I bought some bamboo toilet paper the other day to try and do something good for the Earth. Just testing.
When they showed up, I assigned my 8-year-old son to go and distribute them throughout the house and then to put the extras in the closet.

He actually did a pretty good job of distributing them throughout the house. Although he put them on top of the toilets rather than underneath the sinks where they belong. 

But then in my closet, he didn’t know what to do with them. So, he just filled in every empty space in a cupboard which is where towels go. And it’s completely non-functional…

…But he did what I asked him to do.

Which is kind of like an OFS in the Philippines if you don’t give good instructions.

I thought my instructions were pretty good. But clearly, they were not what I wanted. So, he didn’t do it how I wanted it done. He did what he thought was right given the circumstances and given what he knew.

When something doesn’t go right with your OFS, consider that maybe they did what they thought was right given the circumstances and what you have given them.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this over the years.  I create some instructions.  I think they’re complete and good.  I send it to one of my OFS. 

What they do is completely different than what I imagine.

I go back through my instructions and find “Oh…yeah…my instructions were super crappy!”

And I’ve seen this tons of times from other employers.  

They’re not purposefully doing it wrong.  There’s a reason they’re doing it wrong.

John