The Hierarchy of Things

In Terry's world, there is a rigid hierarchy that must be observed. A chain of command if you will. Take any short-cuts through the chain and the links you have hopped over will become agitated and may retaliate in interesting ways.

If you have an issue, it must first be discussed with your manager. Preferably in an official fashion via email, or with meeting minutes. If it is determined that you must get an answer from someone above this person, the whole discussion must first be rehearsed and "sanitized" or "filtered" prior to going out. This usually comes in the form of an email message being previewed prior to being sent up the chain. If messages are to be sent to senior management then messages must be doubly-checked and filtered so as to not "offend the sensibilities" of the seniors. After all, these guys generally have the attention span of a 4 year-old with severe ADD, and so catching their attention for more than 20 seconds is a challenge in itself, but getting an actual reply that is meaningful and that can be acted upon -- that is indeed the trick.