Bam-Bam
Mrs BRK worked for a doctor. The problem with doctors is that just because they know medicine, they think they understand everything: personal electronics, cars, the opposite gender, and money.
From our personal experience with PhDs and MDs, once you venture from their singular area of expertise, they basically become monkeys with no particular talents outside of grunting and picking small bugs from each others hair.
We knew a PhD who could design data-interchange hardware in his sleep, but who couldn’t use a microwave oven.
We knew a PhD who could code Ada in his mind and write it all down, ready to be compiled, but who would frequently forget to wear pants.
And now we know an MD who doesn’t understand that the purpose of owning a business is to make money.
Mrs BRKs previous employer is one of the most brilliant and talented surgeons in the United States, and he hasn’t a clue about running a business. Mrs BRK was in charge of selling medical procedures for what most medical insurance plans considered cosmetic surgery. She was able to convince insurance companies to pay for the procedures, and also find ways to help people self-pay when the insurance companies decided to say no. She is good at this, very good. So good that she personally raised the company’s income by 300% last year.
Now while she made good commissions on her sales, the doctor continued to receive his “salary” from his company. His company made a lot of money, but his salary didn’t change. Thus, Mrs BRK made more in commission than the doctor paid himself. This didn’t go over well, and his solution was to cut Mrs BRK’s commission by 66% and cap the amount of commission she could earn.
You read that right; you may /boggle.
So yesterday, Mrs BRK found a new job and told the doctor what he could do with his commission-cap. She took today off to get a Swedish massage, buy some new shoes, and get in the proper state of mind to begin her new job on Monday.
Some chicks just know how to live, yes?
What does all this have to do with WoW? Guild-poaching, foshizzle.
Guilds are Businesses. Guilds are in the business of pleasing their members. Whether it is raiding or PvP or just goofing around, if the guild isn’t providing the services its members need, those members are going to be up-for-grabs by other guilds. Guilds who allow their members to become unsatisfied cannot be surprised when their top-end people choose to leave for a guild that can give them what they need.
Is your guild stuck in Kara and not advancing to Gruuls? Guess what! Your healers and tanks are going to be lured by the promises of another guild to get up, get out, and see 25-man content. AC recently snagged a Holy Pally from another guild on another server during our last recruitment drive. Why? Because he wanted to see SSC and his guild wouldn’t get out of Kara and find a way to get into Gruul’s Lair. He was dissatisfied with his company, and AC promised to fulfill his needs.
Mrs BRK liked the company, the patients, and the compensation she was receiving at her old job. Then the “GM” of the company gave her a reason to leave by laying the smack-down on her commissions and telling her she’d never see SSC. Another “GM” recognized her extraordinary talents, promised her runs in SSC and TK and a graduated commission plan with no cap, so she gquit and transferred servers. Goodbye Celebration, hello Waterford Lakes.
Has your guild defined its purpose? Are the officers working towards achieving that objective? Does your desire parallel the path your guild is following? If you’re an officer or a GM, are you advertising your agenda so your members know what’s going on?
Communication isn’t just for raiding. A guild needs short and long-term goals and the commitment to get the word out to its members.
Because Mrs BRK wouldn’t put up with endless runs to Chess, either.
Edit: You know what, we’re gonna say a quick “our bad” for kinda slamming the entire MD/PhD community here. We were a little rough. Perhaps our experience with Mrs BRK’s ex-employer has us a bit perturbed. We’ll exercise a little more editorial and emotional control in the future.
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36 Responses to “Bam-Bam”
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Good for her! Glad to see she’s moved on to something better without some jerk wanting to cut her salary because it was bigger than his.
Why the PhD/MD bashing? It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the point of your blog post. That sort of thing always strikes me as some kind of embittered ego defense. /rollseyes
It’s a shame your experience with titled nerds is so limited and skewed.
Interesting post tho, as I am currently in the business of poaching. So far, so good…
I’m sorry that Mrs. BRK had such a rough time…but glad she’s been able to make other arrangements so quickly. Hope she enjoys her little “holiday” too!
Cool post and a nice analogy. You’re dead-on right. There are lot of things in WoW that reflect Real Life (outside of killing stuff and taking its money and cutting off it’s hide.) Auction House clearly jumps to mind, but also the blithering idiocy you’ll see in trade chat, the care you must take not to get duped or ninja’d, etc. And the simple caring and humanity you’ll see form complete strangers, even from the opposition.
But a really well-run guild will not just reflect real-life, but will be treated as a reality. Your analogy to salary and professional growth is very true. Also, the abiltiy to manage people. Not toons. People. The best guilds that I’ve been a part of have GMs who should probably be (and maybe are) human resoureces directors, insofar as their ability to rein in egos, direct expectations, meet expectations, and drive a group of 30-50 people to achieve end-game. The best RLs are often military or ex-military dudes who understand how to “make it happen.” And GM=/=RL.
Edit: As for the MD/PhD bashing - stereotypes are what they are. I think his point was that the MD is brilliant. However, I think it’s an overstatement to suggest he couldn’t run a business because he was brilliant, or even in spite of being brilliant. The reality is that some people just can’t run a business. We just have a higher expectation of someone who has been edjamucated for 20+ years that they’ll know better. Reality is that most of them are no differnt them the uneducated masses.
I start medical school in the fall…I solemnly promise not to become the type of MD you speak so fondly of.
And I happen to have many other talents, completely unrelated to my love for medicine. I’m sorry to hear that happened to Mrs. BRK, but don’t lop all of us into your MD stereotype.
PhD’s on the other hand…. 
…yeah, while the story was entertaining and informing, you basically just badmouthed my father. Doctor with a Master’s Degree who actually understands things outside of his field of medical knowledge.
Nah, BS, MS, PhD and JD here. I took no offense, and no one else should either.
Some highly educated people are complete wackos. Some are incredible business people.
Some sub-average intelligence people are complete wackos. Some are incredible business people.
We just want to expect more out of the highly educated one.
Wow what a coincidence on the topic of today’s post, I just last night had to have a serious conversation with my GM about same issue.
Poach me! I’m on your server BRK!
@Grindurbonze
There is a reason why a whole lot of the really scary brilliant people in many “specialist” fields work for other folks who might not actually understand them half the time.
Smart, educated people should be smart enough to recognize their own shortcomings and arrange to have people who are good at the business end of things run the business end of things.
/digression on
The one great thing about commissions is this: If the amount of stuff you sell doesn’t increase, your commissions don’t increase. Above a certain critical basepoint, increase in commission paid = increase in sales/income for the business.
Gigging your rep because she pushed her commissions past your expectations is stupid if you are just doing a “Hey, you make more than me…bad employee, no biscuit for you!” comparison. Actually, on second thought, it is just generically stupid.
/digression off
Our “brilliant” surgeon should have a Business Manager actually running the business side, and that person should have gagged and bi***slapped him until he came to his senses and dropped it.
I knows a certain MS engineer what still can’t figger out hows ta work the freakin’ blankity-blank fax machine. He’s pathetic, I tell ya. At least he remembers to put his pants on. Most days.
My previous guild did this exact thing although the guild leadership also decided that they didn’t want to raid anymore and then never told the rest of us.
Today I am happily cruising through SSC and TK with my new guild and loving every minute of it. In less than a month I’ve gone from barely getting through Kara in several days to badge clear runs of kara weekly in around 4 hours and 4/5 T4 and 1 T5.
Of course I’ve also gone from being #1 on the Damage meters to trying to stay in the top 5. Competition for the win.
our guild hit the kara-gruul’s transition wall pretty hard recently, and people started to take off for purpler pastures, myself included. i came back, though…
thankfully, a recent string of guild explosions have bestowed upon us quite a few new members, so there’s a good chance we’ll make it past karazhan and into gruul/mag very soon.
fingers crossed.
You go Mrs. BRK!
I was wondering why you hadn’t updated ur blog lately. Are you going to post to it any more? Here’s hoping you do
best of luck with new gig!
Better to work in Waterford Lakes than Celebration anyways; something about Celebration just creeps me out (possibly the whole concept of a completely planned community).
Great post! Right on, Mrs. BRK! Right on BRK! I’m with a guild that is guilty on most counts of the points you mention. Where you really see the lack of direction is in its teams. One full of fun, social people, one is has a number of hard core raiders and the others are of folks not ready to go to Kara yet. The hard core group will probably progress well, I say probably because such success will have a cost, being brow beat for every mistake you make (not my idea of a good time!) You can only imagine the fun the two groups will have when they come together for Gruul’s (might make a pilot for a new reality tv show, MTV are you reading?)
I don’t feel that BRK was impugning MDs and PhDs. I have letters after my name, too, and wasn’t offended. I truly feel that everyone needs to understand what their strengths are … and yet also recognize that they have weaknesses or at the very least areas that need improvement. In my situation, it would be that my doc should have understood that the more money I made, the more money he made. Period. And also that if I was making more than he was, then maybe he should have been more available for surgery. But I digress.
I will blog again, to be sure. I just couldn’t put my heart into it this past month and didn’t want to churn out crap just to publish.
Thanks much to everyone for your kind words. But now, if you need help with your unibrow or other areas through laser hair removal, then I’m your girl!
/wave
Speaking as a PhD (and all the below stuff too), I didn’t take much offense, but the tone was somewhat offensive and implies that all PhDs/MDs are nut jobs. That’s mostly a part of our training and so forth, highly specialized, extreme competition, extreme pressure. Definately a mill. Anyway I’m not offended. Its hard for people who haven’t lived the life to understand, and its hard for us to understand normal people. Something about ivory towers and so forth.
Anyway, to the topic. I disagree that guilds are built to please their members. Guilds are built to please the core members maybe, but especially the officer corp and GL. Guilds will usually strive for a goal, thus the goal is the most important thing. Which boss did you kill, where are you progressing, etc. All guilds have problems getting from kara to gruul. And I am betting every one that has made the transition picked up a bunch of new people who aren’t core. Guess what, the guild could care less if you are happy or not. You are just a warm body, deal with it. Or try to find another guild that will take your worthless class. That’s how it feels as a hunter trying to find a guild interested in T5 content. We are meat for the meatgrinder, and very replaceable. We aren’t healers or main tanks, so we can’t pitch a fit and get whatever we want. That’s just how life works, and we dpsers need to understand our ranking.
Why do a lot of people take everything so personally as a knee-jerk reaction? This story is told from the perspective of BRK, not you (the offended you). He has his own opinion as you (the offended you) have _your_ own opinion. So, loosen up.
Great story, BRK!
My guild on Silver Hand is a family guild. By that I mean family friendly, guild chat is pg13, several people with real life families, lots of casuals. We had a huge blow up a couple of years ago when most of the folks that wanted to be hard core raiders left. Happily, we are still friends with most of them, although there was bitterness at the time.
Currently, to allow those who want to raid to do so, while still staying a laid-back guild, we have an excellent association with another guild that raids. At Gruul’s/Mags last weekend we comprised about 10-12 of the raid.
A stable guild, that has a clear motif, and people who operate with friendliness and generosity as well as understanding the rules, is invaluable.
As far as people who are brilliant at one thing yet rubbish at others, Einstein often displayed an amazing capacity to forget where he lived.
What this means is… ohmigod, I’m not wearing pants!
We have a saying in our family - “Mediocrity is incapable of recognizing excellence.”
But my spouse is an M.D. who also lacks the qualities you speak of, in a good way. Perhaps because she’s a child psychiatrist who gets reminded day in and day out by her patients that she doesn’t know jack…
@Boomsville
Of course he has his own opinions. As a longtime and frequent visitor to the blog, for hunter tips and amusing stories, I just visually tripped over the seemingly out-of-character bigotry of one opinion.
@Mrs BRK
The comparison made was PhDs/MDs = bug-picking monkeys, save for some singular talent. Kinda impugn-ish, I think.
And really, in defense of the ivorytower crowd, who CAN operate a microwave?
As for not wearing pants? That’s just a personal preference explained away by “forgetfulness”.
Einstein? The guy got people to mythologize his quirks and conflate them with genius. Now, THAT is genius.
Good luck to Mrs. BRK. A change is always a risk and hope she really made a step forward.
I want laser eye surgery if possible Mrs BRK!
Celebration is kinda creepy anyway… a Disney-owned town? While in Drum Corps and with Magic of Orlando, we stayed in the school gym one weekend and it was very eerie to see three houses in a row where the owners were mowing their lawn, and just happened to be at the same spot on their respective lawn as their neighbor was. Plus we couldn’t make a PEEP after 9 PM. even if someone were talking loud the police would come by and tell us to settle down.
“Making endless runs to chess” is sort of where my guild is at right now, the big problem is that none of us are quite sure how to get past that because we have so many schedule conflicts in our guild…
I had a job at TWC where I earned a 15% commision and some dollar amount per hour. I ended up earning more than the regional Vice President, so they decided the commission was to much and I should be happy with just the dollar amount per hour. Since I was the lowest position in the company you can imagine the dollar amount was no where near thousands a month… I gave notice at once.
I can completely understand where Mrs Brk is coming from and I am glad she found a better place to be.
Great story BRK!
Reminds me if just why I left my last guild and decided to move on to other things though I’m taking a Hiatus at the moment from WoW.
He killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
Nono! TJ, no holding back. Doctor’s and lawyers, and basically anyone with a PhD all seem to have one thing in common. The lack of any kind of sensible mind set whatsoever…basically..they’re retards that are great in a single profession.
It’s my theory that the higher the degree you have, the stupider you really and truly become. Now I’m generalizing, of course, but look at most of these people out there with these PhDs on their walls….No social skills at all, no ability to think rationally (unless it comes to their particular branch of expertise). It all boils down to elitism and think they’re better than everyone else.
Again, I’m generalizing, and it’s not true for ALL PhD holders, but a majority of them..yes.
So keep bashing them and maybe they’ll get the message and come back down to earth when their egos lose some of the helium that sent them so high in the first place
You mean people who choose to specialize in one field may not be good at some other completely unrelated one? This new revelation boggles the mind. Truly.
While I agree with most of what BRK had to say here, I’d like to make a quick comment in defense of our GM (that was *our* holy pally). We’re a fun, family-style guild. Our mission statement, purpose to exist, raison d’etre, whatever is not to be the first on our server to finish the new sunwell 25-man. We help each other level, try to do some premades on the weekend, try to enjoy kara, do gnome runs, scavenger hunts, etc.
Management and strategy are about making decisions. The Dr in the story can decide he wants to do the most surgeries, or have the best home life, or make the most money, have the lowest cost, or have the best service. He can’t do all of them. He’s made a strategic decision (that makes little sense to me btw) and that’s his prerogative. Our guild made one to keep our principle of ‘No Drama’ above our desire to see SSC. We miss our pally - but understand he wanted to see more content and wish him the best. I (and my wife and others I believe) miss having another cool guy on vent and guild chat more than the heals.
A difference to the story about Mrs BRK is that this ‘we probably won’t get to SSC anytime soon’ thing isn’t a new rule. We were always a family guild. A better analogy might be if the Dr had everyone on straight salary and tried to encourage people not to work 80 hours a week, and Mor, I mean Mrs BRK, decided she wanted to make big commissions by working super hard and long to bring big profits to a clinic.
All that rant aside, I agree: a guild needs to know its purpose, and a GM needs to make hard decisions on what is consistent with that purpose. Even if it means a (BM-hunter and huge BRK fan) GM needs to let one of his best healers get sniped by BRK rather than convincing him to stay in a situation that wasn’t going to work out.
Sorry this was so long - I’m avoiding driving 3 hours to a useless project meeting…..
Woemie and Snarky
As guild leader of a guild unable to make the transition from Kara to Gruul’s, I’d like to tell you my perspective on this.
We’re based a highly populated realm with many guilds. I became guild leader after the orginal leader left. I built a website, forums, implemented raid signups, the works. We would recruit people who immediately leave the moment they were geared enough for a 25 man guild. We have many members but very few disciplined 70 raiders.
We can’t provide people the opportunity to go to gruul’s because a large number of people are only in it for themselves and just want a free ride to SSC and Kara on farm. With the massive number of SSC guilds on the server we have no way of competing. So short of disbanding or merging we’re stuck in Kara hell. Kara gets seriously dull after 8 months of raiding. I outgear all of our current raiders (bm hunter) and have had to start raiding on an alt (feral druid) so we have enough tanks.
Removal of attunements and additional badges rewards in the last patch pretty much killed any chance we had of recruitment. The only way to move forward is to recruit lower level members and hope they can be ready in a reasonable timeframe. Usually by the time they are the last lot of geared raiders have left. It’s a painful cycle being a feeder guild. If even half of the people who had raided with us stayed behind we’d be deep into SSC or TK by now.
I believe blizzard needs something between 10 and 25 mans. Perhaps a 15 man instance. We did at one point have enough people for 1 kara team and a few extras. It’s amazing how impatient people get when they can’t raid for one week. Having goals and good leadership can only get your guild so far. Keeping enough people is like herding cats.
I am not the PhD refered to in this Blog, nor the Mrs.BRK. I am the Holy Pally lured away from a guild with tremendously nice people who enjoy playing the game. I just wanted to see more content, and felt that I would not have seen it staying. It is not a dig at anyone and certainly not personnal. Since leaving and experiencing a serious raiding guild and a casual raiding guild as compared to a family fun guild there really is no difference. Can someone tell me why a “family fun” guild can’t run 25mans? The biggest difference is how the people interact on Vent or guild chat really. Communication is the key to any guild success. When you do not communicate you will leave your actions up for interpritation and folks will draw there own conclusions which may be wrong but that is the law of the universe IMO. Did I have better personal relationships with my former guild?…ABSOLUTELY YES, but….I wanted to see more content thats all.
Oh the Waterford area — moving to the upscale part of east Orlando. She should find quite a few old ladies around here that want plastic surgery.