CVs - again.

ITYF that is the situation for the *vast* majority of people in paid
employment.

All this aspirational, "ownership", "empowerment", cobblers is just
that in most cases.

We had a bit of course thing with HR a few years back, and the HR
droid was visibly shocked that most folk on our department considered
themselves to be in a "job", rather than having a "career".

 

I know exactly how that is, and am going through another moaning-about-
restructuring phase right now.

Well, I started a (hopefully temporary) job in a pseudo-public sector
organisation a couple of weeks ago, and no-one here appears to know
what they're doing.

 

CEOs of banks and hedge funds?

Probably because most public services are needed.

 

It really isn't you know

 

<applause>

 

Not a CEO maybe, but a mate was European hedge fund manager for Etrade
until he was 'redeployed' out of the company a couple of years ago. You
may say 'ah diddums', but there's no way I would've swapped places with
him despite the huge amount of money he made. The price he paid was
every second of his time was taken up by clients. Most evenings &
weekends, & every holiday were spent entertaining them. ****. That.

The services may be, but a large number of the people who work for them
aren't if my time at BT was anything to go by. I found the overwhelming
'do as little as possible to keep my job' attitude rather galling. The
fact that they could make 45,000 people redundant over three years with
no noticeable effect speaks volumes. It just meant the remaining people
had to do a day's work, rather than spend hours standing around each
other's desks talking about football or Eastenders every day.

 

Frankly a lot of public services are not IMHO needed. They breed a dependent
culture rather than people having to get their own fucking act together.
We should provide the basics and do it much better. Only.

 

*ding*

I might not earn a great deal by some standards, but my hours are
8.30-5.00, five days a week, and I like it that way.

I could've made different decisions and earned more money, but I'd
almost certainly have had longer hours and worst of all, I'd've had to
play politics.

 

By contrast, if it is wholly or substantially your own company then doing it
24x7 can be a real buzz.

 

There are people who hope to have made that decision, i.e. to do a
reasonable job competently and make a living, but who still end up
fired because of the actions of the people who *do* play politics,
such as the incompetents, crooks and frauds who run the banks, for
example.

 

Point of order! I write about orange juice. One of my reporters does
canned tomatoes...

 

Had a similar "course", when I was a civil servant. Same question,
same response, same reaction from the HR weenie.

We pointed out that "career" implies there will be progression to
higher grades, etc. and the department we were in had just killed
promotion stone dead.

The vast majority of employment lacks the forms of progression that
would make it a career. It has to, or we would have a situation where
everyone was a "chief" and there were no "indians"...

 

It can also be a buzz, even it it's not your own company.

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Details, details.

 

When we were going over hygeine and motivation factors on a course last
year we all filled in the forms to get an assessment. My boss was quite
surprised to find that the main reason I come to work is to get paid and
the second reason is to make sure I keep getting paid. Recognition,
achievement and all that touchy feely shit was way down the list.

 

No, we have a separate meat & poultry title for those.

 

"Worse Tomorrow".

 

It's an offally good paper, too. Not the usual tripe.

 

Too much bile and spleen on the letters page.

 

Too much to stomach, eh?