I seem to have accidentally retired at the grand age of 54 (thus becoming one of the 50--64-year-olds whose ‘economic inactivity’ forms part of the Treasury’s ongoing cluster headache).
One of the great things about being a lorry driver (apart, obviously, from getting to play with ginormous toys all day) is that the haulage industry, by and large, is entirely free from this sort of silly bullshit. I do recall seeing a poster exhorting me to identify myself as "Team Scania" and compete against drivers from "Team Volvo" or "Team DAF", but thankfully this sort of thing was rare and treated with the contempt it deserved by the drivers.
Yeah it’s interesting, the industries/sectors that go in for this stuff and the ones that don’t. I can imagine hauliers would just be temperamentally ill disposed towards it but I’m not sure I can articulate why
Great article. Reminding me about TQM which I always thought as telling me what I couldn’t offer! My favourite management course concept was the ‘cone of destiny’ (a poster with a cone on it, marked destiny’) which I rolled up and put on my head to no one’s amusement
I am not a fan of David Graeber, but "Bullshit Jobs" is good. As for HR/Personnel, my first job was in the civil service, where at the time the function was called "Establishment". So yes, I was indeed, a paid up member of (the) Establishment. But you didn't need me to tell you that...
Now do Project Management and Operations Management (more often than not from people who could not properly use a screwdriver let alone a saw, and who never could solve a first order linear differential equation, let alone use such to understand a problem or observation)...
I worked for many years for a huge international tech company who force-fed us "professional management bollocks" constantly. It was met with the utmost eye-rolling cynicism, but also, unavoidably, the pantomime of commitment, and hence complete alienation. The most egregious initiative was that of the "Brand Ambassadors," otherwise intelligent and valuable contributors, who were brainwashed into traveling from site to site getting across the message that "You Are The Brand." That was too much, and I would protest that I was definitely not The Brand. That my work should somehow reflect The Brand, OK. But not me. Luckily I was in France, so at least they couldn't just fire me for honest pushback. We had unions.
‘Pantomime of commitment leading to alienation’ absolutely sums it up. One of the problems with this stuff is that it doesn’t work even on its own terms!
The most unhinged variation of this I’ve seen exists in tech start and scale-ups. Watching bright young things eagerly posting rocket emojis under every post the VP of People makes on Slack is… quite something to behold.
One of the great things about being a lorry driver (apart, obviously, from getting to play with ginormous toys all day) is that the haulage industry, by and large, is entirely free from this sort of silly bullshit. I do recall seeing a poster exhorting me to identify myself as "Team Scania" and compete against drivers from "Team Volvo" or "Team DAF", but thankfully this sort of thing was rare and treated with the contempt it deserved by the drivers.
Yeah it’s interesting, the industries/sectors that go in for this stuff and the ones that don’t. I can imagine hauliers would just be temperamentally ill disposed towards it but I’m not sure I can articulate why
Great article. Reminding me about TQM which I always thought as telling me what I couldn’t offer! My favourite management course concept was the ‘cone of destiny’ (a poster with a cone on it, marked destiny’) which I rolled up and put on my head to no one’s amusement
Oh man, I need to know more about the cone of destiny now
I am not a fan of David Graeber, but "Bullshit Jobs" is good. As for HR/Personnel, my first job was in the civil service, where at the time the function was called "Establishment". So yes, I was indeed, a paid up member of (the) Establishment. But you didn't need me to tell you that...
That is MARVELLOUS. I hope someone got bumped up several grades for deciding to call it that.
Now do Project Management and Operations Management (more often than not from people who could not properly use a screwdriver let alone a saw, and who never could solve a first order linear differential equation, let alone use such to understand a problem or observation)...
I'm sure there's a whole extra level of madness in the 'management' of technical specialists by underqualified overlords.
I worked for many years for a huge international tech company who force-fed us "professional management bollocks" constantly. It was met with the utmost eye-rolling cynicism, but also, unavoidably, the pantomime of commitment, and hence complete alienation. The most egregious initiative was that of the "Brand Ambassadors," otherwise intelligent and valuable contributors, who were brainwashed into traveling from site to site getting across the message that "You Are The Brand." That was too much, and I would protest that I was definitely not The Brand. That my work should somehow reflect The Brand, OK. But not me. Luckily I was in France, so at least they couldn't just fire me for honest pushback. We had unions.
‘Pantomime of commitment leading to alienation’ absolutely sums it up. One of the problems with this stuff is that it doesn’t work even on its own terms!
The most unhinged variation of this I’ve seen exists in tech start and scale-ups. Watching bright young things eagerly posting rocket emojis under every post the VP of People makes on Slack is… quite something to behold.
Wow. I’ve seen it on LinkedIn, but on an internal channel… that’s screwed up
Yes. All this. And more. 👏
You might even remember me moaning about this at the time it happened…
Spot on
Worked out a few longstanding frustrations with this one!