+137 To say "Because we have always done it like that" on why something is done is not a reason and stupid, amirite?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

100% popular opinion.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I wish it was... why do I almost hear it on a daily basis?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

because humans are dumb and you interact with a lot of them. its a fallacy, we all know it to be false but we keep on acting like it. thats like saying not believing ad hominem is an unpopular opinion

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Conversely, suggesting something be changed simply because you don't understand it is pretty arrogant.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah, I especially hate this as an IT professional. "It was always done this way." And the way it was always done is *wrong.*

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Alternatively, the phrase "don't need to reinvent the wheel" also comes into play at some point. You didn't really identify a reason why something would need to change.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

When it comes to process at work, "Because we have always done it like that" likely means "Because we have no idea how or why this process was put into place, but it works, and we don't have the time, energy, or inclination to define the process, measure its existing execution and results, analyze that data, and try to determine IF a better way improves things, because we get paid the same either way and there's no incentive to go out of our way just make the boss richer".

by Anonymous 1 year ago

So it is the obligation of your employer to train you on procedures and justify the existence of the procedures to you. If you don't like the justification, is an employee allowed to ignore the procedures?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

No, of course not ignore. Is it the obligatory to explain to me why I am doing what I am doing? Yes. The person who trained me did a task every week that required 5 hours of his time, making him doing overtime. He was not sble to explain me why he was doing it. I continued to do so, while in the background also did my research, asked everyone in the business the usage of it etc. It tuebed out that noone needed it anymore, it was a taskthat was required for another department years ago, but they changed their procedure and it was not necessary anymore. My boss was happy that I found that out and I did not need to do that anymore. If an employer does not want me to understand what I am doing, then the job is not for me and I quit. Not willing to brainlessly push buttons

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Turns out that was still an important record keeping tool utilized by the controls and governance team, and you just eliminated a key surveillance point and cause the institution to fail an audit with the regulatory agency, resulting in numerous fines and legal proceedings. But if my time at a bank has taught me anything, is that likely whatever it was, was put in place to appease some interoffice politics which was rendered useless or unneeded by a reporting shift years ago. I've worked places where we had a bunch of things that we do them the way we do "Because that's the way we've always done them" but its less about not being able to explain the purpose, more in that we hadn't gotten the operation support to implement changes. Hence why my team had to print out a few hundred items each day, just to turn around and scan them into a different system, cause we couldn't get the IT resources to connect the two things together.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

lol, I have not turned off anything that has not been approved. No worries, it went through all required channels

by Anonymous 1 year ago

this reminds me of an episode, my father was buying olive plants (basically small young trees), i was with him, there was a guy working there, i dunno why we started talking about having children (i don't, he does) and he said "children happen", i said that it's just because of disorganization (i actually believe this), then i couldn't help but notice that every plant was labeled, registered, and put in rows, i complimented for the organization and he got slightly pissed :D realizing that plants are organized more than his daughter LOL soooooo what's the moral of the story here? that when working you're probably more organized and rational than in your life, infact, your observation about work if applied to things like traditions... well... you don't even know where to start an analysis :D

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It's usually because levels above you want it done that way and they don't have to explain to you why. Sometime it's because years of experience has shown that way works, the people that figured it out are long gone, and no one has the time or budget to revisit it.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

This is NOT an unpopular opinion. Everyone feels this way

by Anonymous 1 year ago