My first experience of corporate job life was shocking. I expected to be harvested for whatever sad amount of value could be gleaned from my labor, but I did not expect an emotional freak show. That's what it was, however. The neurotic miasma was fetid, dank, palpable. The place was a sweatshop for vampiric jockeying and resentment. Stool pigeons exchanged snide barbs with Stakhanovites. Passive aggressive people "accidentally" obstructed each other. Each little boss had a bigger boss that upon him fed. The senior management scored arcane points and forced rivals out in what amounted to a pecking party. The social costs were (are) so high that no value was produced at all. Although the place did make a stab at putting profits on paper.
It eventually occurred to me that profit was secondary to the corporate purpose. They're closer to mini-states in function; vehicles for power. A CEO can be utterly worthless in performing ostensible duties and still be able to count on another berth, or at the very least a set of compensatory sinecures. The sense of grandiose victimhood they evince when they tank an outfit is completely sincere. They've been wronged!
Comments (6)
Al Said:
"A CEO can be utterly worthless in performing ostensible duties and still be able to count on another berth, or at the very least a set of compensatory sinecures. The sense of grandiose victimhood they evince when they tank an outfit is completely sincere. They've been wronged!"
They're like made men in the mafia... Once an insider always an insider.
Posted by Drunk Pundit | July 7, 2011 2:43 PM
Posted on July 7, 2011 14:43
ceo's usually know enough to have leverage
Posted by op | July 7, 2011 2:51 PM
Posted on July 7, 2011 14:51
Al you nailed it. I'm still trapped in that corp world and it mirrors a state in more ways than you may realize, even class stratification: http://www.andrewnormanwilson.com/portfolios/70411-workers-leaving-the-googleplex.
I'm not a googler but a consultant for another tech behemoth slouching towards bethlehem. Its the same there as well, color coded classes of workers each with different sets of rights. Anyone who is not a regular employee is looked down on with much derision. And talk about an emotional cesspool... I have never met so many broken, greedy, delusional people. Or as Burroughs would say, "stupid, vulgar, greedy, ugly american death suckers".
Posted by dr-gonzo | July 7, 2011 5:39 PM
Posted on July 7, 2011 17:39
I think you've hit on an important point, Al. I think that far too often we assume that when someone says something that seems so utterly ridiculous on the face of it that the person speaking the words must be speaking facetiously. I think, though, that most people, including and maybe especially those in power, are speaking honestly.
Posted by Paul Alexander | July 7, 2011 5:50 PM
Posted on July 7, 2011 17:50
It's been years, but I did once believe that the "broken, greedy, delusional people" couldn't possibly mean what they say. It seemed a shallow and cynical conclusion; no one could possibly be so utterly, hopelessly full of shit. But the color coders and the control freaks are sincere. They replicate their little hells for comfort wherever they can. Each replication functions as junk to a junkie.
It's good to see Burroughs cited on this.
Posted by Al Schumann | July 8, 2011 8:53 AM
Posted on July 8, 2011 08:53
But But Free Enterprise! America! How dare you disdain the corporate world so!
LOL.
God...I love you Mr. Schumann!
Posted by Brian M | July 11, 2011 3:27 PM
Posted on July 11, 2011 15:27