Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[Cleargleam]

High-Muckity might have been going for a tight flux production, hoping to only have Widgets stay the bare minimum in storage but the way they did it sounds stupid, especially if widget A can only go to Company A and if new Company X can't even profit from them...

Now I have a picture in my head of High Muckity Muck doing some sort of sales pitch. "Widgets! We have your Widgets! Won't you order some widgets - ready for immediate delivery."

Meanwhile, Company A rep is looking at the pitch, murmuring to his boss, "How do we tell him we changed the specs and need half as many widgets, but need them *blue* instead of *green*?? And that we need a prong coming out of one face?"

[LEMon]

High-Muckity might have been going for a tight flux production, hoping to only have Widgets stay the bare minimum in storage but the way they did it sounds stupid, especially if widget A can only go to Company A and if new Company X can't even profit from them...

Now I have a picture in my head of High Muckity Muck doing some sort of sales pitch. "Widgets! We have your Widgets! Won't you order some widgets - ready for immediate delivery."

Meanwhile, Company A rep is looking at the pitch, murmuring to his boss, "How do we tell him we changed the specs and need half as many widgets, but need them *blue* instead of *green*?? And that we need a prong coming out of one face?"

My guess is it runs more:
Company A rep gets a strange look on his face.  "Oh, here are our specs for this year.  This is what we need.  When can we expect shipment?"  With the thought running through his mind, 'needs change, product change, what makes you think we need that widget?'

[LEMon]

My thought on New Boss who is killing morale is that the PD is the company, not necessarily the person.  RIP one division in short order.

[VorFemme]

High-Muckity might have been going for a tight flux production, hoping to only have Widgets stay the bare minimum in storage but the way they did it sounds stupid, especially if widget A can only go to Company A and if new Company X can't even profit from them...

Now I have a picture in my head of High Muckity Muck doing some sort of sales pitch. "Widgets! We have your Widgets! Won't you order some widgets - ready for immediate delivery."

Meanwhile, Company A rep is looking at the pitch, murmuring to his boss, "How do we tell him we changed the specs and need half as many widgets, but need them *blue* instead of *green*?? And that we need a prong coming out of one face?"

Ah - let's not make any widgets with that additional feature - as Evil & Snarky are not able to keep their faces straight at the moment (they are in the other room giggling like evil minded twelve year olds - which is probably an accurate assessment of their mental development, btw).

I'd suggest that the widgets need to be swirled green and blue on one face and solid purple on the other....or something not so likely to cause the evil minded to snigger like drunk hyenas.

[magician5]

Well, yesterday an e-mail went out from the Highest-Muckity-Muck to all the workers. Apparently, since the change, the company has lost over half a million dollars. In three months.

Once again, can't say I'm an expert. Maybe that's the real way you run the widget industry. Maybe it's not his fault. But...

If this company is doing business like the real giants of industry, the boss deserves a multi-million-dollar bonus - more if he completely steers the company to bankruptcy.

[WolfWay]

We have been told (and I'm only slightly paraphrasing here) "morale is low so you all need to cheer up! Oh and work harder, because upper management all think youre incompetant at your jobs.".

"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

We recently got whiteboards at work. That was the first thing I wrote on mine. Shortly thereafter we got an email saying that the whiteboards were only for work related information. I tried arguing that the slogan was work related information. No luck.

[zyrs]

I'm not really knowledgeable in this sorta stuff, so maybe I'm wrong, but I'm thinking somebody in trouble here.

My mom's company builds widgets. Basically, you order a widget, they build the widgets, they ship the widgets, in that order. This format has served the company well for a good long time. It works. Everything was going well. They were headed for a nice yearly profit.

About three months ago the company hired a new High-Muckity-Muck, who decided to change how they do things. Essentially, instead of waiting for Company A to order Widget A, then building it and sending it to them, now they're building Widget A in the hopes that Company A will order them because they did last year. So now, they're rebuilding all of last year's orders in the hopes of having them repeated this year.

Well, yesterday an e-mail went out from the Highest-Muckity-Muck to all the workers. Apparently, since the change, the company has lost over half a million dollars. In three months.

Once again, can't say I'm an expert. Maybe that's the real way you run the widget industry. Maybe it's not his fault. But...

I worked for a company that did a lot of stuff like this...  They don't exist anymore.

[LadyJaneinMD]

We have been told (and I'm only slightly paraphrasing here) "morale is low so you all need to cheer up! Oh and work harder, because upper management all think youre incompetant at your jobs.".

"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

I had a job like that once.  I should have taken heed when I found out that the department had had 100% turnover in the last year.  I *really* should have listened when one of the guys who interviewed me, when escorting me out of the building, said, 'You really don't want to work here. This is a horrible place to work.'   But I was young and stupid and took the job anyway.   I lasted 3 years, and had to leave the state to get another job, but it all turned out good.  If I'm ever in a managerial position, I know exactly what *not* to do.

[AfleetAlex]

I'm not sure why, but when somebody talks about 'widgets' I always picture those small freebie window scrapers that sometimes get handed out at business expos here in the Midwest. 

[Hillia]

We have been told (and I'm only slightly paraphrasing here) "morale is low so you all need to cheer up! Oh and work harder, because upper management all think youre incompetant at your jobs.".

"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

 I worked for a company once with high turonver, terrible morale, etc.  They got an outside company to come in and administer one of those 'be completely honest, it's all anonymous' surveys.  And then we all got called in to a group meeting and were told by the owner that if we hated it that much, we were all free to leave because we could be replaced within 24 hours, and if we all didn't improve our attitude, he would start firing people in batches of 10 and replacing them until he had a happy G*d* workplace.

[Madam Pansy]

My mom works in the cafeteria of my university. She is also now a supervisor/cashier/Jill of all trades. There was an employee that will be called "Red". Red had been shirking her duties and being a brat at times, and as such was on final warning.

Yesterday she asked to go back to her dorm to grab something for "feminine issues" and never came back. When mom texted me at her dinner break, Red had already been gone for over 2 hours. She also said that everyone was just hoping that she had quit.

Great way to start your work history Red...

[PeterM]

I worked for a company once with high turonver, terrible morale, etc.  They got an outside company to come in and administer one of those 'be completely honest, it's all anonymous' surveys.  And then we all got called in to a group meeting and were told by the owner that if we hated it that much, we were all free to leave because we could be replaced within 24 hours, and if we all didn't improve our attitude, he would start firing people in batches of 10 and replacing them until he had a happy G*d* workplace.

Friend of mine worked for a company that was much better than the ones being discussed here, at least in most ways. They even offered to cover the cost of sessions with a psychologist they had on retainer. So my friend went to the shrink and talked out some problems she was having at work. Nothing huge, but it helped to discuss it.

Then, of course, her supervisor started commenting and acting on information that she could only have received from the psychologist. And not just in theoretically good ways, but subtly criticizing my friend. My friend kept seeing the shrink, but only as a means of disinformation - "Oh, I'm working so hard" or "I'm putting in so much unpaid overtime," and various other things that might not have been entirely true but would only affect her job if the psychologist was massively unethical. Which it turned out she was, continuously. But hey, friend's boss loved her.

[alkira6]

Friend of mine worked for a company that was much better than the ones being discussed here, at least in most ways. They even offered to cover the cost of sessions with a psychologist they had on retainer. So my friend went to the shrink and talked out some problems she was having at work. Nothing huge, but it helped to discuss it.

Then, of course, her supervisor started commenting and acting on information that she could only have received from the psychologist. And not just in theoretically good ways, but subtly criticizing my friend. My friend kept seeing the shrink, but only as a means of disinformation - "Oh, I'm working so hard" or "I'm putting in so much unpaid overtime," and various other things that might not have been entirely true but would only affect her job if the psychologist was massively unethical. Which it turned out she was, continuously. But hey, friend's boss loved her.

   This sounds like a prime person to report to the The American Psychological Association's (APA) for ethical violations - patient confidentiality is a must!

[jedikaiti]

I worked for a company once with high turonver, terrible morale, etc.  They got an outside company to come in and administer one of those 'be completely honest, it's all anonymous' surveys.  And then we all got called in to a group meeting and were told by the owner that if we hated it that much, we were all free to leave because we could be replaced within 24 hours, and if we all didn't improve our attitude, he would start firing people in batches of 10 and replacing them until he had a happy G*d* workplace.

Friend of mine worked for a company that was much better than the ones being discussed here, at least in most ways. They even offered to cover the cost of sessions with a psychologist they had on retainer. So my friend went to the shrink and talked out some problems she was having at work. Nothing huge, but it helped to discuss it.

Then, of course, her supervisor started commenting and acting on information that she could only have received from the psychologist. And not just in theoretically good ways, but subtly criticizing my friend. My friend kept seeing the shrink, but only as a means of disinformation - "Oh, I'm working so hard" or "I'm putting in so much unpaid overtime," and various other things that might not have been entirely true but would only affect her job if the psychologist was massively unethical. Which it turned out she was, continuously. But hey, friend's boss loved her.

And I think we know WHY the company kept a mental health pro on retainer. And mega-POD to the reporting. Even pre-HIPPA, that was a big no-no, at least in the US. YMMV, standard disclaimer here.

I do, however, love the misinformation twist - that is BRILLIANT!

[BB-VA]

We have been told (and I'm only slightly paraphrasing here) "morale is low so you all need to cheer up! Oh and work harder, because upper management all think youre incompetant at your jobs.".

"The beatings will continue until morale improves."

 I worked for a company once with high turonver, terrible morale, etc.  They got an outside company to come in and administer one of those 'be completely honest, it's all anonymous' surveys.  And then we all got called in to a group meeting and were told by the owner that if we hated it that much, we were all free to leave because we could be replaced within 24 hours, and if we all didn't improve our attitude, he would start firing people in batches of 10 and replacing them until he had a happy G*d* workplace.

My husband worked for a company that did one of those "anonymous" surveys.  He was a little behind in turning his in, and HR contacted him and asked him what was taking so long.

He kinda doubted the anonymity after that.