following guidelines and perfectionism

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I am wondering what others do in regards to following guidelines at work.

My issue seems to constantly be one where I follow the rules that I have been told I need to follow, but nobody else does.
When I ask how should I do X, Y or Z, I am told "follow these steps, this is how we do things here, etc". So I do things
exactly as they tell me to do them and when I do, it seems everyone gets angry at me.

Example: Before you write system documentation, you MUST have a general document from marketing, then write a more detailed doc, get approval from marketing and ONLY then should you start to write documentation. When I follow these steps but do not get approval from marketing, then I don't start my documentation. Then I am told I should start it anyway. So I do. Then marketing comes back and says "we don't need this, we don't need that, we want to add this, want to add that"...and of course, I get a bit
frustrated, although I do not tell anyone off (they can't even see me), and ask them to please put in writing what they need so that I can compare to what I have and finish my documentation. What happens? People get offended, my manager ends up giving me a nice talk about our procedures or some other "general thing", which I know is specifically directed at me. I just don't understand how to work with other people.

Please note that I have absolutely no issues working with many of our customers. In fact, even customers who are extremely demanding love the quality of my work, etc...and NEVER complain about me.

I don't know how to not do things right. I expect if I am told to do something a certain way, that I will do it. If I am told to do it as I please, then that is what I do. But it seems that everything is "wishy washy" and that of course is very difficult for me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It's a corporate culture issue. As you describe it, they arn't interested in following their own rules.

Unfortunately, the usual answer to this is to jump into corporate politics, and that's not for the faint of heart.

Oh man, you've just reminded me of why I never, ever want to work in corporate America again.

Unfortunately, I have no answers for you, as I found myself in the same situation more than once, and was highly frustrated every time.

My condolences. Maybe ask your manager what he/she recommends?

I've been in this situation before, sort of. Unfortunately, one has to be flexible in the way one follows the rules. Depending on your job duties, you may have to balance several different variables. Basically, you have to follow the rules as much as you can, just up to the point that nobody will get pissed off, but you have to use your familiarity with your co-workers and the job duties in order to ascertain what sorts of things will get you into trouble (for example, it might be ok to skip steps if following all the steps will cause a project to be seriously messed up, but not if you're simply in danger of missing a deadline). Try to think of what will save the company money, or at least prevent them from losing money.

It's complicated because it's sort of an intuitive process. It might be better for you to just explain to your supervisor that you have difficulty knowing how to deal with situations that force you to break the rules, but be prepared for the possibility that no one can really help you.

Maybe it is something that requires reading between the lines so to speak and when an Aspie takes it literally they are misunderstanding the info that must be "read between the lines." Have you witnessed a coworker who followed the process you are talking about and how did it work for him/her?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

No, I rarely see anyone following the rules...sigh. So why am I told to follow the rules then? I guess the reading between the lines thing just doesn't click for me. I sure wish there was a simpler way, but it seems there isn't. You'd think I would understand by now, after so many years, but I still don't get it.

What you described is something that I encountered a couple of weeks ago, and I did not react well, and now I suspect I am being monitored. I work for the government and the situation was this:

1. I was given a "project" to supposedly manage. Little did I know but I am actually the grunt, I just have the title.
2. My boss gave me a set of slides to use to develop my project documents (plan, etc.)
3. I began to develop the documents, all good.
4. I started to contact people to create my schedule, set up meetings, and get some buy-in, and that's where it went south.

I then got hauled into the senior manager's office and asked where I had gotten the information for the documents. It came from her! Just started hammering at me with questions and I left in tears, major meltdown. Now they don't trust me and I don't trust them.

I was following instructions and relying on past experience, not to mention templates. I had no way of knowing how to proceed differently.

So basically, I overestimated the importance of my role (based on my title and how I functioned in that role in other jobs) and I used the slides, as requested, but the info was wrong.

Anyway, now I'm just staying quiet and working by transaction only. I am way overpaid for what they are expecting me to do, but that's their problem, not mine.