BANGUS ONLINE - PORT ALBEIRN, ON— It’s become an all-too familiar refrain from A large part of today’s workforce. “My boss is an asshole!” With trends towards backroom deals, closed boardrooms and enough skullduggery to choke a hog, there is little motivation for a solid work ethic or putting in an honest days work for an honest days pay. Does that extra effort go unrewarded? What are today’s realities when it comes to job advancement. The unofficial word on the street is that, simply stated, the working stiff is overworked, desperate and unappreciated.
According to Sarah Mullins, a sociologist from Westmeath who has self-published numerous books and ghostwritten a scathing unauthorized biography on Ontario Hydro: “A man’s worth is now measured by how brown his nose is. The browner it is the more doors of opportunity are magically opened. You want that promotion? Quit crunching numbers. Get down on all fours and smooch. And obviously that goes for the ladies as well. This is not drawn along the lines of gender. What was once considered a sour grapes type of cynicism has now become much more of a systematic reality.”
Mullins further explains: “Now, of course the inherent danger of painting such a bleak picture with such a broad stroke is the possibility of creating an accurate assessment. I agree and usually refrain from making such sweeping statements; but from the people I’ve spoken with as part of the research I’m doing for my new book, this is the new reality. And it’s not just a corporate climate. It can include any workplace where the wrong people are promoted into positions of management for all the wrong reasons. Cronyism. Nepotism. It’s not just confined to
But how great is this ‘great divide’? How wide is the chasm between those who say “jump” and those that say “how high?”
Some common grievances:
· Bosses being out of touch with the realities of the workforce.
· Bosses with unreasonable expectations.
· An unrealistic emphasis on healthy fiscal bottom lines while choosing to ignore the human toll it
· extracts.
· Gross depersonalization perceived by staff.
· Those promoted to positions of authority have little practical knowledge or basic communication skills.
· Inability of management to empathize with their staff.
· A perceived indifference by the boss to the issues that keep the employee mentally battered and emotionally comatose.
· A thinly veiled contempt towards those who question the status quo.
Mullins: “The danger lies in the collateral damage caused by such daily emotional, spiritual and psychological devolution. It is not just a matter of “what goes on at work stays at work”. That is now just an abstract notion; a clichéd catch phrase.
AN OBJECTIVE SELF-PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Matt Gracie, a self-employed trampoline manufacturer complains that since he promoted himself to CEO of his firm he has become a “myopic tyrant” who demands more out of himself than he himself would be willing to put out as a worker. Simply stated, Gracie states: “My boss is an asshole”. He has no idea how to run an organization. He has no people skills and spends more time delegating. He fell ass backwards into his job. His ideas are half-backed and if there are any true good ideas, he’ll claim them as his own. He’s got shiny black shoes. He expects his staff to give 110% of themselves but scoffs at employee sick days. He treats his staff like those Vin Diesel cardboard cut outs you see at all the Blockbuster stores. But what the hell can you do? I can’t simply pack up the Chevy with the kids and move to another city and get behind the wheel of another job because no matter where you end up it seems like whoever is driving the bus is a clueless schmuck.”
Gracie pauses to light a cigarette: “Now for many, working an 84 hour work week and an added eighth day every third week is a reality. The cream of the crop now lingers at the bottom of the work pool while the nasty hellbroth of tyranny rises to be scooped into a large, oval oak pressboard desk,” complains Gracie from behind his large, oval pressboard desk.
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