Bullies @ Work

I think most of us would have faced bullies at work (like we did in school days). An article in the recent edition of Business Today on the topic "Managing Bullies at Work" was an interesting read. Bullies at work make serious damage to you psychologically. Bullies are nasty individuals making your life miserable. I myself have faced (still facing) such bullies at my work life.

Question to the readers: What is your practical suggestion to handle such jerks?

(I was really wondering was I ever a bully to any of my colleagues? I think only my colleagues could give me correct answer to this question.)

Scope Management

"Most of the projects fail due to improper scope management" - this is a universal truth. I have experienced this myself as well. ‘Scope Management’ is so easy said than practiced.

Scope management in a nut shell is:

If requirements are not completely defined and described and if there is no effective change control in a project, scope creep may ensue and that may result in the failure of the project completion on time & within the budget. Hence managing the scope is critical.

I learnt from two people about scope management which even my PMP could not teach well. One is my servant maid and the other is my builder (contractor who builds my house).

My servant maid does not stay more than a minute than she initially agreed for. She does not take up any work more than what she initially agreed for. Even to run errands occasionally she would expect a tip. That’s pretty cool. (Quality of the work is out of scope of this conversation).

My builder charges me for even to change the size of a nail. He documents it properly and yeah he gets my signature on it. That’s pretty cool scope management.

There is a lot to learn from the street, eh?