My first year in college, I lived in a high-rise dormitory with a large common laundry room in the basement. The laundry was busy almost 24 hours a day, with all of the dozens of machines in use. One day, one of the dryers was somehow damaged so that its door wouldn\u2019t stay shut without actively leaning against it. The door would pop open and its sensor would shut the dryer off. No one wanted to have to press up against the dryer for the entire time while using it, so for the most part it was out of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having one less dryer than there were washing machines was a problem. There was now a game of musical chairs to play when wash got done. There ended up being a surprisingly large pool of people competing for a dryer, with occasional aggressive behavior and arguments. Notes were left for Building and Grounds (B&G) to fix the dryer, but day after day nothing happened. I\u2019m sure that someone from B&G showed up, saw that they could run the dryer if they pressed the door closed, and decided that no action needed to be taken. After all, actually fixing a problem is more effort and expense than simply filing a response to a maintenance ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally one day I walked into the laundry to find that someone had ripped the dryer door off, leaving jagged metal on both the door and the dryer. The door was sitting on top of the dryer with, \u201cMaybe you\u2019ll fix it now\u201d written on it in large black letters. Two days later, a new dryer had been installed to replace the broken one. The laundry room had returned to normal, as there was once again a dryer for each washer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thinking about what had happened, I realized a simple truth. When a problem is just bad enough to still be tolerated, it probably won\u2019t be fixed. Sometimes things have to be made worse in order for them to get better. I have used this idea countless times in the years since, both for myself and as advice for others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once knew an engineer who had been assigned the role of running an IT department for a growing startup. When there were only a dozen people to service, his job was manageable. The company had grown to almost 200 employees, he was working hundred hour weeks, and his backlog of overdue tasks was massive. He looked tired, stressed, and ill. One day I told him the story of the dryer door, and said, \u201cYou aren\u2019t actually helping the company with this heroic effort. They need to hire people to assist you, and until they do, things won\u2019t run well. You need to start coming in only 40 hours a week.\u201d He looked at me in shock and replied, \u201cBut things would fall apart!\u201d I smiled and said, \u201cYes, they would — just as the dryer did when the door was ripped off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He decided I was right and stopped working overtime. Within two weeks, the IT infrastructure had begun to fall apart. The company was forced to recognize that IT was critically understaffed and hired two additional IT employees. Everyone\u2019s lives were better and within a month IT was in better shape than it had ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes things have to be made worse in order for them to get better. Or, as I like to say, sometimes you have to rip the dryer door off.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My first year in college, I lived in a high-rise dormitory with a large common laundry room in the basement. The laundry was busy almost 24 hours a day, with all of the dozens of machines in use. One day, … Continue reading