Workplace Parallels

[kokopelle]

I am listening to a Dean Koontz book on tape. At this point the sociopathic killer type has the philosophy of "it is the momentum that counts and not the consequences". He ponders to himself that a train hitting a bus full of people is only a tragedy if you take your eyes off of the train and instead focus on the resulting carnage. It is the journey of the train that is more important, or so thinks the killer. This strikes a parallel to the apparent philosophy of the "cost cutting consultants" that will be descending on our plant in a few weeks. Damn the bloodshed, all speed ahead on the bottom line savings. Sigh... this is part of human nature that we all embrace to some small degree, but it becomes very ugly when practiced at an institutional level.

Comments

[chimerae.livejournal.com]

Cost cutting is like surgery.
When you NEED it, it can save your life.

Alas, though, usually consultants aren't very good at what they do and are simply an expensive CYA mechanism to protect leadership that doesn't know what to do in a changing environment.

SOMETIMES, though, they are rock'n IE's who know what they're doing and can take your organization through a scary but really exciting cut-the-deadwood-and-reframe experience that leaves everyone happier, even the folks who get fired.

[greensh.livejournal.com]

True... the sad thing is that my workplace has been a "family/worker" friendly place since it opened in 1985. We had one right sizing in 1997. This damaged the family feeling and the upcoming cost evaluation (and subsequent actions) might just blow the family paradigm out of the water.

In my original blog entry I should have said "this (action ruling consequences) is part of human nature that we all embrace to some small degree, but it becomes very ugly when practiced imperfectly at an institutional level". The irony is that human beings are imperfect by nature, so the odds of an imperfect institutional outcome are good, specially if the CYA mechanism is in play.