Mmm...a post on bullshit jobs and crap-in-the-office gets no comments while an inflation-themed one got 10 in a few hours...
Once more: Mmm...
Anyway, let's talk hot death.
Most certainly and like the great majority of the readers of this Substack you'll be enjoying a brilliant British cycling holiday frantically guarding your CO2 budget. (Here's the app that turns any regular Klement into Klement the Confessor: https://tinyurl.com/mr43nxss ).
So you're unlikely to end up on some heat death list.
Yes, The Telegraph once again spread fake news via bad 'science' and manipulated graphs:
Clearly, I have a weird readership where inflation posts get immediate reactions while this one... crickets.
In any case, I am not going anywhere. I continue to work, but I found in the past that posts in the second half of August don't get read and I need a break from writing these so I can focus on some big projects at work.
Joachim, I think you and I are somewhat uniquely well-placed to observe the differences between "Anglo-Saxon" (a term I hate) and "DACH" (an equally loathesome term) mores on "artisanal bullshit"/"banter" (yet another BrE term that's sadly become a bit warped over the years to now mean "I just said something really hurtful/mean, but it's just 'banter'")
Anglo-Saxons will often use superlatives to describe things, but it's nuanced. If one is having problems at work, they'll say "I'm the worst fund manager in the world." Or at home "I'm the world's worst parent." What are they after? 1) It's showing some self-awareness that they're flawed and self-critical. 2) They may be trying to milk a bit of sympathy ("oh, c'mon, of course you're not"). On the other side, they may declare "this is the best dinner I've ever had" to make a hostess happy ... it most probably isn't truly the best dinner they've ever had, but it makes everyone feel better. And what's wrong with that?
I also often hear comments from Germans returning from American vacations grumbling about how service people say "have a nice day", or "how are you?" "Well, they don't really mean it, do they? My response is that perhaps they don't, but there's a 50-50 shot they actually do ... whereas in Germany, you know 100% that they hate your guts and loathe their miserable lives. I'd rather delude myself into thinking it was the former rather than the latter. "Servicewüste" indeed. "How are you?" is actually a really useful construction, because it leaves the door open to communicate more effectively, especially in a corporate environment. If the answer is "fine, how 'bout you?" "Fine", then things proceed business-as-usual. If the answer is "well, okay, but I think we might need to go over these figures again", that's a different thing. If it's "well, actually not so hot ... we have a real problem on our hands ..." then people can gear up for a serious discussion. No one is asking for "well, my marriage is in flames and I need another colonoscopy".
Lots of American businesses declare "best hamburger in Cleveland" etc, with zero objective proof. Well, that's seen as the proprietor having a sense of pride, which is in turn seen as admirable. Conversely, when I started working at a German company, I started noticing my employees putting in expense reports where hey'd stayed in the other side of town and racked up massive taxi bills instead of staying in the conference hotel with a bulk group discount. "Well, there's a corporate policy against staying in five-star hotels". I replied "Whose stars? You stayed in a fleabag hotel that was €300 a night and racked up €200 in taxi bills, when you could've paid €200 a night and been on-site for the whole thing!" There was clearly some level of credulousness that somehow these "star ratings" couldn't just be promotional bullshit. I think hyper-credulousness (is that even a word?) is one of the reasons DACH investors would get burned by IPOs; the whole red herring is as promotional as one can legally get, but when I sat down with a young employee and read it critically, their response was "do you really think they might be out to deceive us?" ... "uhhh, yeah!".
On the other hand, I've always been shocked at how readily German professionals routinely refer to themselves as "Experte" with seemingly no sense of self-aware deprecation. "Oh, really? Well *that* remains to be seen, doesn't it?" And of course there's the German "good morning", the length of which is inversely proportional to its insincerity: If it's "(Guten) Morgen" it may be perfunctory, unless it's blasted out as "MAGEN", which is someone trying to attention-seek/assert dominance (especially when entering a meeting room late; interrupting a meeting in progress because *you're* late is about the worst and least self-aware thing one can do in the Anglo-Saxon world ... just slink in with your mouth shut). If someone says "eine Wunderschönen guten Morgen", it's a passive aggressive "screw you!".
A healthy level of "bullshit" greases the wheels of capitalism and human interpersonal relations. That said, I'm really glad you've targeted the corrosive "corporate bullshit" for long-ober criticism. Lucy Kellaway, formerly at the FT, used to write extensively on management bullshit https://www.ft.com/content/a41574d2-1b6e-11e7-a266-12672483791a and its associated excreable jargon https://ig.ft.com/sites/guffipedia/ .
Enjoy your writing break. I've found that "staycations" are often the best ... I'd always infuriate my vacation-mad German colleagues by saying "well, work harder to buy yourself a home that's so nice that you never want to escape from it" ;-)
The crap model for dealing with BS is wonderful! I'm reminded of the Australian saying , 'Shit doesn't happen, assholes cause it.' All of the BS I have witnessed is caused by let's call them 'Takers', who are incompetent aberrant self promoters. 'Givers' are the competent folk in an unhealthy co-dependency with the Takers and spend most of their work-life cleaning up their BS or just doing the work whilst Takers take the credit for it. My best guess based on research and talking with therapists is the Takers make up about 30% of the workforce, That's a lot of BS to 'clean up'. And it only takes one to destroy a whole team or organisation. If only they had a light on their forehead so others could identify who they are....
Yes, I never heard this expression until I came to the UK, and having worked here I now know what it means. Some 'lions' are takers and some donkeys are 'givers', but in general yes. US managers can be donkeys too, but there seems to be a level of amateurism here and a level of arrogance and complacency when it comes to professional development. Of course takers are 'stable geniuses' that don't need any development!;-)
Agree. I think in the UK the class system and the network effect from having gone to the 'right' school is much stronger than in Europe or the US and this leads to an overcrowding of the 'managerial class' with donkeys.
That's a very powerful observation, yes, this is what I've experienced (although I understand France is very hierarchical as well, not DE). I'm sure it feeds into the lower productivity rates here. Perhaps there's a 'donkey class' quotient?;-) And I'm told by my English colleagues that social networks formed by going to 'the right school' is more important now than it was when they were growing up in the 70's. You've got to laugh leaving 'levelling up' to an Etonian!!
Thank you again for your thought provoking essays, I really enjoy them as do others.
Mmm...a post on bullshit jobs and crap-in-the-office gets no comments while an inflation-themed one got 10 in a few hours...
Once more: Mmm...
Anyway, let's talk hot death.
Most certainly and like the great majority of the readers of this Substack you'll be enjoying a brilliant British cycling holiday frantically guarding your CO2 budget. (Here's the app that turns any regular Klement into Klement the Confessor: https://tinyurl.com/mr43nxss ).
So you're unlikely to end up on some heat death list.
Yes, The Telegraph once again spread fake news via bad 'science' and manipulated graphs:
https://tinyurl.com/3rfskmsd
Clearly, I have a weird readership where inflation posts get immediate reactions while this one... crickets.
In any case, I am not going anywhere. I continue to work, but I found in the past that posts in the second half of August don't get read and I need a break from writing these so I can focus on some big projects at work.
Joachim, I think you and I are somewhat uniquely well-placed to observe the differences between "Anglo-Saxon" (a term I hate) and "DACH" (an equally loathesome term) mores on "artisanal bullshit"/"banter" (yet another BrE term that's sadly become a bit warped over the years to now mean "I just said something really hurtful/mean, but it's just 'banter'")
Anglo-Saxons will often use superlatives to describe things, but it's nuanced. If one is having problems at work, they'll say "I'm the worst fund manager in the world." Or at home "I'm the world's worst parent." What are they after? 1) It's showing some self-awareness that they're flawed and self-critical. 2) They may be trying to milk a bit of sympathy ("oh, c'mon, of course you're not"). On the other side, they may declare "this is the best dinner I've ever had" to make a hostess happy ... it most probably isn't truly the best dinner they've ever had, but it makes everyone feel better. And what's wrong with that?
I also often hear comments from Germans returning from American vacations grumbling about how service people say "have a nice day", or "how are you?" "Well, they don't really mean it, do they? My response is that perhaps they don't, but there's a 50-50 shot they actually do ... whereas in Germany, you know 100% that they hate your guts and loathe their miserable lives. I'd rather delude myself into thinking it was the former rather than the latter. "Servicewüste" indeed. "How are you?" is actually a really useful construction, because it leaves the door open to communicate more effectively, especially in a corporate environment. If the answer is "fine, how 'bout you?" "Fine", then things proceed business-as-usual. If the answer is "well, okay, but I think we might need to go over these figures again", that's a different thing. If it's "well, actually not so hot ... we have a real problem on our hands ..." then people can gear up for a serious discussion. No one is asking for "well, my marriage is in flames and I need another colonoscopy".
Lots of American businesses declare "best hamburger in Cleveland" etc, with zero objective proof. Well, that's seen as the proprietor having a sense of pride, which is in turn seen as admirable. Conversely, when I started working at a German company, I started noticing my employees putting in expense reports where hey'd stayed in the other side of town and racked up massive taxi bills instead of staying in the conference hotel with a bulk group discount. "Well, there's a corporate policy against staying in five-star hotels". I replied "Whose stars? You stayed in a fleabag hotel that was €300 a night and racked up €200 in taxi bills, when you could've paid €200 a night and been on-site for the whole thing!" There was clearly some level of credulousness that somehow these "star ratings" couldn't just be promotional bullshit. I think hyper-credulousness (is that even a word?) is one of the reasons DACH investors would get burned by IPOs; the whole red herring is as promotional as one can legally get, but when I sat down with a young employee and read it critically, their response was "do you really think they might be out to deceive us?" ... "uhhh, yeah!".
On the other hand, I've always been shocked at how readily German professionals routinely refer to themselves as "Experte" with seemingly no sense of self-aware deprecation. "Oh, really? Well *that* remains to be seen, doesn't it?" And of course there's the German "good morning", the length of which is inversely proportional to its insincerity: If it's "(Guten) Morgen" it may be perfunctory, unless it's blasted out as "MAGEN", which is someone trying to attention-seek/assert dominance (especially when entering a meeting room late; interrupting a meeting in progress because *you're* late is about the worst and least self-aware thing one can do in the Anglo-Saxon world ... just slink in with your mouth shut). If someone says "eine Wunderschönen guten Morgen", it's a passive aggressive "screw you!".
A healthy level of "bullshit" greases the wheels of capitalism and human interpersonal relations. That said, I'm really glad you've targeted the corrosive "corporate bullshit" for long-ober criticism. Lucy Kellaway, formerly at the FT, used to write extensively on management bullshit https://www.ft.com/content/a41574d2-1b6e-11e7-a266-12672483791a and its associated excreable jargon https://ig.ft.com/sites/guffipedia/ .
Enjoy your writing break. I've found that "staycations" are often the best ... I'd always infuriate my vacation-mad German colleagues by saying "well, work harder to buy yourself a home that's so nice that you never want to escape from it" ;-)
The crap model for dealing with BS is wonderful! I'm reminded of the Australian saying , 'Shit doesn't happen, assholes cause it.' All of the BS I have witnessed is caused by let's call them 'Takers', who are incompetent aberrant self promoters. 'Givers' are the competent folk in an unhealthy co-dependency with the Takers and spend most of their work-life cleaning up their BS or just doing the work whilst Takers take the credit for it. My best guess based on research and talking with therapists is the Takers make up about 30% of the workforce, That's a lot of BS to 'clean up'. And it only takes one to destroy a whole team or organisation. If only they had a light on their forehead so others could identify who they are....
Lions led by donkeys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_led_by_donkeys
Yes, I never heard this expression until I came to the UK, and having worked here I now know what it means. Some 'lions' are takers and some donkeys are 'givers', but in general yes. US managers can be donkeys too, but there seems to be a level of amateurism here and a level of arrogance and complacency when it comes to professional development. Of course takers are 'stable geniuses' that don't need any development!;-)
Agree. I think in the UK the class system and the network effect from having gone to the 'right' school is much stronger than in Europe or the US and this leads to an overcrowding of the 'managerial class' with donkeys.
That's a very powerful observation, yes, this is what I've experienced (although I understand France is very hierarchical as well, not DE). I'm sure it feeds into the lower productivity rates here. Perhaps there's a 'donkey class' quotient?;-) And I'm told by my English colleagues that social networks formed by going to 'the right school' is more important now than it was when they were growing up in the 70's. You've got to laugh leaving 'levelling up' to an Etonian!!
Thank you again for your thought provoking essays, I really enjoy them as do others.