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caminante 3 hours ago

No. It's just CYA hedging.

If it's your job (per the "context"), then do it.

When you ask this question, it's either

A. escalating/DoA exception (not your authority)

B. Or giving yourself an out if something goes wrong for your existing DoA.

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waisbrot 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

An easy example: you need 5 minutes of planned downtime (which is entirely within SLAs) to execute a major upgrade, but the system is also used by Sales for demos to major new clients. "We're going to take 5 minutes of downtime on Wednesday evening for an upgrade. Contact me ASAP if this is a problem for you." If you don't hear from the team, then it's OK to go.

	▲	caminante 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You know the "no response" happens all the time. OK. I'm your pointy haired boss Thursday morning. > Hey, @waisbrot. You didn't mention anything in your note whether you got a response from the Sales team. I got a call from the VP Sales. He's pissed. You know they're at [big sales conference] and busy. The system outage impacted two Top 10 customer account demos. Why didn't you call me if you thought it was important or ask for an affirmative confirmation from the sales team before rolling out changes? Sorry, but I can't trust you. Bring all similar changes to me for approval from now on. Of course there are routine things or items in your competency that allow for your boss to prioritize supervision elsewhere. The prospect of going rogue, lighting a fuse, and then potentially setting off fireworks is the nuance being argued here by me and @slowcache.

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furyofantares 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Taking it at face value makes it good advice and interpreting it as CYA hedging makes it bad advice. My bet is the author intended the good advice they actually said rather than the bad faith guess to what they meant that makes it bad advice.

And there are plenty of things that are your job, but you would like the boss in the loop on without actually making it their job.

You say if it's your job then do it, and that's roughly what the advice given here is. The only place you're in disagreement is that you don't see any room for nuance when something is your job but worth notifying the boss about in advance.

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caminante 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> The only place you're in disagreement is that you don't see any room for nuance when something is your job but worth notifying the boss about in advance.

You read a different article.

FTA:

> ”Hey, boss, I am going to install action X, which should solve the XYZ problems we’ve been having. Will take care of this on Monday unless I hear differently from you.”

The parent's point is that lighting a fuse and saying you'll do something when the fuse runs out regardless of the boss' approval in a situation where you want to run something by them...is career suicide.

FTA:

> When you have something you want to do and that you feel is in scope for your position, but you want a bit of reassurance or to let the boss know what you are up to, it’s common to reach out and ask them for permission. Don’t. Don’t ask for a yes. Instead, offer a chance to say no, but with a deadline.

The qualifiers of "needing reassurance" and "asking for permission" combined with a notification on a fuse is way different framing than "notifying the boss about it in advance."

	▲	furyofantares 30 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> The parent's point is that lighting a fuse and saying you'll do something when the fuse runs out regardless of the boss' approval in a situation where you want to run something by them...is career suicide. It's not, if that action is a part of your job, something you COULD do just on your own but "you want a bit of reassurance or to let the boss know what you are up to". It's not really a notification on a fuse, that's a framing you've put on it. It's giving sufficient advanced notice.