Boss tells web designer they can't say "no" to user requests, they find a loophole by rewriting the rulebook: 'Oh, I'm sorry, as per the Web Update Guide we can't do this...'

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    Cheezburger Image 10363445248
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    Using the System to Defeat Stupid Requests M OC I've been at my new job long. enough I can share this now without feeling like there'd be blowback. I'm a web designer. Every place I've been I get put in charge of the fleet of websites whatever company or group is running,
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    and then I go through and do my thing, making the sites are tight, efficient, and user friendly as I can. Web design is like any task: just because you can do something doesn't mean you should, and for websites that means the designer in charge has to be the arbiter of clutter. If things get to be too much on a page, or requests come in that would degrade the U.I. of the site, we had to reject them. We want sites to be fast, light, and easy to use.
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    Being the person in charge of the sites, I was generally the one to reject requests. "We shouldn't do this because x, y, and z reasons." I was told by my bosses that I couldn't say "no" and that I had to be customer focuses even when the requests to update the site were coming from those without technical knowledge or the desire to understand what I was saying and the reason why I wouldn't
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    do something. This could also go over on r/BoomersBeing Fools because most of the people that hated me (someone younger than them) telling them "no" were also of that generational set.
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    Regardless, after a number of times of them getting a "no, because," from me, them going over my head to my boss, and then my boss saying, "just do it," I had to come up with a solution. If they were going to go around my informal process based on my knowledge and experience, I would formalize it. At the organization I was working at, we had "standards", which were signed off by the higher-ups and
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    had the word of "law" and "guidance" which did get some sign-offs but didn't go through the length formalization process. Standards you had to follow, but everyone thought guidance worked the same way. That was the loophole. I wrote a 60 page web update guide going over everything in the process, ensuring that any question I'd be asked, anything
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    that needed to get done, any stupid question that had come my way over the previous two years, was answered. I then got my boss to sign off on it, and then sent it around (and also posted it on the internal use portal, too). From that point forward, the guide was what we followed.
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    Best part, and this is the Malicious part (for those wondering), I never had to get any changes to the document approved. It was designed as a living document, and I was the sole person in charge of it.
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    Requestor: "Hey, I want to do this on the page..." Me *goes and edits the Web Update Guide to specifically disallow what they were requesting* "Oh, I'm sorry, as per the Web Update Guide we can't do this..." Worked like a charm and made my job easier from that day forward.
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    Raging_Dragon_9999. 11 hr. ago That's amazing. Genuinely impressed by using bureaucracy against people.
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    SoftCattle 11 hr. ago At my former job there was a whole department that was responsible for UI design. Another that was responsible for UX. We were developing a new application for branch users and we got a binder of change requests from UX my favourite was move this input box 4 pixels to the left and the next request was to move the same input box 2 pixels to the right. Sent both requests to UI and they closed both requests and said to leave it where it was.
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    Coolbeanschilly 10 hr. ago Red tape always works best when you're the one with the tape roll.
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    Atypicosaurus · 10 hr. ago I really love how you managed to outsource your professional opinion into a document. Because somehow expertise lost credit (I mean this kind of entitled "your expertise is as good as my uneducated guess" thing), yet Documents and Processes still have authority.
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    randommlg. 10 hr. ago One of my most hated moments as a helpesk guy was someone saying to me"Don't quote policy at me." Like WHAT!? Policy is for this exact moment so I can tell you exactly why I can't do what you are asking me. My boss took that one cuz what do you even say to a guy with that attitude as the lowest on the totem pole?
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    Squidking1000 9 hr. ago We want sites to be fast, light, and easy to use You obviously don't work for any of the big stores on the internet (looking at you Home depot, Lowes, Canadian Tire).
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    CHICKEN RUNNING 5 hr. ago Ever get anyone saying and being completely serious with "we read the entire document and have a printed copy of it it's not in the printed copy".
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    tellmesomeothertime 9 hr. ago • Serious "We have investigated ourselves and found no guilt of wrongdoing" vibes lol
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    • Swiftraven 2 hr. ago I would do this all the time. Usually it would be me supporting a dev/admin who asks if something can be done. I tell them no. They say they understand but their boss needs to see official documentation stating it since "it's a requirement". So while talking to them I create a knowledge base article stating that whatever they wanted to do can't be done, self publish it, then give it to them. No one ever said anything about the creation date being that day.

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