Hurry Up and Wait

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Communications and Org Chart Heck

I work in a very unusual corporate culture. The last two employee surveys put improved communications at the top of the grunts' wish lists. Now the folks who work for me have the thankless job of updating organizational charts for our department. Yes Virginia ,there is a reporting structure, absolutely no one outside of senior management and my staff ever get to see exactly what that structure is. For some bizarre cultural reason that no one has ever been able to explain, our organizational charts are top secret. I'm often asked for a copy of an org chart so the requester can "figure out who to talk to so I can get this done." I get to tell them, "Sorry, if you want or need a copy, you have to request permission from the senior VP." An interesting communications quandary... and a symbol of the bizarre toxic environment many people get to spend their lives in. It's not as funny as Dilbert, and I still want to know if anyone else works for an organization where you have to guess who reports to who....