Stop Me Before I Vote Again

That's a good note to return upon, Al:

"The word goes out indeed! Bless his heart, I love this professor. It's the same protocol that's been in place throughout the history of industrial management. The lion lies down with the lamb. The lamb lies down in the mint sauce. The lion gets up and burps. This is called achieving the desired results."

After sitting through a dozen productivity and employee relations seminars my last year of managerial employment, I reached this sanguine distillation of it all, "Fuck over the little guy and spend whatever is necessary to persuade him that it's (a) all his his no-good fault and (b) not really happening at all."

Preferably, at the same time.

The author, a professor, has dedicated years of his life to an empirical study, the fruits of which are the adding of the letter "p" to the word "reviews." This makes me very happy.

For want of mint sauce, the stew was lost. Or something. :p

Al, where the blazes have you been?! And do you know what they did with Smithee? I feel so adrift...

Gotta love business schools. The nads to write this stuff as 4% economic growth produces zero jobs, and raw magical thinking is the bosses' one and only solution to Peak Oil. Gosh, boss, how I doing? Good enough, I hope.

Mighty glad to see you back, Al. Owen and I between us were running the site right into the ground.

And yeah, what happened to Comrade Smithee?

http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/

enter umair haque....

http://www.321worldwide.com/sxsw_0310/umair.jpg

if the sub-genre of satire
displayed in the above post
appeals to you
a genre no one does better then
our pal
ole oil cloth Al

here's a target worth darting

reading his blog entries is like ...
well

like eating
a spiney cactus ball
that is also
a third bite triggered
hand grenade

we could build a whole site around this guy

We're reading this preview/review model too simplistically, as if it only applies to an hourly bloke and the manager right above him. I've experienced it all the way up, even at executive levels, where the cowering operations VP has obviously bought into some productivity acceleration goal, dictated to him by the board to please some shareholders, in which his own job is on the line if you don't perform for him. Total personnel intimidation, to mimic a grisly business cliche of a few years ago.

And, yes, welcome back Al. And OP!

Senecal, I'm glad you emphasized that. Everyone who is subject to psychological abuse, and required to administer it to others, should make common cause with their brothers and sisters, all the way down the food chain. Thin privilege can never compensate for the harm done by systemic, systematic harassment.

Jack, when I was told I was going to be "groomed for higher responsibility" I had a disturbing vision flash through my head; chimps in suits picking the lice off each other and then ganging up on smaller chimps. I had to quit too.

chomskyzinn, that's distilled to the essence. It's a tears of laughter essence. The poor fellow. What an epitaph that will be. But, he did the work and earned it.

ms. xeno, I was being held prisoner in a greeting card factory, where I was forced to write copy for the "happy occasions" line. The bitterness I feel defies description.

MD, the B-school mandarins are going to offer remedial chutzpah for people whose natural gifts are not up to snuff. I doubt the class sizes will be very large. Although, who knows. It's going to be an easy A and that will certainly increase interest.

MJS, you're too kind. I've brought my shovel collection with me. When we reach the ground, I'm determined to keep going.

Owen, by a happy coincidence, I have plans to market organic exploding peyote buttons. They're a higher end item for people who want to blow their minds, and then blow out their intestines. My fortune is made!

Al, in my experience as a corporate manager, who had to administer such tortures as the Performance Review, I learned very early on that there was nothing more subversive, more radical, more upsetting to the powers, than to treat people decently, and with some measure of dignity and respect. I had bosses who felt the same way too, sometimes, and acted in a similarly subversive fashion, sometimes coming in for punishment-via-getting-called-on-the-carpet.

As a manager, I knew that there was nothing I could do about the power structure: I was "above" some and "below" others. I still am. Thinking one can alter that by one's self is delusional. But subversive decency --- you know, that "do unto others" stuff we adhere to in our Christian nation --- was and is always available as an option, however limited.

The local reporter is interviewing the proprietor of the sideshow exhibit "The Peaceable Kingdom", the lion and the lamb together.

"Is there ever any trouble between them?"
"No, not really. Once in a while there's a minor disagreement, but new lambs aren't expensive."

Al,

missed the hell out of you.

I'm busy getting drunk on some 12 year old scotch so I'll wait to comment more later when I'm hung over. I find that the best time to comment on things.

Good to see ya back.

...I learned very early on that there was nothing more subversive, more radical, more upsetting to the powers, than to treat people decently, and with some measure of dignity and respect.

Beautifully stated, Chomskyzinn.

I'm glad to see Al Schumann's wicked sense of humor back in the mix. Thanks for the closing 4 sentences, Al. Minty-fresh.