Thought Police

Thu, 15 Aug 2002 16:11:50 UT

What a scary scenario. What if I sign up to work for a company, and on
my own time I decide to write a fiction novel?Does the company own the
rights to the novel? The ideas in it?

The only way to fight this is to not sign these agreements. Kind of
harsh if you're in need of work to pay the bills, so most of us
probably won't do that. But it makes sense to do what my wife and I do
whenever we sign any kind of medical release form: we cross out and
initial anything on the form we don't agree with, and add anything we
want. I will do that with any employment contract.

> Third, never take the word of a bureaucrat. Bureaucrats are people
> who have sold their souls. They have lost all motivation to honesty.
> Most middle managers are bureaucrats.

I'm glad you said "most". I'd have to agree with this statement. I'm a
middle-manager in the biggest bureaucracy of all: the US Govt, but I
don't think that bureacrats have sold their souls, and I don't think
it's a matter of dishonesty in most cases; it's just that the
bureaucratic way of doing things eventually wears you down. Anyone
coming in with fire in the belly soon has that quelched with so much
bureacratic overhead that you either leave or put up with it. If you
put up with it, you tend to lose the fire in the belly. So why am I
still here?  Because I run a small section of people where we do what
we want. I don't take any BS from my management, and I tell them the
way I see it. I have refused certain tasks because they were inane and
useless. I find that the best way to circumvent the pompous,
egotistical and the just plain stupid things we do is with humor. But
I'm definitely swimming against the tide.

Every month, I have to put together a list of achievements for my
section; here are selected excerpts from my July report, just for your
reading fun (see, I haven't sold my soul yet :)...

b. Project Title:  EMIS/NASA
   • Accomplishment:  Spent total of 3.5 hours over the course of two
   weeks on the phone with NASA HQ discussing their EMIS effort.        
   • Benefit(s): Not sure. Maybe they’ll give me a job offer.
   • Personnel: Scott Goodwin

e. Project Title:  Project Management – Rapid Development Book
• Accomplishment: Began reading Scott McConnell’s book, “Rapid
Development”. Started with the chapter on Morale, and currently reading
the chapter on Lifecycle Planning.
• Benefit(s):  Don’t think this means I’m going along with the
traditional heavyweight CMM stuff – that ain’t happening. But it may
give us some kooky ideas we can implement, as there is some process
needed for our development efforts. The book was published by Microsoft
Press. Go figure. Wish they’d apply some of this stuff to their own
work.
• Personnel:  Scott Goodwin

h. Project Title: SSAA Documentation for EMIS
• Accomplishment: Dragging my feet.
• Benefit(s): Saves time in the long run because the requirements will
always change until the last minute. So, if I write it now, I’ll
continually have to go back to it to update it. Instead, I wait until
the last minute, get all of my people to review it and turn it in.
Saves all of us time as I’m not really confident that anyone’s going to
read it. And I think we all know how irritated I become at spending
time writing something that nobody is going to read.
• Personnel:  Scott Goodwin

/s.

On Thu, 15 Aug 2002 08:47:22 -0700, "Phil Mattison"
<mattison@ohmikron.com> said:
> Unbelievable. Yet, sadly, I believe it. 
> There are a couple of worth-while tidbits near the end of the article.
> And I have a few suggestions of my own.
> First, keep a log. Logs and personal journals are admissible in court.
> Second, never sign anything without reading it, and don't be 
> afraid to cross out anything you don't agree with.
> If the other party objects, negotiate. 
> Third, never take the word of a bureaucrat. Bureaucrats are people
> who have sold their souls. They have lost all motivation to honesty.
> Most middle managers are bureaucrats. All corporate lawyers are.
> Fourth, keep your ideas to yourself if you ever expect to develop
> them or get any benefit from them. I filed (and was awarded) ten
> different patents for the last two companies I worked for.
> Today, all of them together wouldn't buy me a cup of coffee.
> That's ok, I don't drink coffee anyway.
> Fifth, patent your ideas yourself. There are patent agents
> (not attorneys) who will file your patent for a flat fee
> less than $2000. Attorneys want $5000 to $15000 typically.
> If its not worth a couple grand to you, it probably isn't
> such a great idea after all.
> Save an attorney from drowning: take your foot off his head.
> --
> Phil Mattison
> Ohmikron Corp.
> 480-722-9595
> 602-820-9452 Mobile
> 
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-- 
  Scott Goodwin
  scott@scottg.net
  http://scottg.net