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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/UtahCyan on 2024-08-03 03:21:37+00:00.
Bit long, sorry, but but hopefully interesting. Nothing is particularly punched up and this is pretty much how it occurred.
For the record, I think acronyms do not save time and make communication more difficult. They only have sense in printed communication with a first time use definition. It also assumes that everyone knows the acronyms you are using. I think people who use them constantly are just trying to make what they are saying around not important.
Background: I had a manager who I was significantly more experienced than. Like by 15 years. I was put under her because I was a department of one (1), she was passionate about what I did even though she didn't know anything about it actually doing it, and no one else wanted to manage my specific work.
I liked her a lot, though her inexperience showed through. She would make herself seem more knowledgeable than she was by constantly using acronyms. I would point out that a lot of her acronyms were obscure or department specific, and I or other people could be confused. But she was insistent that that's how business communication is done.
Que MC: I was asked to attend a conference that was fairly important in the company's industry. I wasn't well known for my work in the industry, but for my specific area, sustainability. Because of that, I was basically there to be the pony in their dog and pony show. I was to make contacts, log those contacts, and follow up on the contacts. Because I'm well known, I would likely end up talking to a bunch of random people so my manager wanted me to not waste time talking to anyone and focus on a specific type of contact. I don't like this because I feel like I'm intelligent enough to know who's worth talking to and how to move on from those that stuff. It also makes networking kind of awkward. You really never know where a good contact will come from.
She asked me to talk to SMEs. She didn't clarify what SMEs was supposed to mean. Now I know SMEs in this context means Subject Matter Experts. But this conference had a lot of non profits, NGOs, government reps, and religious orgs, along with businesses. So SME could also be Small and Medium Enterprises. This is in contrast to SMBs if you are talking on about for profit business.
So I spent all my networking time talking to random, small groups. I collected the data and returned my report to my manager... She looked at it and was confused. I explained that I accomplished what she said and talked to SMEs, small and medium enterprises. She just glared at me. She was not happy.
The CEO was actually a friendly guy and I met with him once a week to provide strategy, and insight to working with activist shareholders. So he brought up the contacts I made. I explained what what happened. He rolled his eyes.
I told him in my off hours I got drinks and food with a lot of Subject Matter Experts that were in my extended network and they would be happy to talk to you. I gave him a list and told him to let me know and I'll set up the intros.
Afterward: Every time she presented, she had an acronym list page, and generally avoided them.
I actually felt bad for her. She didn't realize that she advanced so fast not because she was good at her job, but because she was the CEOs type. This was the third company she followed him to. He had a cadre of young, smart women, who all looked exactly the same, and a trophy second wife who looked like them, only a little older. So she just kept getting advancements because of him beyond her experience and skills.
Everyone under her left, she became a department of one, is basically put in a corner at meetings, and told not to fuck things up because she did several times.
I like her, but a feel so bad because she doesn't realize what that the CEO, everyone likes, is also keeping her around for eye candy. So she'll never get the experience she to get into similar high levels in her career out from under his protection/shadow.