Circumvention, defined as "to go around or bypass".
Today at work I was able to apply this word to two processes that were clearly outlined to me earlier in the month.
The first scenario - Circumvention of a process. I won't go into specifics as it wouldn't be a good idea. But lets just say there was a process flow established for the approval procedure of a set of documents. It was agreed upon by those above me and now, all of a sudden, its as if there was never a process established at all. I sent out an email this morning reminding everyone of the "correct" procedure. I get replies of what the "current" procedure is and to continue with the "current" procedure. WTF?!?!? I'd really not think this was too much of an issue normally, but since I am responsible for reporting on the status of the aforementioned documents, if the process I helped model isn't followed, I have no idea where any of the documents are in the approval process. As I have to supply my group director with the status details of each document so he can report to his higher ups, this is NOT a good thing. It had me extremely pissed earlier and generally crapped all over my day. I heard no more replies the rest of the day, tomorrow is going to be a dice roll for sure. I may go in extra early, just for spite.
The second scenario – Circumvention of a philosophy and simple logic. As with most processes, there are sometimes…how shall I say…"necessary" deviations from that process in order to complete the task. We were told in a meeting, however, that if we could avoid these "deviations", it would be in our best interests and in the best interests of the project. The less deviations from the process or procedure, less questions a regulating body will have when they come in to perform an inspection. Today went against all of that and instead of updating one of the documents, it was deemed absolutely, 100% necessary to deviate from the process. You're thinking "what the heck is wrong with that, right?" Well, as this document was not yet being used and won't be for another few weeks, it was more logical to just update said document and avoid the whole deviation. Initially a coworker of mine was directed to go with the deviation, even though it made more sense to update the document prior to using it. However, the coworker held his ground and was able to convince the powers that be that updating the document was indeed the correct response rather than a deviation. This just added to already "wonderful" day. Luckily it was resolved correctly and the right action is going to be taken.
This probably makes no sense to anyone and I apologize for that. I also apologize for the fact that I'm extremely vague, but that is a necessity as this is work related. I had to vent it somewhere, so thank you for listening and indulging in my rambling.
I shudder to think what adventure await me tomorrow and I'm not really sure if I'm up to the task. But it is Friday and I can go in knowing that at the end of the day, I get to leave it all at work for two days before I have to deal with it again.
