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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  1199 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How to confront someone for potato theft?

    3) Clamping down on the minor breakage that is a part of any organization will cause more breakage.

Great line. I think this is a point that is virtually lost on all upper level managers. When I first started at my last job, they used to have parties with an open bar twice per year, and they used to give you your birthday as an extra holiday (which you could use another time if you want). They used the financial crisis (from which they didn't really suffer very badly) as an excuse to cut every small perk that cost them money. The net result that I can say anecdotally is that everyone basically said, fuck this place if they think I'm a line item on a spreadsheet, and we were all the worse off for it. Clearly government also suffers from that same thinking on all sides of the spectrum.





kleinbl00  ·  1199 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Foreign policy is determined by elected officials on a four-year window and carried out by career spooks practicing a career. "Look I beat the Soviets" gets Charlie Wilson a Congressional Gold Medal. "Look you're sowing dragon's teeth" falls to Benezir Bhutto.

Management is determined by power-hungry appointees eager to Pareto Principle their way past their competence and carried out by employees who just want to trade their lives for a paycheck.

"Look I decreased our revenue burn by 0.16%" is easy to put on a powerpoint. "Look he made our jobs suck now" is not.