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Double Standards

Entry 1503, on 2013-03-01 at 21:11:24 (Rating 4, Politics)

One of the most common frustrations of working in the modern environment is the constant cut-backs, downsizing, and budgeting which makes getting things done more difficult. These are generally justified through an argument such as: in these difficult economic times we must tighten our belts, or public (or shareholder) funds must be spent responsibly, or we must become more efficient to compete in the market. While politicians and managers love this sort of stuff, in most cases it's all crap.

In every case I am familiar with there is a remarkable inequality and inconsistency in these "austerity" styled processes. When there are redundancies, reduced pay, or less generous conditions it very rarely affects top management. Sure, sometimes middle and lower management are reduced in numbers, but far more often it is those at the bottom who are the victims, and they are the least responsible for the organisation's alleged difficult situation.

When cutbacks are made it is surprising how often that later it is discovered that the same organisation is wasting large amounts on worthless nonsense. My colleague Fred (not his real name but he is an IT professional in a similar job to mine) reported this phenomenon recently where the workers' conferences were cancelled, they had great difficulty getting the equipment their job required, and they were forced to keep old equipment well past its useful lifetime, yet management spent large sums (how much they would not reveal) on pathetically childish management motivational and organisational material. Fred claims it looks like the sort of stuff that a bunch of kindergarten kids with a box of crayons could produce. I thought that was being a bit unkind to the intellect of 5 year olds!

The same thing happens at government level. Here in New Zealand there are constant claims that there just isn't the money to carry out many projects which would otherwise be very worthwhile. Yet the same government wastes huge amounts on stuff that benefits very few. For example, research budgets are being cut here yet the government can still give big overseas corporations like Warners tens of millions of dollars in hand-outs.

I think austerity measures are doomed to failure in most cases whatever the circumstances are but at least I would be more prepared to support them if there wasn't this obvious double standard. If I was in an organisation afflicted with this problem I would be prepared to accept cut-backs to expensive equipment purchases and conferences if that was necessary. But I would not be happy to do that and then find management has just spent a small fortune on some nonsense which some "criminal" masquerading as a "management consultant" has produced.

I would regretfully accept the necessity to keep using old equipment even past its useful lifetime, but if I then found management being given fancy new gadgets which they barely even knew how to use I would be less than impressed. This is the sort of thing which does happen regularly unfortunately, and it's about time workers stopped just accepting it.

But there is one other factor here. It's difficult for many people - even some who are very skilled - to get a job in the current environment. So people just tend to put up with whatever outrageous nonsense is going on even when they know it is wrong, because if they were fired or resigned they would have a lot of trouble finding another job.

And I think that is one reason why the current New Zealand government is so reluctant to do anything about unemployment. I think they actually want unemployment to be high because that gives employers a huge advantage in pay negotiations. There is also the standard dogma they have about not interfering in the markets of course, but that seems to be set aside when it comes to welfare for corporates.

With the conservatives it seems to be something like this: welfare for those who least need it, don't interfere except when you really should, blame those who have the least responsibility, have the least accountability for those who demand the most from everyone else, and above all make sure the pain of cutbacks is inflicted on those who can least bear it.

There's the standard recipe for modern conservative governments and modern management. Why do we put up with it? Sure beats me!

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