“These are jobs that really are of no value, economically or socially, but are well rewarded and regarded in Corporate Life”
You could argue my previous job as an analyst was a bullshit job but at least I created those reports and did that analysis, the true bullshit jobs were those of my bosses, requesting the reports, very concerned about what shade of blue we used on that graph but never actually making decisions based on what the analysis told them
Like ignoring my screaming 5 alarm fire messages about how pissed our customers were getting as we bent over backwards to accommodate vendors, pissed at me and my boss to the point they got rid of her and I talked my way into a (pleasantly lucrative) redundancy…. Well given 6 months later they got a $10 million fine for ignoring those warnings you’d think they wished they listened, but I guarantee the people who ignored the warnings will happily take home their unearned huge salaries and ‘painful cuts’ will fall on the people who were not responsible
After a lifetime of being in jobs where I actually did things. Some useful, some arguably not (I know people weren’t reading some of those reports and they sure weren’t acting on them) I have recently started a job in management and the number of times I realise ‘oh it’s just easier if I do this’ is insane
Instead of meetings to arrange delegation of work and teaching my staff how to do it it’s just easier for me to do it and it’s reinforced for me how right I was when I used to get frustrated at bosses using a calendar full of meetings to show how busy they were…. A meeting is not an accomplishment!!! A meeting is a thing you begrudgingly tolerate as they can sometimes be useful in arranging actual useful work but the meeting itself is not ‘doing something’ however we have an ever expanding army of middle management (that I have now joined) who justify their existence by arranging ever more meetings
That IS what a lot of middle managers do. They have meetings. And do email. In truth, meetings can be addictive and are a fairly easy cognitive load (as long as you are fairly sociable and extrovert). Why do hard thinking when you can just chat all day and appear really busy?
Few meetings are useful and fewer are essential. 121s with your team tick both those boxes though. Relationship building is very important but people are too busy going to all these meetings to do any of it.
“These are jobs that really are of no value, economically or socially, but are well rewarded and regarded in Corporate Life”
You could argue my previous job as an analyst was a bullshit job but at least I created those reports and did that analysis, the true bullshit jobs were those of my bosses, requesting the reports, very concerned about what shade of blue we used on that graph but never actually making decisions based on what the analysis told them
Like ignoring my screaming 5 alarm fire messages about how pissed our customers were getting as we bent over backwards to accommodate vendors, pissed at me and my boss to the point they got rid of her and I talked my way into a (pleasantly lucrative) redundancy…. Well given 6 months later they got a $10 million fine for ignoring those warnings you’d think they wished they listened, but I guarantee the people who ignored the warnings will happily take home their unearned huge salaries and ‘painful cuts’ will fall on the people who were not responsible
What a sorry tale but not uncommon. Those at the top are rarely held to account for their failings.
After a lifetime of being in jobs where I actually did things. Some useful, some arguably not (I know people weren’t reading some of those reports and they sure weren’t acting on them) I have recently started a job in management and the number of times I realise ‘oh it’s just easier if I do this’ is insane
Instead of meetings to arrange delegation of work and teaching my staff how to do it it’s just easier for me to do it and it’s reinforced for me how right I was when I used to get frustrated at bosses using a calendar full of meetings to show how busy they were…. A meeting is not an accomplishment!!! A meeting is a thing you begrudgingly tolerate as they can sometimes be useful in arranging actual useful work but the meeting itself is not ‘doing something’ however we have an ever expanding army of middle management (that I have now joined) who justify their existence by arranging ever more meetings
It’s infuriating
That IS what a lot of middle managers do. They have meetings. And do email. In truth, meetings can be addictive and are a fairly easy cognitive load (as long as you are fairly sociable and extrovert). Why do hard thinking when you can just chat all day and appear really busy?
Few meetings are useful and fewer are essential. 121s with your team tick both those boxes though. Relationship building is very important but people are too busy going to all these meetings to do any of it.