Lately, for some reason, I've been increasingly noticing the disconnect between a company’s rhetoric and reality. Perhaps, over the course of 9 years in the IT industry, I’ve become more attuned to filtering out the hype and bullshit.
Many companies make bold claims of looking for skilled, motivated, innovative, blah, blah, insert adjective here, blah, blah initiative takers. But in reality this translates to ‘We want to hire someone who is an expert in their field and then force them to work in our ill conceived, corporately sycophantic and generally substandard manner and will fire.. sorry, ‘offboard’ anyone who dares to state anything that resembles the objective truth.’
Congratulations! A startlingly large majority of the adult world has failed to grasp the simple moral lesson of a children's story.
Join the meetings, go through the motions, unmute yourself to say “Nothing from my side”. Perform the bare minimum to retain the status of employment and get that much needed income. Drudge endlessly through the incorporated shit of mediocrity, bureaucracy and incompetence. Not a thought for quality or even functionality. Good examples of this are the British Post Office scandal involving the Horizon IT system, the cascade of failures that has beset Boeing or the OceanGate sub implosion.
The common denominator in all cases. Leadership ignoring problems and focusing on their narrow business case and actively preventing employees from speaking up about genuine issues. Fostering a culture of dictatorship that suppresses any dissent, disengaging from any constructive criticism. At least killing creativity and innovation, at worst people.
A new breed of corporate culture has engulfed our era. One that reduces employees to corporate cannon fodder to be used on a whim, disposable and replaceable. Generally, but not always, the motivation from the company's leadership is monetary, specifically cheaper production costs and therefore higher profit. It’s undeniably that this approach works for board members and investors, but most likely at the cost of the employees and/or customers.
This is short term gratification thinking, which is why when a company as prestigious as Boeing goes down this path, it’s very concerning.
The moral of the folktale, The Emperor’s New Clothes is that it takes courage to state truth to power. Even if that truth is ridiculously obvious. Sounds cliché and virtue signalling to the extreme, but unfortunately it is true.
It is ostensibly becoming increasingly obvious that principles and morality are too expensive for contemporary capitalism, especially in companies that put profits ahead of people. Predictably, the situation is unlikely to improve, unless individuals and employees start to tell the Emperor they’re naked.
