Right, I'll set up the server.

"How do we get email from our other sites then? "

"You didn't say your other sites already have email, in fact you implied that this is a clean install"

"Well it is, we want a fresh install. But, we want the other sites to be able to use their existing email addresses"

"Er, Ok then, maybe we can work around that. What email system are your other sites using?"

"I don't know."

"Can you put me in touch with someone who does, then?"

[I'm put in touch with someone who clearly knows jack squat]

"As I couldn't get anything useful out of your contact, would it be OK for me to visit one of the other sites and have a look at their equipment, to see how it's set up?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because they won't allow an outside contractor to touch it."

"-But wait a minute, you said you wanted this site to be the email hub. That means someone here has to be the postmaster for the organisation. Otherwise, how can this be the central mail service? If they don't trust anyone here to take that role, then how can that work?"

"I don't know, I don't understand IT anyway."

"It isn't an IT issue, the same consideration would apply to paper mail. Anyway, if I can't go onsite, does anyone there know the admin password so I can take a look at their setup?"

"No, they don't."

"Huh? Then how do they maintain it?"

"Er, well, they had an IT maintainer but they've ended the contract."

"So, no-one is maintaining their IT?"

"Correct."

"Er, I see. In that case do you want our firm to go onsite and sort things out? We can probably recover the password, but that will require direct access to the server."

"Why can't you just get the password from here?"

"(After some pause to think up a suitable reply) The purpose of a password is to prevent people who don't have it, from getting in. If we could get in without it, so could anyone. In which case there would be no point in having a password anyway."

"But I thought you were IT guys.."

 

[Brumby]

That is just so easy to believe.

[Halcyon]

* A CRC is/was a government/commercial/academic partnership that was one of the ways the Australian government attempted to stimulate innovation. Other than the meta-meetings, it was a pretty good place to work

So pronounced "Crock" as in:

crock of shit
noun vulgar slang
noun: crock of shit; plural noun: crocks of shit
       something considered to be complete nonsense.

[Ash]

So pronounced "Crock" as in:

crock of shit
noun vulgar slang
noun: crock of shit; plural noun: crocks of shit
       something considered to be complete nonsense.

Hahah, yes... well, you will note I didn't say it worked well, just that it was a good place to work 

Ash.