Dave Mundy
Why can’t the rest of the world realise that the workers create the wealth of the country and the politicians ruin it! George Osborne is getting £50000+ per speech and his failed boss Cameron likewise, are they giving it to charity? Certainly not! What we need is a revolution when one of us can become ruler!
Roger Bunce
We don’t need one of us to be come ruler. We need ALL of us to become ruler. Of course, we’d spend so much time bickering amongst ourselves that nothing would get done – but maybe that’d be a good thing. If the rulers do nothing, while those who know what they are doing just get on with it, the world might function a lot better!
I feel less resentment towards politicians than I do towards MANAGEMENT. (What makes you think I worked for the BBC?) Idiots like Osborne, Cameron and Trump wouldn’t exist unless idiots amongst the general public voted for them. So, they’re our own fault. No one voted for the CEOs of major multi-national companies, yet they now have far greater power than any elected national politician. (Why does Rupert Murdoch spring to mind at this point?)
There seem to be two way of gaining an income, in this world –
1: By doing work
2: By sitting in meetings
The convention in this country seems to be that those who sit in meetings are paid more than those who do useful work. Why?
It can’t have anything to do with market forces. The laws of supply and demand would mean that those whose skills are in short supply would receive the greater reward. We currently have major shortages of Doctors, Nurses, Midwives, Teachers, Policemen, Prison Officers, etc. Yet no one is suggesting upping their salary. We have no shortage of people who want to sit in meetings, paying themselves large sums; management colleges are churning out thousands of the parasites, yet no one is trying to cut their salaries/bonuses/performance awards/etc.
Isn’t this all the wrong way around?
Time we started paying a reasonable wage to those who do useful work, and, if people want to sit in meetings, they should do so at their own expense!
Hugh Sheppard
Alternatively Roger, we pay people more for doing disagreeable work and less for work that may well be more enjoyable. That’s what I found looking back on my BBC roles, from cameraman – which I so enjoyed – to being a General Manager which had more perks, but offered far fewer satisfactions.
Peter Neill
I’m sure my friend Jason Hazeley won’t mind me attaching this spread from his book (with Joel Morris):
“How it Works – The Meeting”
(available from all good booksellers)
(Click on the picture below to see a larger or clearer version of this picture:
Click the “X” button (top right) to close the newly opened picture.)
Pat Heigham
Struck by the resemblance of one of the figures, I couldn’t resist another scenario!
(Click on the picture below to see a larger or clearer version of this picture:
Click the “X” button (top right) to close the newly opened picture.)
Nick Way
… I bought “The Mum” by the same author for my wife for Christmas. Great to read Ladybird Books again after all these years.
Roger Bunce
Then there’s the old original. (American c. 1990)
(Click on the picture below to see a larger or clearer version of this picture:
Click the “X” button (top right) to close the newly opened picture.)
There was also an episode of the Dilbert comic strip, in which a meeting was called to discuss the fact that no one was getting any work done, because they were all spending too much time in meetings!
Nick Way
…. we always said at Telly Centre the management meeting was to decide when to hold the next meeting.
Warwick Cross
Along the same lines, for those of you that have not come across it, I attach the playing card for Bullshit Bingo – as endorsed by Greg Dyke when he was BBC DG!
See it in full here:
BullShit Bingo
Roger Bunce
The reference to ‘360 Degree Feedback’ reminds me of the abortive attempt to introduce ‘360 Degree Appraisal’ into our department.
I remember explaining, very patiently, to our Personnel Manager that she had done her sums wrong. My-Manager-appraising-Me followed by Me-apprasing-my-Manager was NOT 360 Degrees; it was only 180 Degrees – two opposite directions on a straight line. If my Manager appraised me, then turned 360 Degrees, he would have gone in a complete circle and end up appraising me again! But she didn’t understand – a nice lady but not capable of simple geometry. The rest of the management team, with their engineering backgrounds were keeping very quiet at this point.
The underlying agenda was pretty transparent. Managers would be happy to say rude things about the Staff, but Staff wouldn’t dare say rude things about their Managers! So, the Managers would be able to give themselves lots of extra bonuses, for being so well regarded. Unfortunately, people like Cameramen tend to regard factual accuracy as more important that toadying. We started appraising our Managers with clinical precision. Our Managers soon decided that they didn’t really want to hear what the Staff thought about them, and the whole silly scheme was quietly abandoned.
Peter Hider
Back in the mists of time, Harold Anstey had an office on the 6th floor of TVC. He reached a landmark number of years service and went off on “Grace Leave”. When he returned, he walked round to his office only to find a different name on the door. Thinking that he’d been moved to a different office, he completed a circumnavigation of the doughnut. As he couldn’t find a new office he went to his HOD who blushed with embarrassment and said, “Didn’t you get the letter we sent you telling you that you are redundant?”
Great treatment of a colleague after 25 years. It’s not recorded what Harold’s reaction was.
