Missing It Badly

You have probably been on the court and done something like this yourself: You dribble around, take a jump shot and the ball catches nothing but air, no backboard, net or anything. And you feel really stupid. If you're really 'lucky', your friends are watching (and laughing their shorts off).

That is 'Missing it badly'.

It must be a 'people' thing.

Go to your local grocery and just watch the women at food shopping (and the men too...). They roll the cart down the aisle, stop the card on the right side and then stand on the left side, blocking the whole aisle. When you say 'excuse me', they jump out of the way, saying they're sorry. Really? It doesn't take a lot of brain power to notice one's surroundings.

Again, missing it badly.

A couple of years ago, I got in trouble with the director of the local ASPCA. It all began with complaints about people wearing fur. I jokingly remarked that people should wear dog fur, plenty of dogs get euthanized. I was then soundly lambasted for my 'insensitivity' and how dogs should be treated with more dignity. I don't mind people holding opinions if they are willing to discuss them. Here I was being belittled, so I fought back. I reminded the person that they support abortion but shouldn't human beings or at least fetuses be treated with more dignity. As most liberals will do when 'you don't just understand' but point out how they just don't understand, this person began to demonstrate how foul mouthed they could be. In front of a room full of people. I just rolled my eyes until that person realized what they had done.

Again, missing it badly.

Let me note now that I don't mind whatever opinion a person has. The problem is that all of us, and I mean ALL OF US, hold opinions without knowing what the hell we are talking about. When it's pointed out to me, I learn from it. Most people react like you just excreted on their couch.

How does this apply to management? Very simple, management misses it badly much too often.

Take the normal operations of a manufacturing facility. You have to hire people to build the product, test it, package it and send it out. This is very similar to the football team. The product is a touchdown or score and you need a team to get that ball down the field. So what do you do? It's obvious! You hire the cheapest possible labor and hope you get lucky.

Yeah, that's a recipe for success.

Or consider the usual workplace: You have a combination of abilities and capacities. Some are better workers than others, so you aim to keep the good and get rid of the bad, right? Nope, you make sure that yearly merit increases are as small as possible so that the good people, who can readily get another job, leave. Then you are left with the dead wood, who wouldn't be able to easily get another job.

That's it. Missing it badly.

Back again!

I hadn't realized that it has been so long since I last posted. You KNOW that whatever I've said is not the last word on the pathetic management that plagues all US companies.

But all is not doom and gloom, there are the bright spots, those managers that know the meaning of the word integrity, well, those that know that integrity does not equal greed. While the capitalist system is the best we have, because people will strive to do better with a reward, there are and will always be abuses. History has shown, however, that these abuses do not last forever. Take the oil cartel, for example. The Arab countries came together out of greed and every time they make a concerted effort to gobble down more cash from the infidel countries, one of their own will stab them in the back, again from greed, wanting more that the share the cartel has given them.

What greedy managers have fighting against them are other greedy managers. Oh, sure, we end up with some companies with 'old boys' clubs' where they all cooperate to suck the company dry. In the end, however, market forces work against them. Without effort from the upper management of a company, any endeavor will slowly--or not so slowly--die off. While this is unfortunate for the workers at that company, they, the workers, really have to vote with their feet where employment is concerned. As the good, honest workers see problems around them, they leave for other companies, leaving a bloated hiearchy teetering on top of a shrinking mass of increasingly incompetent workers. Why incompetent? Because good workers will always find another job at good pay, the incompetent remain simply because they know they cannot get the same pay at another company.

Oh, well, it's back to work here again. I'll post again soon, but in the meantime, Merry Christmas to you all.

Yeah, screw the crap with 'happy holidays'. Don't expect politically correct here......

Friends of Xcompany????

I'm definitely in a somber mood this morning. Usually an early riser, I lingered in bed for about a half hour and my mind turned in a bad direction. I'm a good worker, constantly running over in my mind what needs to be done at home and at work. This morning, however, my mind turned to a mailing list I had just joined.

I've had an email address on Hotmail since the day I discovered the 'net and that's over ten years now. I have been contacted by the strangest of people from my past over the years and within the last couple of months that I was contacted by a former carpool mate from my longest tenure job. I was at that job for so long that I passed through 3 different carpools and several different members. He had gotten my email address from a list that another former employee had started called 'Friends of Xcompany'. I'm trying to eliminate all possibility that anyone reading this could possibly discover which company this was because of what I'm about to say. Sorry.

I eagerly joined 'Friends of Xcompany' and was given a introduction by the list manager (to which no one responded). I stopped every once in a while to think about posting to the list and the thoughts grew and grew until I realized that if I were to post the typical 'Hi, it's great to see you all again' message, I'd be a huge hypocrite. On the list were several people that caused hell in my life. The corporate atmosphere at Xcompany encouraged back-stabbing and all manner of exploitation. I realized I wasn't really a 'Friend of Xcompany', I hated the place for the way it warped me. Nor could I really say that we'd be a group of Friends from Xcompany because at least one person on the list happily went about getting people fired that they didn't like. In that case I'm not going by rumor but was present at one incident where that person really did that by exaggerating and outright lying to personnel. Now if I had done something like that I would be filled with guilt and I really wouldn't want to be around the people who would have known that. Much less be a happy poster gushing at all my 'friends'.

This morning I realized that over the past few years I've been mentally and emotionally recovering from Xcompany and it's lies and deceit. I could not really blame it all on management except for the fact that management was fully eager to believe anything bad about it's employees from whatever source and no matter how true it was. It was as if everytime one of your kids ratted on the other, you made no attempt to find out what really happened, but punished the kid ratted on. Think of what that would do to the environment of a company and you have Xcompany.

This post was meant to be therapy for me and pretty much it was. I realize now (and always have) that holding a grudge is a waste of my life. However that does conflict with any resolution to be honest and honorable. Whatever it means, it still results in my not being a 'Friend of Xcompany'.