There was an interesting article by Scott Adams, the guy who does 'Dilbert.' in the Nov 6-7 Wall Street Journal.

He started off telling about two consecutive jobs he had where he was called in and told that he could not be promoted because the corporation had to make up for past discrimination against women. That got him thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. He pointed out that there were a lot of cubicle dwellers who had the same idea and had second businesses going on the side.

While he admits that might sound depressing, he asks us to consider a 'parallel universe where employees enjoy going to work. They feel empowered and fulfilled-so much so that they don't care about the size of their paychecks and never want to leave their jobs. That is exactly the sort of nightmare scenario that would destroy the economy. The last thing this world needs is a bunch of dopey-happy workers who cannot stop humming and grinning. Our system requires a continuous supply of highly capable people who are so disgruntled with their jobs that they are willing to chew off their own arms to escape their bosses. The economy needs hamster-brained sociopaths in management to drive down the opportunity cost of entrepreneurship. Luckily, we are blessed with an ample supply."

In summary, "Bad management is how imagination gets its wings."

I laughed when I read this article. But then maybe it was the laugh of self-recognition.

Any comments?

I loved your post

I never had a pointy-headed boss but I did have one that outweighed me by 300+ pounds. She was a "killer shrew" at work but I tolerated her for five long years.

After I left that job, I came in contact with her monthly to purchase my tobacco. She was as sweet as could be since I was a friend and a customer then.

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:00 pm There was an interesting article by Scott Adams, the guy who does 'Dilbert.' in the Nov 6-7 Wall Street Journal.

He started off telling about two consecutive jobs he had where he was called in and told that he could not be promoted because the corporation had to make up for past discrimination against women. That got him thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. He pointed out that there were a lot of cubicle dwellers who had the same idea and had second businesses going on the side.

While he admits that might sound depressing, he asks us to consider a 'parallel universe where employees enjoy going to work. They feel empowered and fulfilled-so much so that they don't care about the size of their paychecks and never want to leave their jobs. That is exactly the sort of nightmare scenario that would destroy the economy. The last thing this world needs is a bunch of dopey-happy workers who cannot stop humming and grinning. Our system requires a continuous supply of highly capable people who are so disgruntled with their jobs that they are willing to chew off their own arms to escape their bosses. The economy needs hamster-brained sociopaths in management to drive down the opportunity cost of entrepreneurship. Luckily, we are blessed with an ample supply."

In summary, "Bad management is how imagination gets its wings."

I laughed when I read this article. But then maybe it was the laugh of self-recognition.

Any comments?

Well, that type of management you just described did the U.S. Postal Service no good at all.

Actually, this management theory collectively is the brain-child of the so-called great business theorists of the late 19th and early 20th century who are 1. Henri Fayol, 2. Max Weber and 3.Frederick Winslow Taylor. (http://www.kernsanalysis.com/sjsu/ise250/history.htm)

That's 1. Administration, 2. Bureaucracy and 3. Scientific Management. The problems of any of these 3 styles in the form that they were presented by these three theorists is that the shitty-assed attitudes toward the worker that these theorists suggested for management and as being the gospel according to management is that they generated labor unions wholesale.

Otherwise, if used discretely and with knowledge and common sense a great many of these theories applied judiciously and piece-meal yield good results as far as production is concerned. However, success breeds what I would call managerial narcissism and the management's inflated opinion of themselves and their capabilities. The other side of this coin is the treating of labor as chattel.

Consequently, there are Labor Unions in which elected officials exist who considered themselves the equivalent of the typical manager on up to the ass-hole CEO. Then, they governed themselves accordingly, shitty-assed attitude *(toward the company)* and all.

SO in this we have sewn the seeds of the demise of industry in America. This is because we have NO respect for humanity, neither labor OR management, and so everyone, every shit-ass CEO of wall street and managers in companies and unions officials and laborers down to the meth-head in the gutter or in jail considers themselves superior to everyone else. They are all MIND-FUCKED-UP.

This shitty-assed attitude of Americans throughout the world is legendary and it is due entirely to these three shit-asses and their lack of respect for the dignity of humanity.

Did I mention that this was what stimulated Karl Marx and his Communist theories of utopia? Socialism won't work because they, too, are contaminated with shitty attitudes. Capitalism? Same thing.

In fact, unless AMERICA loses these attitudes it WILL end up self-destructing.

...and remember, you heard it here first

I have a warm place in my heart for Garabaldi in Babylon 5 who inherits a multi planet corporation.

He asks the department heads to send him one person who is the biggest malcontent, complainer, etc. When they are all assembled he tells them they are now head of their respective departments. Unhappy about something, change it.

Moi

Garabaldi's system would make a CEO of Moi

I admired Mr. Garibaldi. He had good taste in cartoons, old movies and old earth vehicles.

And blonds, you know of course in real life he married that Blond.

OF COURSE IT WAS NOT A RELIGIOUS CEREMONY.

River

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:44 pm And blonds, you know of course in real life he married that Blond.

OF COURSE IT WAS NOT A RELIGIOUS CEREMONY.

River

Which Blond?

The Psi Corp bitch ?

Moi

The corp is mother the corp is father

awsome, babylon 5. one of my favorite shows ever. its been years since i even thought of it. thanks for reminding me lol.

To return to DILBERT, when I was asked to help write a "performance review system" Scott Adams had just published a thick battleship gray book of management silliness. I was reading it at night and helping the one boss I trusted write the performance system.

We used to get hysterical because I could find Scott Adams mocking the words we were writing in the Perf Review. Word for word without having seen Scott Adams or Dilbert for the day, we could see the same management principles being espoused by Dilbert.

It turns out that our Performance Management System was used for three months and then scrapped because we were combined with another organization and write a second Performance Management System. That one failed too because of management's ignorant desire not to ahve one and Washington DC's desire to have one.

In the meantime, my little group of five people instituted a complete online chemical inventory of every chemical onsite in every cabinet and every lab. And we instituted a maintenance system for the 18,000 pieces of property that tracked what equipment was important to various systems. We did that before the first Performance management system failed and kept these two systems in place when the second Perf Man system failed.

I found it amazing that Dilbert (Scott Adams) could be so psychically predictive and correct in his clairvoyant visions. We also laughed a lot.

moi621 (imported) wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:05 am Which Blond?

The Psi Corp bitch ?

Moi

The corp is mother the corp is father

OH!

Dodge the Father

RAM the Daughter!