ROD Mode
August 30th, 2008
atwork
From Michael Blowhards
Have you heard of the expression “short-timer”? A “short-timer” is someone who’s still at work even though he has already made other arrangements. [...] Being a short-timer is, in any case, a fun if exasperating experience. It’s fun because — although you’re still employed, still getting paid, and still showing up — you don’t really give a damn any longer. Why should you? Practically speaking, you’re just wiling away the time until your scheduled day of departure arrives. It’s exasperating because you still have to show up.[...]I found it completely bizarre that my bosses expected me not just to show up but to continue to perform. Had no one ever told them about the short-timer effect? I’d attend meetings, listen to plans, take note of orders — and think, “They have got to be kidding. They can’t expect me to care about any of this, can they?”
The term used locally is ‘ROD mode’ – also a military term. Although I’ve had a couple job changes, I’ve never experienced ROD mode (in fact, I would usually have to return after work hours to pack my box). I do remember, wondering aloud if I should be left out of meetings so that I don’t have to hand over too many things.
HODs or Team Leads do feel that they have to bend the exiting staffer to their will, yet is always grateful when the staffer exiting is still performing. Perhaps male TLs and HODs feel differently. When I was a TL, when a good staffer shows the white envelope, there is a little corner that is upset by the act of rejection, regardless of the thousands of compelling reasons for the person to join someplace else – did I do something wrong? As a staffer, I do feel some inexplicable guilt, as though I have betrayed someone or something. Concepts of loyalty and betrayal is at odds with a highly mobile workplace because first, this is not the army where you live and die with your TL and the other troops, second, business decisions don’t typically take into human sentiments into account. As staff would leave companies for better companies, companies would leave staff for better staff. Yet anyone who has to make these decisions feel guilt. ROD mode, which is the logical part of yourself, steps in to deal these feelings.
