50 Pieces of Gold.....

DISCLAIMER: This writing, in no way at all, has anything to do with religion. The title may be misleading in that fact, but if you know religion, you'd know it was 30 pieces of silver. Moving on....

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This episode of "The Written Word at It's Lowest Point" is for all you poor saps who work in a corporate setting. I am one of you. And like the majority of you, I don't enjoy it either. I do have a question for you all, and I will get to that shortly. But first, lets do a quick run down on corporate life for those people who may not be in our group, but for some reason are still following along.

The corporate world on a location basis is sort of comprised of 5 groups:

1. Employees: They do it.

2. Supervisors: They guide the people who do it.

3. Managers: They make sure it gets done.

4. Process managers/engineers: They want to find a way to get it done faster and cheaper.

5. The Boss: Can't understand why nothing is getting done.

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Now, when something is actually done right; something that even the people in the handwoven suits that sit on high think is magnificent, credit for it flows in a much altered way. Something like this....

5. Employees: "Hey, we did it!"

4. Supervisors: "We gave them the proper instruction."

3. Managers: "I made sure it was done, and done right."

2. Process dudes: "We figured out how to make it work."

1. The Boss: "I inspired them all with my speeches of how we need to work together."

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Actually, all credit should go to the people who really did it. If I designed and built a metal monument that put the Eiffel Tower to shame, should the dude who taught me to weld deserve credit? No. And as many people in the corporate world know: to do a job right, you listen to all instructions your boss gives you, then do it the right way instead. I feel that leaders should be chosen from within, people who know the work. People who can do it right. Not people who sat behind a desk in school and were told a few good ideas on how it might be done.

The question I wanted to ask is this: If you follow your orders to the letter, and it has a negative effect, who takes the blame? Or, if you screw up, do you accept it and own up to it? Or do you pass it off to someone else? I'd really like to know the answers, so please leave them in the comments.

Here, of course is my obligatory rant on something or other:

Businesses fail left and right because of over-management. Or to put it in an extremely non-PC sense: Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians. Yet, when it all fails, the blame falls squarely on the one little person who was only doing what they were told to do. Which is what the title refers to....

50 pieces of gold can shine brighter than the sun underneath a steaming cow-pie. But all anyone is going to see... is the pile of shit.

I'm done.

Goodnight/Good Morning

Go Away.

-B-

"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." -- Ozzy Osbourne