Some places I've worked have put a disconcerting emphasis on having a "positive" culture. I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice this, or endure it.
Sounds great, right? Upbeat happy people, no one to harsh your happiness, no negativity, no criticism, etc? They're all into the "Power of Positive Thinking™", and life is great, it's a great place to work, blah, blah, blah.
Cool, right up until when something goes wrong, and you have no way to express your concern, or even the fact that something is wrong, without committing the sin of Negativity!!! Then you get "talked to", "written up", "counseled" and shunned for daring to speak up in anything but positive terms.
So of course there is never anything wrong, no one actually complains to management about stuff that the water cooler chat knows is shit, because there is no shared language or motif for pointing out problems in a "positive" culture without dire consequences. Problems are the opposite of a "positive" culture, because they imply that there's something wrong in paradise.
What happens when management has a problem with someone or something that they f***ed up, then? Simple - they get fired, because the outcome of their work wasn't "positive", therefore they don't fit any more. Nice, huh. It's never a problem with the company, only with the person who did an unpositive thing. Not a systematic failure, or an inability to listen when the person tried to tell them there was a problem. No, in "Positive Land" it's always a problem with the person who did the mistake, or worse, reported the problem to management without the "positive" spin.
Even so, dedicated people try to point out problems, and get smacked down as "negative", "unprofessional", "toxic", etc. The "Emperor has no clothes", but "off with his head" on the person who points it out. It's a self-perpetuating cess-pit of denial and blame of the problem on the person who noticed the problem.
If you are read as a woman, you get told to ask "questions" if you have concerns, instead of stating your concerns - ie female mode. (Why are questions "female mode"?? Because if it has to be phrased as a question, you can be easily told that you are mistaken and gaslighted. After all, you weren't stating fact, you were just asking a question, like you were an unsure little girl.)
So if you are smart, when a company you are interviewing with brags about their "positive culture", run. Because they are a dumpster fire with the lid on and a sign labeling it "proactive incineration".
2018-10-01
2018-08-28
Doublespeak and Hypocrisy - not a Pagan Post
(Note: No names, locations or institutions will be mentioned in this post. This isn't meant to smear poo on most of my coworkers.)
Rant mode: ON!
I so don't understand corporate and academic management. They want people to communicate openly, but then case on you if other people are "offended" by what you have to say that isn't even directed at them.
Then they say bullshit like "It seems like you are making it all about you", but then when you point out that you are bringing up issues that affect other people, tell you to "let the others speak for themselves, it's their problem". Can you say "no win for losing"? Subtle message: "Shut up, we don't want to hear any complaints or concerns unless they are phrased as a mealy-mouthed 'question' in woman-speak so we can ignore it."
Also, the insistence that "professional" communication is always "positive" makes me grind my teeth in frustration. When shit stinks, it stinks, not "smells strongly" or other mealy mouthed bullshit and lies. I didn't come here to swim in a sea of bullshit and lies. I can get that anywhere, and for more money.
Open plan offices: I hate them.
The last one I was in gave me pneumonia for the first time in my life. The other ones I've worked in have been greater or lesser hell-pits.
I have a startle reflex, plus ADD, plus situational paranoia from growing up female (I hate people coming up behind me when I'm trying to concentrate, it makes me jumpy as hell.) Yet invariably someone does it at least once a week, more often if management fucks me over and puts my back to a room even after I explicitly ask them not to. I don't even go to movies any more because of the crowds, but they want me to work in an open plan again? Fuck. That. Shit.
My current employer, a university, is jumping on the bandwagon in spite of numerous studies that point out major problems. If you complain, they patronize you and point you to classes on "Managing Change With Resiliency".
I'm plenty resilient, dumbasses, probably far more than you are. You aren't stroke survivors who've had to rebuild their lives and careers, who the doctors said would never walk or talk again over 20 years ago, yet rebuilt a career from the ground up in spite on anti-disability discrimination. Yet all the fucking resiliency in the world won't fix a situation that stinks for over half of the people that you are forcing in to this boondoggle.
The "architect" of this glorious change said, in writing mind you "Some people say that open plan offices are bad for you, but they're wrong." Yes, period, no evidence or substantiation of his fucking opinion. And the stupid managers swallowed it, I'm sure with plenty of "positivity", hook, line and sinker.
Open plans are bad for IT people. IT folks often are introverts, have ADD/ADHD, are on the autism spectrum, maybe have PTSD, might be veterans, etc. All of these things are NOT disabilities in many cases, and some can be an asset in IT, until you put those people in an open plan office!
Then they give me this crap of "Well, no matter how much you complain, it's a done deal, it won't change. You might as well get used to it." How about NO, asshole. I know damn well it WILL change after you've lost 25% of your workforce to stress-related disability and another 25% to chronic illnesses aggravated by being forced to work like you are a sweatshop extrovert. Those that remain will lose 25% to 50% of productivity, just so you can reduce your spaced costs and shove your staff off campus to another site.
The university has an issue already with losing its tribal knowledge when a certain asshole high-level manager has driven multiple waves of people away. This will just make it worse, and the only people they will be able to hire are young immigrants that don't realize that they pay below market and still expect you to put up with abusive environments. The institution already has difficulty hiring qualified people even for the drone positions that one manager prefers. For stuff requiring innovation? Only if they bring them on as fully remote people, or junior folks that don't know anything other than crowded open plan boondoggles.
Oh, and fully remote people? Have to live at least 150 miles away.
Any closer than 150 miles and they have to be in the office at least three weekdays a week, and none of the telecommute days can be Wednesday, which just happens to be the worse commuting day of the week!
But in the office Slack, one kiss-ass waxed poetic on how it's sooooo generous, that one place he worked didn't allow any telecommuting at all, and people had to show up even with long commutes, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, buddy, I worked for a company like that too. They even hit the news when the top dog decided there would be no more remote and that we'd all sit in the main office crammed together in an open plan. You know what happened to that company? They got broken up and sold off, driven into the ground by a "butts in seats", stack-ranked BS management philosophy.
Never mind that 149 miles is a 5 hour commute each way at almost any hour of the day, but especially during peak rush hour - which is 5 am to 9 am, and 3 pm to 7 pm.
Then these people decide they want "core hours" of 10 am to 4 pm (most of our long distance commuters work 7 am to 3:30 pm.) What happens when otherwise productive employees can't make that hideous trek? We have a senior manager who does the "anything not expressly permitted is forbidden", "when I tell you to jump, you must ask how high on the way up", and "butts in seats" school of management. They have to find a way to do it, destroying their lives or health, or they have to quit.
We have an excellent teleconferencing system, one that is like being there with the right software and camera. My boss and I use it to work on technical stuff even when we are in the same building!! But, of course, it will be yet another irritant in an open plan cesspit because of the noise.
I'm pretty sure this is a prelude to outsourcing all of their IT overseas, so students and faculty can enjoy talking to unintelligible third-world employees that call themselves "Bob" and "Sue".
Mind you, this is at an expensive private institution. The school has money, they just don't want to spend it on staff, they would rather waste it on third-party half-assed "solutions" that they convince themselves are "turnkey", and will put it all in "The Cloud™" (which is actually very expensive, unless you have your local municipality and its NIMBY creeps squeezing your growth because they don't want all those dirty cars of non-residents on their precious streets, never mind that without your institution they would be just another snooty suburb.) They would rather pay constantly to a slew of cloud providers rather than build their own secure data centers in other states.
I wouldn't be so angry about this except this is the third "open plan transition" I've been through. It will make the fifth open plan office I've had to deal with.
I've been gaslighted about all of this shit:
But since I appear to be female, I am expected to dress and talk female, and when I don't, people get offended.
Fuck them. I'll consider your precious feefees when you start considering mine. Also, pull your heads out of your collective asses and realize that not everybody in this world wants to be "positive" all the time, and that burying your head in the sand about the impact of your bad decisions on your employees will come back and bite you in the ass.
/rant
Rant mode: ON!
I so don't understand corporate and academic management. They want people to communicate openly, but then case on you if other people are "offended" by what you have to say that isn't even directed at them.
Then they say bullshit like "It seems like you are making it all about you", but then when you point out that you are bringing up issues that affect other people, tell you to "let the others speak for themselves, it's their problem". Can you say "no win for losing"? Subtle message: "Shut up, we don't want to hear any complaints or concerns unless they are phrased as a mealy-mouthed 'question' in woman-speak so we can ignore it."
Also, the insistence that "professional" communication is always "positive" makes me grind my teeth in frustration. When shit stinks, it stinks, not "smells strongly" or other mealy mouthed bullshit and lies. I didn't come here to swim in a sea of bullshit and lies. I can get that anywhere, and for more money.
Open plan offices: I hate them.
The last one I was in gave me pneumonia for the first time in my life. The other ones I've worked in have been greater or lesser hell-pits.
I have a startle reflex, plus ADD, plus situational paranoia from growing up female (I hate people coming up behind me when I'm trying to concentrate, it makes me jumpy as hell.) Yet invariably someone does it at least once a week, more often if management fucks me over and puts my back to a room even after I explicitly ask them not to. I don't even go to movies any more because of the crowds, but they want me to work in an open plan again? Fuck. That. Shit.
My current employer, a university, is jumping on the bandwagon in spite of numerous studies that point out major problems. If you complain, they patronize you and point you to classes on "Managing Change With Resiliency".
I'm plenty resilient, dumbasses, probably far more than you are. You aren't stroke survivors who've had to rebuild their lives and careers, who the doctors said would never walk or talk again over 20 years ago, yet rebuilt a career from the ground up in spite on anti-disability discrimination. Yet all the fucking resiliency in the world won't fix a situation that stinks for over half of the people that you are forcing in to this boondoggle.
The "architect" of this glorious change said, in writing mind you "Some people say that open plan offices are bad for you, but they're wrong." Yes, period, no evidence or substantiation of his fucking opinion. And the stupid managers swallowed it, I'm sure with plenty of "positivity", hook, line and sinker.
Open plans are bad for IT people. IT folks often are introverts, have ADD/ADHD, are on the autism spectrum, maybe have PTSD, might be veterans, etc. All of these things are NOT disabilities in many cases, and some can be an asset in IT, until you put those people in an open plan office!
Then they give me this crap of "Well, no matter how much you complain, it's a done deal, it won't change. You might as well get used to it." How about NO, asshole. I know damn well it WILL change after you've lost 25% of your workforce to stress-related disability and another 25% to chronic illnesses aggravated by being forced to work like you are a sweatshop extrovert. Those that remain will lose 25% to 50% of productivity, just so you can reduce your spaced costs and shove your staff off campus to another site.
The university has an issue already with losing its tribal knowledge when a certain asshole high-level manager has driven multiple waves of people away. This will just make it worse, and the only people they will be able to hire are young immigrants that don't realize that they pay below market and still expect you to put up with abusive environments. The institution already has difficulty hiring qualified people even for the drone positions that one manager prefers. For stuff requiring innovation? Only if they bring them on as fully remote people, or junior folks that don't know anything other than crowded open plan boondoggles.
Oh, and fully remote people? Have to live at least 150 miles away.
Any closer than 150 miles and they have to be in the office at least three weekdays a week, and none of the telecommute days can be Wednesday, which just happens to be the worse commuting day of the week!
But in the office Slack, one kiss-ass waxed poetic on how it's sooooo generous, that one place he worked didn't allow any telecommuting at all, and people had to show up even with long commutes, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, buddy, I worked for a company like that too. They even hit the news when the top dog decided there would be no more remote and that we'd all sit in the main office crammed together in an open plan. You know what happened to that company? They got broken up and sold off, driven into the ground by a "butts in seats", stack-ranked BS management philosophy.
Never mind that 149 miles is a 5 hour commute each way at almost any hour of the day, but especially during peak rush hour - which is 5 am to 9 am, and 3 pm to 7 pm.
Then these people decide they want "core hours" of 10 am to 4 pm (most of our long distance commuters work 7 am to 3:30 pm.) What happens when otherwise productive employees can't make that hideous trek? We have a senior manager who does the "anything not expressly permitted is forbidden", "when I tell you to jump, you must ask how high on the way up", and "butts in seats" school of management. They have to find a way to do it, destroying their lives or health, or they have to quit.
We have an excellent teleconferencing system, one that is like being there with the right software and camera. My boss and I use it to work on technical stuff even when we are in the same building!! But, of course, it will be yet another irritant in an open plan cesspit because of the noise.
I'm pretty sure this is a prelude to outsourcing all of their IT overseas, so students and faculty can enjoy talking to unintelligible third-world employees that call themselves "Bob" and "Sue".
Mind you, this is at an expensive private institution. The school has money, they just don't want to spend it on staff, they would rather waste it on third-party half-assed "solutions" that they convince themselves are "turnkey", and will put it all in "The Cloud™" (which is actually very expensive, unless you have your local municipality and its NIMBY creeps squeezing your growth because they don't want all those dirty cars of non-residents on their precious streets, never mind that without your institution they would be just another snooty suburb.) They would rather pay constantly to a slew of cloud providers rather than build their own secure data centers in other states.
I wouldn't be so angry about this except this is the third "open plan transition" I've been through. It will make the fifth open plan office I've had to deal with.
I've been gaslighted about all of this shit:
- "it will be fine",
- "it's not so bad",
- "you'll get used to it",
- "you're the only one who has complained",
- "it's all your attitude problem",
- "be more positive",
- "make the best of the situation",
- "be resilient",
- "you're just change averse",
- "everybody else loves it",
- "it's really collaborative",
- "other companies don't have it as good, really",
- "everyone who has tried it loves it",
- "it's the latest trend",
- "people will come here because it's so cool",
But since I appear to be female, I am expected to dress and talk female, and when I don't, people get offended.
Fuck them. I'll consider your precious feefees when you start considering mine. Also, pull your heads out of your collective asses and realize that not everybody in this world wants to be "positive" all the time, and that burying your head in the sand about the impact of your bad decisions on your employees will come back and bite you in the ass.
/rant
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