there's practically an obligation to grumble, or whine, or bitch outright (up to a point) about immediate management and the company in general. There's certainly social pressure to contribute to the venting. As maddeningly monotonous as it can get, bitching about the company is requisite. Naturally sanguine personalities aside, to neither bitch nor sympathize with the general bitching raises suspicions that you're either (a) appalling enough to have genuinely bought into whatever condescending corporate morale campaign is currently being pitched; or (b) consciously identifying with the boss's p.o.v. in anticipation of reward.
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This is also seen in the 'white collar' world which, to conventional thinking, is light years away from WalMart et al but operates according to nearly identical micro-level principles only with greater pay and flexibility for (comparatively) privileged workers.
For example...
I'm presently consulting at a fortune 500. The business group to which I'm attached has endured an operationally pointless 're-organization' and received a new manager.
This new manager is universally hated and he knows it.
His explanation (which, in his desperate attempts to win office friends, he'll state to almost anyone who'll listen) is that his predecessor, who was promoted out of the way -- a common corporate tactic -- was very much beloved. And indeed she was -- for her genuine professionalism, her uncanny understanding of what each of her people was doing (which gave her the ability to determine who was being a lazy-ass and who was really swamped) and her overall intelligence which made dealing with her a pleasure.
So yes, his predecessor was just about everyone's favorite middle manager. But that's not why this fellow's hated.
He's hated because he touts the corporate line like a true believer. There's not a trace of irony or intellectual detachment in him. When senior management says something he parrots it -- when one of his employees points out the absurdity of whatever directive has come down, he ineptly argues the point on senior management's behalf.
This man is earning somewhere in the neighborhood of 175,000 dollars a year -- a handsome salary. People expect a person in his position to possess a certain kind of smoothness. His total lack of finesse, slavish recitations of brochure-speak and sub-par wardrobe make him the target of merciless jokes behind (and sometimes even in front of) his back.
But it goes a bit deeper than that.
No one expects him to 'push-back' on orders from the CIO; what they expect is for him to share their skepticism regarding the wisdom of the CIO's wacked ideas and provide a plan for managed slowdown of the implementation of these silly schemes -- many of which will interfere with day to day operations.
In other words, his true believer stance has a direct impact upon workers' ability to accomplish their normal load of already quite complex and time consuming tasks and is clearly motivated by his fervent desire to win favor (therefore breaking the supposed merit system of rewards).
This is why he's truly despised.
Sadly, his narrow consciousness apparently doesn't permit him to see this at all.
Most of the employees believe the situation to be a result of the peculiar office pathologies of "this place". I've consulted in at least 9 fortune 500s and tell them, gently, that I've seen the same thing everywhere I've been. If there's a pathology, it's worklife itself.
Of course, no one wants to believe me. We all need to hope that a few exits up or down the interstate, waiting in a woodsy corporate park, is a really cool firm that 'treats its employees right' and is 'managed intelligently'.
DRM
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...defend my labor's cause, good Giovanni, from all strictures. I live in hell and paint its pictures.
Michelangelo