The primary difference between Lis's job and my job.

[xiphias]

If my managers were actually my superiors in the military, and they sent me on a dangerous mission to take a strategic point, and I was the sole survivor, and had managed to barely take and hold the point, running out of ammo, and finally resorting to knife work to survive, but managed to actually take and hold the point and accomplish the mission, my managers would feel awful, blame themselves for giving us insuffient air support, pay generous benefits for the dead, give me lots of time off with pay to recuperate, and pin lots of medals on me.

If Lis's managers were actually her superiors in the military, and they sent her on a dangerous mission to take a strategic point, and she was the sole survivor, and had managed to barely take and hold the point, running out of ammo, and finally resorting to knife work to survive, but managed to actually take and hold the point and accomplish the mission, they would look at the situation, and say, "Hmm. In the final analyis, Lis held the point on her own, without any other people around, and using only a knife," and, the next day, there would be a memo sent out that they'd determined that guns and ammuninition were superfluous, and would no longer be provided.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I would like to email this to my husband, if you don't mind -- he's in Lis's shoes. I'm not quite in your shoes, but probably closer to you than to Lis.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Please do.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

The more I've heard about Lis' workplace the less impressed I've been.

That said, my company pre-merger was a bit closer to your workplace that way. Post merger it's moved closer to Lis', though thankfully it's still not there yet.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

In regards to Lis's job, may I simply say, "Yeesh?"

[cheshyre]

If you want to read the details, I just blogged it here. It should be up on riba_rambles within the half-hour, if you prefer to read it within LJ.

[gingicat]

My employers would have the same response as yours, but it would take three such crises for them to actually implement it.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Lis is a soldier in Iraq?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

No, but I suspect her employers are using the handbook, Management Secrets of Donald Rumsfeld.

[cheshyre]

Telephone technical support. It's close enough.
[Especially considering I actually have had professional dealings with members of Al Jazeera in this job.]

If you want to read the details, I just blogged it here. It should be up on riba_rambles within the half-hour, if you prefer to read it within LJ.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Just read over in riba_rambles.

**hugs**

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

That's awful. (Lis's situation, not yours.)

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Thank you for summarizing the management attitudes so neatly. I just realized that my current company would be very generous with the praise and thanks and medals, recognizing a very difficult job had been done well. Then they would formally determine that guns, ammo, and air support, (having been successfully done without) were superfluous, and would no longer be provided.

The really scary thing is realizing that, on certain emotional levels, this kind of manipulation works on me. Even when I can see it happening. Salaries here are a lot lower than at my old company, but management talks a *marvelously* good game. Somehow the promise of a $500 bonus, or even things like a sweatshirt, or a day off, motivate me to do stuff (like put in extravagent hours) more cheerfully than I was doing for $15k higher salary at another company.

[navrins]

My managers wouldn't send me on a dangerous mission. They'd invite me to a planning meeting or two for a mission they didn't really think was a good idea in the first place, since they're really perfectly happy just holding the line that nobody's really attacking anyway, and in my spare time I'd occasionally go back to the towns we've already taken to look around and sweep for enemy infiltrators, just in case. Meanwhile my superiors would neither utilize my ability to take on a mission of any kind, nor transfer me to a command that might actually want me to do something worthwhile.

[phantom_wolfboy]

You forgot that they would reduce the size of her squad, since obviously all those extra people were superfluous.

[marquisedea.livejournal.com]

that's awesome! Maybe I could make a similar contrast to Dave's job and mine....

[cheshyre]

I hope you don't have to.

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

Her job sounds like my old job.

Although I think, at my old job, they'd reassign most of the squad before sending the rest of us out, and threaten us with nasty consequences if we failed, and after deciding that guns and ammo were superfluous, would take all the credit for the success. And give me a smaller knife.

No, I'm not bitter, why?