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FollowTheRules

I admit, I'm a rule follower--most of the time. But if I don't like the rules at work, I figure out how to make new ones, ones that work for me. Daughter #2 has been doing this since she could play games. Daughter #1 has started to rewrite her own rules at school (she's a high school senior). I'm realizing that more of the time I rewrite my rules for things that matter to me. But I still follow some rules that may be a bit silly, such as "no black shoes after Memorial Day, no white shoes after Labor Day."

What rules do you follow? Which ones do you rewrite? Why? -- JohannaRothman 2006.01.04

Some rules I follow:

• Wear a coat and tie when visiting contractors.
• Leave money on the table when a contractor feeds me lunch.
• Type dates in the form 4 January 2006

Some rules I rewrite:

• Don't talk to senior managers without first having approval of mid-level managers.
• Don't have too much fun at work.

DwaynePhillips 4 January 2006

Another rule that I realized that I follow:

• Give yourself permission to change a rule if you think it is the best thing to do.

DwaynePhillips 5 January 2006

Some rules I take seriously:

• badge or computer security at a client site or at my own employer
• virus protection, likewise
• change management and version control on important files or documents

I respect rules whose purpose is genuinely to keep bad things from happening. Otherwise, I do think it's important to honour a client's rules as much as is feasible, whether or not I agree.

Among the rules I ignore:

• my employer's standards for test artifacts. I think they're excessive and silly, when they're not just plain wrongheaded.
• any templates and standards that are there simply because they're the standard, e.g., some of the CMMI-driven stuff (I might follow these rules for other reasons -- i.e., to prevent bad things -- but not JUST because the Process Nazis dreamed them up.)

A current refusal is to get internal certification, which is compulsory at my level. It has no business or marketing value that I can see. I gamed it half-heartedly for a while, but felt strongly enough in the end to say "no". --FionaCharles 7-Jan-2006

SteveSmith 2006.01.08

Organizations like to "impose" rules. I respond:

• I decide whether any given "rule" seems to be a "condition of employment."
• I decide whether it takes work for me to follow it.
• I decide whether they are paying me enough for the bother.

The way I see it, "they" can require anything that makes sense to them. I don't have to play along. They don't have to keep me around, should I decline to play along. They can, of course, try to make it worth my while to do so. Things I object to, increasingly as I get older:

• Rules that make it unnecessarily hard or bothersome to do my job.
• Rules which invade parts of my little life which I consider none of anybody's damn business.

By "object to" I mean the price for my putting up with them goes up. In particular, I am very tired of ill-organized software development organizations, which celebrate their own genius and dedication. Dude(s), how about we make this easy and then we all go have a beer or three? The hard / geniuses businesses mostly don't last, and all are unpleasant in the meanwhile.

The big trick for me was the reframe of a "rule" into "something they want from me." When "rules" are dressed in right or wrong, in "oughts" or other such, they drag in all kinds of baggage. Much easier for me to deal with when I think of them as simply someone wanting to tell me what to do. I charge for that. If they insist on telling me to do something stupid, self-defeating, or otherwise unpleasant, these days I charge more.

-- JimBullock 2006.01.08 (For sale, but not cheap . . . )

I follow rules that promote longevity. When I visit a plant site, and they require safety glasses, steel toes, and hard hats, I wear my safety glasses, steel toed shoes, and hard hat. When my contact points to a puddle on the floor and says "Try to stay out the puddles. Your shoes will last longer if you do.", I try to stay out of the puddles.

When it comes to people, I try to "Play nice with the other kids in the sandbox." This rule covers a lot of territory.

I'm sure I bend, fold and mutilate some rules. It's apparently so natural I having problems recalling an instance. DonGray 2006.01.23