The Drone Ranger

WoW,
I can sure identify with this guy. I have seen too much of this crap in business management over my 30+ years. Management buys into the HR program "flavor of the week" that some "kid" consultant created from a book he just read from some University professor who lives in an Ivory Tower and has never worked a day in this life in the "real world."

It is indeed sad that upper management believe that forcing the group to do "team building' will make them an interactive unit with high spirits and unending loyalty to the company. What is really creates for those that have a brain in their head, is resentment, hostility, and disloyality.

I got off the corporate ladder some years ago when I finally had my fill of this crap. Management was mystified at my choice to forego the next promotion because of my "principles". They did not know how to deal with my independence so they basically created a hostile work environment for me. I "took it" until hit 50 and then gave 2 weeks notice and ERed. The games have gotten worse since I left and those left behind are expected to perform like circus animals for the amusment of management. So much for company loyality.

These kinds of attitudes by upper managment are killing the American worker and consequently American business. Why give that extra mile to your company when they clearly mistreat you emotionally and psychologically. Most people are smart enough to see through the smoke and mirrors of "management programs.
What is really there is the wish to crush free thinking and creativity. If you buy into the program you are rewarded, but then you are expected to be their lacky and informer. You then lose the respect of your cooworkers and of management. That is really the crux of it. If you buy in to management they no longer respect or fear you. You have been assimilated and you are now part of the collective.

I am thankful I am out of that circus. I have pitty on those that are left behind. I now have a job and not a career. My job can end whenever I want it to. I choose to work and I don't have to work. That allows the BS to flow off my back and management knows it. Management actually respects me for my stance and no longer even tries to get me to buy into their programs. They cannot hold my job hostage and they know it. It is a truly liberating feeling.
 
SteveR said:
Management buys into the HR program "flavor of the week" that some "kid" consultant created from a book he just read from some University professor who lives in an Ivory Tower and has never worked a day in this life in the "real world."
Click to expand...

So true. My best friend from HS is the University professor in that Ivory Tower. He chose a career in academia, getting a Phd and becoming the head of the School of Business at a large midwestern university with more than 30,000 students.

He is a good friend and a real party animal, but he's never worked a day in his life in the real business world, aside from a summer job while in college (and I'm not really sure he even did that). He has absolutely no concept of reality when it comes to what it takes to manage people in a work environment.

But he sure does know how to shovel BS write. ;)

REW
 
Thank God I haven't had to experience most of this. Sure, there are Christmas parties and a Summer picnic, but with 2000 employees, nobody is going to know if you were there, so they don't even try. It's my experience that the better a company is doing financially, the less you have to deal with this. You have an off quarter or two, all of a sudden "efficiency consultants" and the like show up. The only time I was laid off was by one of them. They translated me saying "I can handle my workload, no problem!" to mean, "I'm sitting around all day, fire me!" so they did. :p

Oh, and I've never had to wear "flair". :)
 
Lawerence,

The problem is that many MegaCorps. have too much money and too many idle hands in HR. They have nothing better to do than salary surveys and read the latest and greatest Buzzzz on how to build a better employee and then they manage to get it put into upper management's goals and the then it has a life of its own. It is not just the companies with poor sales of performance, it is anybody that has too much time on their hands and goals to make up for a bonus for next year.

Short term thinking for short term rewards. That is one of the things that is killing the average US public company. The Market wants a nice fat profit each quarter with very little emphasis past 12 months. Japan and some other countries look at 5 and 10 years out and put far less emphasis on the short term. Business runs in cycles and a quarter is too short, in my opinion, to get an accurate measurement on where the business is going.
 
Well, now you've vastly increased the scope of this gripe session message thread, but yes, I wholheartedly agree with you.

There is plenty I could complain about, but I am mostly left alone and not forced to do the chicken dance or other crazy things to "raise moral" or "team build" and I am grateful.
 
Why does it have to be like this? I don’t know...

But you need that paycheck. You need those benefits. Your only hope, then, is to live in the moment, keep at it as an animal might, with consciousness tethered securely to the present. Don’t think about pushing that rock back up the mountain, about the brown-nosing yes-men eclipsing you, about the dehumanizing nonsense that presses in on every side, the petty tyrants in upper management using you as a salve for their shabby, wounded egos. Shut all that out. Just keep at it, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, moving cell by cell across that endless spreadsheet.
Click to expand...
Well clearly this guy should ER at the earliest possible moment.

I see a lot of my former working self in this article. Unfortunately the author's chosen to focus on the conflict and the dissension instead of on the work. At some point presumably he found some value to his work and his coworkers that allowed him to forge a team who could communicate & work WITH management instead of against them. Or maybe he just needed to gather material for this article.

Unless he has to write 1500 words on America's loss of workplace standards, these jobs aren't worth keeping. And griping about them, instead of buffing up the resume' and restarting the job search, isn't worth the effort.
 
I'm with Nords on this one and I'll go one further. As I look back on my life, I see that I made my own misery at times. I'm a big believer in what Viktor Frankl advocates, that we have always have one choice and that is our attitude to our situation. As I read this rantove in the link ab, I saw that he tended to blame everything outside of him for those experiences he had. The main way it will change is if he looks at what he really wants, changes his mental outlook and attitude and goes out and finds it. If he needs to mentally disengage, then fine, however, outright confrontation at times may not be the right answer and many times if you are a start performer and you leave, that also sends a message.

Bridget
 
I am always amazed at the # of people who go to work for megacorp or the gov and then spend a career complaining about backstabbing, incompetence and absurd game playing. It's like an art history graduate complaining about the lack of 6 figure job offers. If you hate it then be your own boss (god knows this country is the place to do it).

With my company I have never done a performance review, haven't worn a suit in ages, and the closest thing we have to team building sessions involves sneaking in a couple of six packs on Friday afternoons. ;)
 
TargaDave said:
I am always amazed at the # of people who go to work for megacorp or the gov and then spend a career complaining about backstabbing, incompetence and absurd game playing.  It's like an art history graduate complaining about the lack of 6 figure job offers.  If you hate it then be your own boss (god knows this country is the place to do it). 

With my company I have never done a performance review, haven't worn a suit in ages, and the closest thing we have to team building sessions involves sneaking in a couple of six packs on Friday afternoons. ;)
Click to expand...

I agree 100%.  Instead of complaining about your life, just do something about it to make it better.  If you hate your job, then get another job, or better yet, start your own business.

I only had one of those corporate reviews in my life, so I'm no expert.  But during that review I remember the reviewer telling me about something I had been doing to her dislike for the last 6 months.  Being new to this "review" thing, I said, "Well, why didn't you tell me 6 months ago or any of the 120 business days prior to today, so I could have done my job differently so it would have been done the way you wanted it to be done for 6 months?"  The review said, "Well, that's why we are having a 6 month review."  I remember leaving the "review" room shaking my head and laughing on the inside about how stupid that process was.

Then I remember during the holidays they were handing out year-end bonuses at our final "weekly cluster meeting" of the year, calling each member of our "team" and giving them a check.  I had only been with the company for 4 months at the time, but I was the only one not called and left standing there without a "bonus" check in my hand.  The excuse was that everyone else had completed a full 12 months there.  I was told by some of them that they hadn't received a bonus check either the year before when they had less than 12 months with the company.  I guess you wern't a member of the team unless you gave them at least 12 months of your life. Again, I remember walking out of there thinking how foolish that made the company look.  It wasn't about the money, it was about the gesture.

After a few months with that company, I realized corporate life wasn't for me.  I felt too much like a part of a machine that did parts of things while being told what to do and how to do it.  Plus, I hated the idea that someone thought they were able to give me commands and I had to follow them, or else.  I'm not a good follower, I guess.

When I went off on my own, I flourished.  Yes, at first I worked more hours, but I did it for myself. More hours just translated to more money anyway, and it was a great feeling to be at the top and do things my way.

I feel bad for people who feel like they are "stuck" at a company and feel like their purpose in life is to make their "boss" happy even if they aren't doing something to make themselves happy.
 
TargaDave said:
I am always amazed at the # of people who go to work for megacorp or the gov and then spend a career complaining about backstabbing, incompetence and absurd game playing.  It's like an art history graduate complaining about the lack of 6 figure job offers.  If you hate it then be your own boss (god knows this country is the place to do it). 

With my company I have never done a performance review, haven't worn a suit in ages, and the closest thing we have to team building sessions involves sneaking in a couple of six packs on Friday afternoons. ;)
Click to expand...

Looks like Retire@40 has a soulmate.

Some people do not have the personality and/or ability to start and run their own business (not that you can tell some people here that). If it works for you - great! - but I think it is very misleading to suggest that just anyone can do it and be successful.
 
SteveR said:
WoW,
I can sure identify with this guy.   . . .
Click to expand...
I can too.  I don't think it's fair to blame the victim here.  There are lots of reasons why people become miserable wage slaves.  

If you have a life, a family, outside of work, deciding to quit and move is not simply your decision.  There are other considerations.  And when a company is sliding on their downward spiral, it is never clear while it is going on whether the slide is temporary or things are only going to get worse.  You might look at it as part of your job to try to put things back on track.  You think, "I'm not going to let these cretins destroy this company, I'm going to try to influence things to turn around.  Sooner or later they'll be discovered and forced out.  Then they'll need people to fix things."  If the change is gradual, it's hard to have the perspective to see when it actually crosses the line to hopeless.  It's easy in hindsight to see when you've stayed someplace too long.  When you're in the middle of it, though, it is much harder to figure out.

Suggesting someone should just get another job or go to work for themselves is too simplistic.  Sometimes your training, location and personal situation doesn't make either of those options easy.  Suggesting they should deal with brain-dead management more positively is really naive.  That's not always possible.  Companies sometimes loose their way.  But you are seldom able to know that with certainty until you have fought the good fight for so long that you become tired, bitter or both. :-\
 
What is the failure rate for new companies?
How many times have you seen people go out and start a business and fail?

How many years does it take for the average new business to show a profit and allow the owner to have a decent income?

How much money can you expect to clear from your business (after expenses and taxes?)


I believe that most people don't want to that these risks for an uncertain outcome; especially once you have a family and a house to support.

Not everyone is cut out to take these risks and to bounce back after one or more failures. So they choose to work for a MegaCorp or the Gov. and endure the "slings and arrows" of that kind of life.

What difference does it make how one makes a living to get to FIRE?

I am sure that many business owners have their fair share of stuff to b*tch about too.

I researched some business ideas and even made a couple of business plans but dropped the idea due to a variety of personal reasons. I choose to wait out my minicorp job for another year or two for a stable job, decent wage and full medical. That is the price I pay for the BS that I put up with. It is my choice and one I made to meet my personal needs.
 
SteveR said:
What is the failure rate for new companies? 
How many times have you seen people go out and start a business and fail?

How many years does it take for the average new business to show a profit and allow the owner to have a decent income?

How much money can you expect to clear from your business (after expenses and taxes?)


I believe that most people don't want to that these risks for an uncertain outcome; especially once you have a family and a house to support. 
Click to expand...

To answer your questions: 

Failure? Not as high as you may think.  Businesses get set up and sold frequently.  Sometimes the owner makes a lot of money and shuts down or sells to enjoy the fruits of his labor.  There are some people who decide today to start a business and open one up the same day.  Those usually don't last long.  But someone who puts thought into a realistic business plan and is willing to persevere, is usually rewarded beyond their expectations.

1 or less years to make a living, unless you are talking about a large capital investment.

You can make as much as you want in your business, depending on how hard/smart you work.  But even more important than that, your biggest complaint is usually that you're not collecting your money fast enough from your customers.  I never heard a small business owner complaining about the same complaints corporate employees have.

I agree that most people have more fear than guts when it comes to starting a business.  But almost anyone can start a small business, even if it's a little thing you do on the side.  Make something and put it on Ebay, pick a service you would like to provide and put an ad in the paper, use some of that creativity that corporate life stomps on, and chances are the little spark will make a big FIRE, no pun intended.
 
((^+^)) SG said:
Suggesting someone should just get another job or go to work for themselves is too simplistic.  Sometimes your training, location and personal situation doesn't make either of those options easy.
Click to expand...

I never said it was easy. ;)

Starting a business requires breaking out of your shell, having a brain, being creative, and being able to get up after you fall down. But so does being able to figure out how to get to FIRE. How many people who say it's impossible have even tried?

The big corps don't want people to start their own business for two main reasons. First, they might become a competitor. Second, for every person that's starts his/her own business, there is one less employee for the corporate beast to use and abuse.
 
I'm pretty sure I would hate being dependent on my own start-up business. It's a lifestyle choice. I don't even like customers. I certainly don't want to work for them. Some people love it. Good for them. I wish them the best.

My interests, skills and training allowed me to quickly move up the corporate ladder and command sufficient salaries to get me to ER. I was also paid to travel around the world. All the time I was working I accumulated pension, had a good 401K and excellent health insurance. Yeah, I put up with my share of corporate BS. But it suited my personality better to push back against a corporation than it would have suited me to hold my tounge from a customer. Plus, there's no way I could have started a company and done the same kind of work I was able to do for a large corporation. :D :D :D
 
Cal said:
Looks like Retire@40 has a soulmate.

Some people do not have the personality and/or ability to start and run their own business (not that you can tell some people here that). If it works for you - great! - but I think it is very misleading to suggest that just anyone can do it and be successful.
Click to expand...

You know, I was about to say that for most people it
(running your own business) is not even an option.
Then, it occurred to me that most of my friends and
contemporaries here are self employed or own the
companies they work for. Interesting. I wonder if
we gravitated together due to some shared
entreprenuerial traits?

JG
 
At one such outing, we had to write our own lyrics to the tune of a popular OutKast song—lyrics praising our company. When one group dared to write a song about how they were still at work at 8 o’clock at night, singing nonsense, when they should be at home living their lives—their performance brought down the house—the faces of upper management clouded over.
Click to expand...
:LOL:
 
I'll add a couple of points:
  • you don't have to start your own business, you can go work for someone else's small company and achieve the same thing without the same level of risk. I did it twice before accidentally starting my own company
  • Startups fail all the time and there is plenty to fret-bitch about but the nonfinancial rewards can be absolutely amazing
  • Highs for me
    - going from an idea on paper to a widget somebody is actually willing to pay us $2M for
    - creating a entity that takes on its own life. I have co-workers way more gungho than me
    - traveling the world, champion customers, long term friendships, Friday beer sessions
  • Lows
    - always 6 months away from disaster
    - getting tossed around by customers and investors

You develop thick skin early on and the lows become more of a nuisance.

It's discouraging to see people list umpteen reasons for not being able to leave megacorp and then moan on about the insanity while testing Firecalc 50 different ways. It's like a wasted first half of your life. Ever notice that many successful US small businesses are run by recent immigrants? Ever wonder why there are so few business owners frequenting this site? Sorry if I ruffled some feathers.
 
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