Welcome To The Modern Workplace!

[Bad Dog]

Two managers, and about 10% of the engineering staff quit in the last month. One manger went to the VP of Ops, threw her badge down, and walked out.

The department VP then published a newsletter about how there would be no need to knock down a wall to make space for more staff, as there was plenty of space, now. they also published more strict policy guidelines. Also, 12 hour rotating shifts would continue.

The VP is an X.

[Ragnarök_62]

(05-23-2016, 05:57 PM)Bad Dog Wrote: Two managers, and about 10% of the engineering staff quit in the last month. One manger went to the VP of Ops, threw her badge down, and walked out.

The department VP then published a newsletter about how there would be no need to knock down a wall to make space for more staff, as there was plenty of space, now. they also published more strict policy guidelines. Also, 12 hour rotating shifts would continue.

The VP is an X.

Uh, can you put the policy guidelines here so we can lampoon them?

#ThanksInAdvance

12 hour shifts?  Bwaahahahahahah.  Stupid company.  They have no clue that people's performance goes into a nosedive after a 4 hour  interval without a break. It takes a further dive after 8  hours of work even with breaks. When I supervise, I always call a break after every 2 hours in a 8 hour day. I prefer folks who are awake and haven't turned into zombies.

[Kinser79]

Actually mental work is even worse. Productivity starts a rapid decline after 6 hours even with breaks. That would be most white collar work. Physical jobs take longer to reach the status of negative productivity because the muscles are less demanding of oxygen, and fuel than the brain.

[Odin]

(05-24-2016, 12:11 AM)Kinser79 Wrote: Actually mental work is even worse.  Productivity starts a rapid decline after 6 hours even with breaks.  That would be most white collar work.  Physical jobs take longer to reach the status of negative productivity because the muscles are less demanding of oxygen, and fuel than the brain.

IIRC about 1/4 of our daily calories (so, about 500 to 800 calories a day) goes to fueling our brains. I remember reading on a book on human evolution that our brain's blood circulation is specially adapted to getting rid of all the heat generated by the brain's metabolism, an adaptation not found in chimps and gorillas.

[pbrower2a]

(05-23-2016, 06:20 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:

(05-23-2016, 05:57 PM)Bad Dog Wrote: Two managers, and about 10% of the engineering staff quit in the last month. One manger went to the VP of Ops, threw her badge down, and walked out.

The department VP then published a newsletter about how there would be no need to knock down a wall to make space for more staff, as there was plenty of space, now. they also published more strict policy guidelines. Also, 12 hour rotating shifts would continue.

The VP is an X.

Uh, can you put the policy guidelines here so we can lampoon them?

#ThanksInAdvance

12 hour shifts?  Bwaahahahahahah.  Stupid company.  They have no clue that people's performance goes into a nosedive after a 4 hour  interval without a break. It takes a further dive after 8  hours of work even with breaks. When I supervise, I always call a break after every 2 hours in a 8 hour day. I prefer folks who are awake and haven't turned into zombies.

A company like this is likely already in severe decline, and the 12-hour shifts suggest a desperate effort to survive. That so many engineers leave indicate that the company is not solving its problems with innovation and entrepreneurialism as a company in a growth phase would do.

It will likely become even more rigid and demanding -- and be even more stringent in its demands while offering less in return. It pushes people deep into the realm of diminishing returns. It obviously cannot attract talented people with solutions, and will be stuck with people going nowhere because they are too scared or incompetent to go elsewhere. It will soon have hemorrhaged away so much talent that it will have to improve its work rules to accommodate the people still there.  It's sauve-qui-peut until the company goes bankrupt in a decade or two or gets bought for its assets by some vampire capitalist.

[Earl and Mooch]

(05-24-2016, 07:34 AM)Odin Wrote:

(05-24-2016, 12:11 AM)Kinser79 Wrote: Actually mental work is even worse.  Productivity starts a rapid decline after 6 hours even with breaks.  That would be most white collar work.  Physical jobs take longer to reach the status of negative productivity because the muscles are less demanding of oxygen, and fuel than the brain.

IIRC about 1/4 of our daily calories (so, about 500 to 800 calories a day) goes to fueling our brains. I remember reading on a book on human evolution that our brain's blood circulation is specially adapted to getting rid of all the heat generated by the brain's metabolism, an adaptation not found in chimps and gorillas.

No wonder I'm tired when I get home from work.

[Bad Dog]

Same newsletter:

Two supervisory positions listed.
Two Lead engineering positions listed.
Seven engineering positions listed.

Out of about 80, total. 12.5% casualties in a month...

Direct quote from newsletter:

"At this point we are holding off on the (staff) expansion, as we currently have plenty of open seats to fill for current staff, and all open positions. We are also focusing on what we can do to increase our efficiency within our team like new tools. Efforts like this will allow us to provide world-class service to our customers going forward."

Policy #4) Working with your peers will be evaluated.
Policy #5) Punctuality and attendance will be evaluated.

[Galen]

(05-25-2016, 02:19 AM)Bad Dog Wrote: Policy #4) Working with your peers will be evaluated.
Policy #5) Punctuality and attendance will be evaluated.

This is a company that is in a death spiral and management literally has no clue about how to fix the problems.  It looks like the smart rats already left.

[Bad Dog]

(05-24-2016, 10:21 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:  

It obviously cannot attract talented people with solutions, and will be stuck with people going nowhere because they are too scared or incompetent to go elsewhere.

I fit both.

[Bad Dog]

From VP to Dog:

VP: 1971?>Director: 1978?>Team Lead: 1966>Dog: Late Jones. Co-worker: 1985 Core Millie.

Anybody see a pattern?

[Bad Dog]

The most ruthless X are suppressing Boomers and Millies alike.

[pbrower2a]

(05-25-2016, 02:19 AM)Bad Dog Wrote: Same newsletter:

Two supervisory positions listed.
Two Lead engineering positions listed.
Seven engineering positions listed.

Out of about 80, total. 12.5% casualties in a month...

Direct quote from newsletter:

"At this point we are holding off on the (staff) expansion, as we currently have plenty of open seats to fill for current staff, and all open positions. We are also focusing on what we can do to increase our efficiency within our team like new tools.  Efforts like this will allow us to provide world-class service to our customers going forward."

Policy #4) Working with your peers will be evaluated.
Policy #5) Punctuality and attendance will be evaluated.

Someone is running your company like a fast-food chain, a bad model of management when one has educated professionals. Fast-food chains can get away with a high rate of employee turnover because employees are unspecialized and easily trained. It's not so easy to train an engineer. Do you want to think that anything is any better in accounting or marketing?

One does not get world-class service from people treated like dirt. One at best gets scared, servile staff... that is not consistent with engineers. Add to that, fear brings out the worst in people. It does not promote innovation.

As Galen puts it, and I rarely agree with him, your company is in a death spiral.

The best that can happen for someone there is that the Reign of Terror ends with the tyrannical boss fired, and those still there have jobs in which the highest order of business is to not step on any toes. That's one way to go into decline. If you are old enough, you might stick around until retirement -- if you can't get suitable work elsewhere and can't start a business.

[pbrower2a]

I'm guessing that Bad Dog's employer was recently like this. Companies leaving the growth-by-innovation stage, are in what Adizes calls "aristocracy":

• Are cash rich and have very strong financial statements.
  
• Have reduced expectations for growth.
  
• Demonstrate little interest in conquering new markets, technologies, and frontiers.
  
• Focus on past achievements rather than future visions.
  
• Are suspicious of change.
  
• Reward those who do what they are told to do and punish those who do not.
  
• Are interested in reducing their risks.
  
• Invest much more on control systems, benefits, and facilities than they do on R & D.
  
• Form dominates function in the organizational climate. More emphasis is placed on how things are done, than what was done.
  
• Value uniformity, consistency and formality in dress, decorum, and behavior.
  
• Employ individuals who are concerned about the company's vitality, but are willing to abide by a "don't make waves" operating motto.
  
• Engender only negligible innovation with internal efforts.
  
• Acquire other products or companies for new products, markets, and entrepreneurship to feed into their distribution channels and operating systems.
  
• May be takeover targets themselves.
  
  

When an Aristocracy is unable to reverse its downward spiral and the artificial repairs finally stop working, management's mutual admiration society abruptly ends. The good-old-buddy days of the Aristocracy are gone, and the witch-hunts of Recrimination begin. Companies in this stage exhibit the following behaviors:

• People focus on who caused the problems, rather than on what to do about the problems.
  
• Problems get personalized. Rather than dealing with the organization's problems, people are involved in interpersonal conflicts, backstabbing, and discrediting each other.
  
• Paranoia freezes the organization.
  
• Personal survival and turf wars absorb all available energy leaving precious little to deal with the needs of customers or the world outside the organization.
  

Now what follows?

The Witch Hunt

Everyone is busy trying to find out who caused the disaster. With blades drawn, it's backstabbing time in the boardroom. Like primitive tribes afflicted by extended drought or famine, there is a rush to appease the gods. The organization needs a sacrifice. Whom does it sacrifice? The fairest maiden, the finest warrior, or the cream of the crop? Typically, the management of a company in Recrimination sacrifices its most valuable and scarcest treasure.........the last vestiges of innovation and creativity. The company fires the EVP of Marketing, explaining, "We're in the wrong market with the wrong products and our advertising does not work." The heads of Strategic Planning, Business Development and Engineering are the next to find themselves on the street. "Our strategy does not work. Our acquisitions are not working. Our products and technology are obsolete." The people who get fired don't feel they are responsible for the company's situation. The Marketing VP often said that the company ought to change its direction. The strategist has an ulcer worrying about the lack of direction. Privately, these individuals complained, urged, begged, and threatened, but their efforts were like pushing wet spaghetti up a hill. Their exodus merely exacerbates the problem because these creative people are the indivduals the organization needs most for survival.

What follows?

Although it should be dead, the company in Bureaucracy is kept alive by artificial life support. The company was born the first time in Infancy, it was reborn in Adolescence, and its third "birth" is in Bureaucracy when it gets an artificial continuance on its life. Death occurs when no one remains committed to keeping the organization alive. If there is no business or government commitment to supporting a company in Recrimination, death can occur instead of bureaucratization.

In the Bureaucratic stage, a company is largely incapable of generating sufficient resources to sustain itself. It justifies its existence by the simple fact that the organization serves a purpose that is of interest to another political and business entity willing to support it. The Bureaucratic organization:

• Has many systems and rules and runs on ritual, not reason.
  
• Has leaders who feel little sense of control.
  
• Is internally disassociated.
  
• Creates obstacles to reduce disruptions from its external environment.
  
• Forces its customers to develop elaborate approaches to bypass roadblocks.
  

Comment: things get more civilized (could they get worse than they were during the Witch hunt? Sure -- but not until the company fails). Bureaucracies delegate power and allow people to carve out niches of 'safe' zones but without producing much tangible value. The cut-throat era is over, and nobody gets fired. People retire or go elsewhere and are not replaced. Marginal types and people too old to go elsewhere remain. The company shrinks. Perhaps it owns some valuable assets like real estate or intellectual property, maybe a trademark suitable to "retro" branding. But as an operation it is worth more broken up than it is as a going concern, and it is only a matter of time before some creditor pulls the rug out from the company by selling its assets. Workers at this company have no value to the company buying the assets.

For a historical example, think of the Roman Empire in the third quarter of the 5th century AD. It still looked impressive as a political entity, but the old power system was gutted. Barbarian princes were carving out fiefdoms in the Name of the Emperor. It was costly to maintain due to the pomp and the imperial bureaucracy. In 476 the chieftain Odoacer determined that it was no longer useful and abolished it. Hardly anyone cared except the well-paid drones.

[Ragnarök_62]

(05-25-2016, 02:19 AM)Bad Dog Wrote:

Quote: Same newsletter:

Two supervisory positions listed.

I'd reckon nobody on the inside would go for those 2 positions. Those are toxic because you have unrealistic folks above and disgruntled ones below.

Quote:Two Lead engineering positions listed.

Assuming these 2 positions require some talent above the "regular" engineers below, any competent employees that would have sufficed have bailed out long ago.

Quote:Seven engineering positions listed.

Easy!  Rearranging chairs on the Titanic!

Quote:Out of about 80, total. 12.5% casualties in a month...

Rats leaving the Titanic before it sinks.

Quote:Direct quote from newsletter:

"At this point we are holding off on the (staff) expansion, as we currently have plenty of open seats to fill for current staff, and all open positions.

What the hell does that mean?
A.  The number of actual bodies remains equal.
B. For each bailout, one sucker is hired?
C. The number of open positions shall remain the same.

Quote: We are also focusing on what we can do to increase our efficiency within our team like new tools.

D. Technobling syndrome. Technology X will always increase efficiency.  Translation. We're sure that technobling will make our current workforce more productive regardless of working conditions. In reality, that's usually false because clients' problems can't be shoehorned into some random technobling solution.

Quote:  Efforts like this will allow us to provide world-class service to our customers going forward."

buzzword bingo anyone? If "this" references technobling and steady state staffing, somebodies blowing smoke up someone else's ass.

Quote:Policy #4) Working with your peers will be evaluated.

Yeah, but peer interaction has to fall because of increased interaction with technobling.  This seems like a no can do item, thus resulting in the probability of negative reviews going to 1.

Quote:Policy #5) Punctuality and attendance will be evaluated.

Waste of words because.
1. Nobody wants to work at your company or if a new hired , the probability of bailing is quite high.
2. The result is what you get where I work. In exchange for no raises in 5 years and my salary is basically minimum wage and even lower than fast food, I have the explicit liberty of showing up whenever the hell I want to and I can wear the *shittiest clothes I want to and nobody can do anything about it.

*I wear shirts with holes because I choose to **opt out of unneeded purchases like descent shirts and I have a ready excuse of low pay to justify it.

**opt out:  A deliberate decision to sabotage the economy by staying out of debt and consuming the least amount possible so as to deprive parasites money like sales taxes, Federal Reserve Ra-Ra about being a consumer. Hoarding $ is frowned upon the establishment, I know that, and it makes me want to do it more. There are also strategic purchases I've made which drive all subsequent demand  down which really screws the system.

Someone is running your company like a fast-food chain, a bad model of management when one has educated professionals. Fast-food chains can get away with a high rate of employee turnover because employees are unspecialized and easily trained. It's not so easy to train an engineer. Do you want to think that anything is any better in accounting or marketing?

One does not get world-class service from people treated like dirt. One at best gets scared, servile staff... that is not consistent with engineers. Add to that, fear brings out the worst in people. It does not promote innovation.  

As Galen puts it, and I rarely agree with him, your company is in a death spiral.

The best that can happen for someone there is that the Reign of Terror ends with the tyrannical boss fired, and those still there have jobs in which the highest order of business is to not step on any toes. That's one way to go into decline.  If you are old enough, you might stick around until retirement -- if you can't get suitable work elsewhere and can't start a business.

[pbrower2a]

Technology cannot rescue a failing enterprise. A competitor will surely use it more effectively and to a greater advantage.

You might want to check my thread on the business life-cycle, start-up to death.

[Ragnarök_62]

(05-25-2016, 11:29 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

Quote: Technology cannot rescue a failing enterprise.  A competitor will surely use it more effectively and to a greater advantage.

I work for a local newspaper publishing company.  That industry like coal is a dying industry.

Quote:You might want to check my thread on the business life-cycle, start-up to death.

Companies within a dying industry [obsoleted period] have a somewhat different death spiral.  I picked the closest of your model.

Quote:As organizations enter Aristocracy they characteristically:

• Are cash rich and have very strong financial statements. >- Are money pits in a known death spiral.  Declining yearly circulation is a dead givaway.
  
• Have reduced expectations for growth. <- Decline is evident but a sense of denial is evident.
  
• Demonstrate little interest in conquering new markets, technologies, and frontiers. Check
  
• Focus on past achievements rather than future visions. Check
  
• Are suspicious of change. Check
  
• Reward those who do what they are told to do and punish those who do not. Check
  
• Are interested in reducing their risks. Check
  
• Invest much more on control systems, benefits, and facilities than they do on R & D.<- Lack of funds forbids simple maintenance of plant and equipment.  Eg.  Where I work, the ceiling has multiple water leaks, the press breaks down, and the insert machine doesn't get maintained because the present employees have not been trained by the manufacturer.
  
• Form dominates function in the organizational climate. More emphasis is placed on how things are done, than what was done. Check
  
• Value uniformity, consistency and formality in dress, decorum, and behavior. <- A culture of indifference takes hold. Since things are literally falling apart and the circulation jobs are just interchangeable minimum wage jobs, then if the place goes under, no big deal.  There's always some other minimum wage gig. The front office folks have a big problem. They'll lose benefits like health care/ 401k.
  
• Employ individuals who are concerned about the company's vitality, but are willing to abide by a "don't make waves" operating motto. <-  The front office folks probably fit this.
  

• Engender only negligible innovation with internal efforts. <- Yes, rolodexes instead of spreadsheets????? That and an accumulation of cruft in paper form. There is no database for ad sales, subscriptions,etc. Information is filed like the 1970's in paper form in boxes.
  
• Acquire other products or companies for new products, markets, and entrepreneurship to feed into their distribution channels and operating systems. <- It goes the other way. My company sold off it's wireless internet dept. and a radio station.
  
• May be takeover targets themselves. <- With today's loony investment environment, you never know. I guess the subscription list which is in a database is worth something. Another idea would be if an electronic paper with the ads could be just be free happened. Just scan the circulars, have some jock reporter scan court records and catch up on town gossip and you're pretty much there with way less overhead.
  

[Bad Dog]

The company provides networking, broadband, and IT support for businesses that are not large enough to have an enterprise IT department, or those who do not wish to have an IT department (to have someone to fire).

The amazing thing is that it not an overseas firm.

It started in Louisiana, and carries on those grand old traditional values.

The floors are vacuumed every four hours.

The trash cans are emptied every four hours.

Office supplies must be paid for in your own blood (no kleenex for weeks, etc).

Dog and pony shows for clients are led through our war room, so no IT person can wear tennis shoes, etc. No petting of the dogs or ponies is allowed. No personal items of any kind are allowed in cubicles.

The CEO is an early Boom salesman. Top line revenue is valued.

Anyone fired is immediately shamed by having an email sent to all employees, with photo, stating said person is no longer with the company, and is not allowed in the building.

Anybody getting a picture of how corporate thinks?

[Odin]

(05-26-2016, 02:22 PM)Bad Dog Wrote: The company provides networking, broadband, and IT support for businesses that are not large enough to have an enterprise IT department, or those who do not wish to have an IT department (to have someone to fire).

The amazing thing is that it not an overseas firm.

It started in Louisiana, and carries on those grand old traditional values.

The floors are vacuumed every four hours.

The trash cans are emptied every four hours.

Office supplies must be paid for in your own blood (no kleenex for weeks, etc).

Dog and pony shows for clients are led through our war room, so no IT person can wear tennis shoes, etc. No petting of the dogs or ponies is allowed. No personal items of any kind are allowed in cubicles.

The CEO is an early Boom salesman. Top line revenue is valued.

Anyone fired is immediately shamed by having an email sent to all employees, with photo, stating said person is no longer with the company, and is not allowed in the building.

Anybody getting a picture of how corporate thinks?

Get out of there ASAP, that kind of workplace will destroy your soul.

[pbrower2a]

(05-26-2016, 02:22 PM)Bad Dog Wrote:

Quote:The company provides networking, broadband, and IT support for businesses that are not large enough to have an enterprise IT department, or those who do not wish to have an IT department (to have someone to fire).

The amazing thing is that it not an overseas firm.

It started in Louisiana, and carries on those grand old traditional values.

They would probably get their 'help" this way if they could still get away with it:

Quote:The floors are vacuumed every four hours.

The trash cans are emptied every four hours.

Someone has a fetish about cleanliness.

Quote:Office supplies must be paid for in your own blood (no kleenex for weeks, etc).

And not for your comfort!

Quote:Dog and pony shows for clients are led through our war room, so no IT person can wear tennis shoes, etc. No petting of the dogs or ponies is allowed. No personal items of any kind are allowed in cubicles.

No laxity toward even the most benign of temptations.

Quote:The CEO is an early Boom salesman. Top line revenue is valued.

Sell it, but keep costs low!

Quote:Anyone fired is immediately shamed by having an email sent to all employees, with photo, stating said person is no longer with the company, and is not allowed in the building.

Nothing but fear.

Quote:Anybody getting a picture of how corporate thinks?

We are the greatest thing that ever happened to our livestock -- excuse me, our employees.

[Ragnarök_62]

Bad Dog Wrote:The company provides networking, broadband, and IT support for businesses that are not large enough to have an enterprise IT department, or those who do not wish to have an IT department (to have someone to fire).

That rules out an outfit that is a member of an industry that's in terminal decline.  Sears and J C Penney are prime examples of zombiefied outfits which are:

1. Members of a dying industry.
2. Are playthings amongst  hedge funds.
3. Hedge funds are the vector which delivers money from suckers to these zombie companies. The hedge funds then fob off shares of said hedge funds to suckers while collecting fees.

Quote:The amazing thing is that it not an overseas firm.

I agree. I'd reckon that some $.50/hr Chinese livestock could do the jobs at your joint.

Quote:It started in Louisiana, and carries on those grand old traditional values.

You mean you get off on Christmas and Thanksgiving since those are Qod's holidaze?

Quote:The floors are vacuumed every four hours.

That's to keep up appearances. Clean floors aren't an indicator of success.

Quote:The trash cans are emptied every four hours.

Well, now, I'd like to be a janitor at your company. The more often trash cans are emptied, means a lighter overall work load.

Quote:Office supplies must be paid for in your own blood (no kleenex for weeks, etc).

Use the monitor as a wiping place for snot.

Quote:Dog and pony shows for clients are led through our war room, so no IT person can wear tennis shoes, etc. No petting of the dogs or ponies is allowed. No personal items of any kind are allowed in cubicles.

Bare cubicles are the default then?

Quote:The CEO is an early Boom salesman. Top line revenue is valued.

How about bottom line revenue.  Profit = Top line revenue - ( costs + taxes)

Quote:Anyone fired is immediately shamed by having an email sent to all employees, with photo, stating said person is no longer with the company, and is not allowed in the building.

Is this even legal?

Quote:Anybody getting a picture of how corporate thinks?

Hopefully, you're just there for a gig like arrangement. I'm pretty sure both of our employers will be history before our respective SS edibility time.  Here's newsflash. I got a letter from axa.com and apparently my company has a 401K
plan and profit sharing.  I got extremely irate when our accounting person started blowing smoke up my ass about this finding. So, I called the plan's investment firm, which is aforementioned http://www.axa.com after our accountling lady said there's no such thing and never heard of axa.com.  I truly hate being lied to. Some other employees said, yes, such an animal exists as well. I wonder what I can due if I get denied plan entry?