Where do corporate parasites come from - 4, or do we work for the parasite
Another cross-post from my main blog ...
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I already wrote on this topic, and today I would like to talk about another reason for the emergence of corporate parasites, and it was very unpleasant when it turned out to be your manager.
To get started, let's look at the relationship of a good manager with the outside world. He, of course, has good relations with his direct boss and the boss of his boss. It is from them that he receives a strategic direction, goals and objectives. At the same time, he has good relations with his subordinates at least two levels down. Two levels down is critical because it allows him to avoid or detect corporate parasites right below him. A relationship down is where he gets information about reality from technology and the possible. But that is not all. He also has good horizontal relationships with parallel managers, if possible. This allows him and his people to have normal cooperation, when the efforts of several groups are required to achieve results, that is, almost always. And finally he has a channel of information from users. It can be a relationship with marketing, it can be sitting on support forums, it can be regular trips to large customers, but it must be. This is a source of information about the reality of the field of application of efforts, what users need, what is not, what their problems are, in general, how they do this or that.
This was a good manager. A typical corporate parasite in this position has very good relations with the bosses at three (and if you're more lucky) levels up, but at the expense of all the other connections. People two levels down the corporate parasite usually do not care at all, they are for him a distraction. Subordinates one level down are significant for him only to the extent that they do not harm, but help his career. Other managers on the same level as the parasite are competitors. To make them dirty, to disrupt their success, if at the same time it is possible not to be caught - this is normal behavior for the parasite. Well, the users in this picture are generally side-hot.
Say, if the head of the group decided that passengers on the boat needed a false nose and mustache, then the entire group of the corporate parasite working for this head would deal exclusively with noses and mustaches, and what kind of lifeboats are there in FIG? Here people are busy with business! Mustache! Noses!
Now, imagine that you were in a group with this corporate parasite manager. As a conscientious engineer, you know that lifeboats are needed, and it’s very difficult for you to convince yourself that mustaches and noses are more important than them. In general, you don’t really want to convince yourself of this. Self-deception is a poison for the mind of scientific and technical workers. We all intuitively know this and are afraid like fire. And now the whole group around you is forced to rush along the walls and ceiling, slurringly shouting “Noses!”, “Mustache!”, “Nose fastener!”, “Paint for mustache sheds !!!” ...
For you, this generally looks like some kind of absurd test of loyalty to direct bosses. And then, when it is discovered that the paint for the mustache is not only shedding, but also a carcinogen, AIM is turned on, and the loyalty test becomes even more difficult ... What can you do?
Usually there are three ways out, at least those that I know of:
1. Join a mustachioed crowd.
2. Continue to engage in lifeboats.
3. Leave.
So, the first option. By the way, he even has an almost logical explanation. In the end, the company put your manager over you to tell you what the company needs from you. Its' his job. How do you know that maybe the neighboring department has been busy with boats for a long time already, but they don’t tell you about it just because it is a secret super-duper project, which should expel all your competitors from the market, who are still mostly occupied with mustaches and noses? Try to tell your manager that he does not know what the company needs, and you know. In the best case, he will say that your job is to carry out his orders, and that this is written in your contract. By the way, the truth is spelled out, contracts are still being modeled on the industrial workers and feudal peasants, if not on the model of antiquity. And at worst, if you insist, they will simply fire you.
The trouble, however, is that your friend works in the next department and you know very well that no one is engaged in boats in the company. And to be the creator of the Titanic can be prestigious, but morally uncomfortable. In addition, joining the crowd does not save either. A corporate parasite is unethical in nature and does not pay bills. Even if you are harnessed to create noses and mustaches and create such that the parasite gets promoted, for you it most likely will not mean anything good. Well, yes, you made yourself a good stepping stone for the parasite, so stay there below. In general, you may not be sacrificed, but you won’t get any benefits from helping the parasite. He will most likely put in his place after the promotion the one who ran along the walls and screamed while you painted your noses ... That is, another parasite.
What is also remarkable, having joined the crowd, you yourself have become a corporate parasite. You began to do something contrary to the interests of the company and business for your personal interest - so that the parasite above you does not expel you from work. Go through this cycle several times, and it will never occur to you, which could be otherwise. And there, you look, and yourself learn to run along the walls. To do this, there is even a bunch of books that teaches similar things. Of course, you will not find words like “parasite” there, everything is decent and politically correct, but the essence is exactly that. And this is another way of the emergence of corporate parasites - education within the company with an already established parasitic culture.
These are the things with the first line of behavior. What about “keep playing your bagpipes” and make lifeboats. Yes, you can achieve that there will be enough boats on the boat and thousands of people will not drown. Question: at what cost to you? Parasites do not forgive such things, your “career” will scare everyone else in the group and make them obey the parasite. Omega, they are generally useful in rat flocks, and groups controlled by corporate parasites very quickly acquire all the features of a rat flock with an alpha leader, bull-bets and an obedient crowd of scales. And separate omega for whipping and example to everyone else. You’ll become such an omega until you get rid of you anyway. In general, option two is also unattractive.
As you understand, I mean that the most reasonable, in my opinion, is option number three - to leave. This is also called "vote with your feet." Of course, instead of you they will take someone who will run along the walls and practice noses, but sooner or later, if all normal people do the same, the group will not even include those who can paint their mustaches and sculpt their noses, and the group will be destroyed by the forces of evolution. Maybe one, maybe with the whole company, but in the end, the viability of the company is primarily the responsibility of senior managers. If they put the parasites on your bosses, why should you save the ship that the captain sent to the reefs?
I especially like the other wording of option three, made about two thousand years ago:“Do not give the shrine to the dogs and do not throw your pearls before the pigs, so that they do not trample it underfoot with their feet and, turning, do not tear you to pieces.” Does anyone need a link?
-
I already wrote on this topic, and today I would like to talk about another reason for the emergence of corporate parasites, and it was very unpleasant when it turned out to be your manager.
To get started, let's look at the relationship of a good manager with the outside world. He, of course, has good relations with his direct boss and the boss of his boss. It is from them that he receives a strategic direction, goals and objectives. At the same time, he has good relations with his subordinates at least two levels down. Two levels down is critical because it allows him to avoid or detect corporate parasites right below him. A relationship down is where he gets information about reality from technology and the possible. But that is not all. He also has good horizontal relationships with parallel managers, if possible. This allows him and his people to have normal cooperation, when the efforts of several groups are required to achieve results, that is, almost always. And finally he has a channel of information from users. It can be a relationship with marketing, it can be sitting on support forums, it can be regular trips to large customers, but it must be. This is a source of information about the reality of the field of application of efforts, what users need, what is not, what their problems are, in general, how they do this or that.
This was a good manager. A typical corporate parasite in this position has very good relations with the bosses at three (and if you're more lucky) levels up, but at the expense of all the other connections. People two levels down the corporate parasite usually do not care at all, they are for him a distraction. Subordinates one level down are significant for him only to the extent that they do not harm, but help his career. Other managers on the same level as the parasite are competitors. To make them dirty, to disrupt their success, if at the same time it is possible not to be caught - this is normal behavior for the parasite. Well, the users in this picture are generally side-hot.
Say, if the head of the group decided that passengers on the boat needed a false nose and mustache, then the entire group of the corporate parasite working for this head would deal exclusively with noses and mustaches, and what kind of lifeboats are there in FIG? Here people are busy with business! Mustache! Noses!
Now, imagine that you were in a group with this corporate parasite manager. As a conscientious engineer, you know that lifeboats are needed, and it’s very difficult for you to convince yourself that mustaches and noses are more important than them. In general, you don’t really want to convince yourself of this. Self-deception is a poison for the mind of scientific and technical workers. We all intuitively know this and are afraid like fire. And now the whole group around you is forced to rush along the walls and ceiling, slurringly shouting “Noses!”, “Mustache!”, “Nose fastener!”, “Paint for mustache sheds !!!” ...
For you, this generally looks like some kind of absurd test of loyalty to direct bosses. And then, when it is discovered that the paint for the mustache is not only shedding, but also a carcinogen, AIM is turned on, and the loyalty test becomes even more difficult ... What can you do?
Usually there are three ways out, at least those that I know of:
1. Join a mustachioed crowd.
2. Continue to engage in lifeboats.
3. Leave.
So, the first option. By the way, he even has an almost logical explanation. In the end, the company put your manager over you to tell you what the company needs from you. Its' his job. How do you know that maybe the neighboring department has been busy with boats for a long time already, but they don’t tell you about it just because it is a secret super-duper project, which should expel all your competitors from the market, who are still mostly occupied with mustaches and noses? Try to tell your manager that he does not know what the company needs, and you know. In the best case, he will say that your job is to carry out his orders, and that this is written in your contract. By the way, the truth is spelled out, contracts are still being modeled on the industrial workers and feudal peasants, if not on the model of antiquity. And at worst, if you insist, they will simply fire you.
The trouble, however, is that your friend works in the next department and you know very well that no one is engaged in boats in the company. And to be the creator of the Titanic can be prestigious, but morally uncomfortable. In addition, joining the crowd does not save either. A corporate parasite is unethical in nature and does not pay bills. Even if you are harnessed to create noses and mustaches and create such that the parasite gets promoted, for you it most likely will not mean anything good. Well, yes, you made yourself a good stepping stone for the parasite, so stay there below. In general, you may not be sacrificed, but you won’t get any benefits from helping the parasite. He will most likely put in his place after the promotion the one who ran along the walls and screamed while you painted your noses ... That is, another parasite.
What is also remarkable, having joined the crowd, you yourself have become a corporate parasite. You began to do something contrary to the interests of the company and business for your personal interest - so that the parasite above you does not expel you from work. Go through this cycle several times, and it will never occur to you, which could be otherwise. And there, you look, and yourself learn to run along the walls. To do this, there is even a bunch of books that teaches similar things. Of course, you will not find words like “parasite” there, everything is decent and politically correct, but the essence is exactly that. And this is another way of the emergence of corporate parasites - education within the company with an already established parasitic culture.
These are the things with the first line of behavior. What about “keep playing your bagpipes” and make lifeboats. Yes, you can achieve that there will be enough boats on the boat and thousands of people will not drown. Question: at what cost to you? Parasites do not forgive such things, your “career” will scare everyone else in the group and make them obey the parasite. Omega, they are generally useful in rat flocks, and groups controlled by corporate parasites very quickly acquire all the features of a rat flock with an alpha leader, bull-bets and an obedient crowd of scales. And separate omega for whipping and example to everyone else. You’ll become such an omega until you get rid of you anyway. In general, option two is also unattractive.
As you understand, I mean that the most reasonable, in my opinion, is option number three - to leave. This is also called "vote with your feet." Of course, instead of you they will take someone who will run along the walls and practice noses, but sooner or later, if all normal people do the same, the group will not even include those who can paint their mustaches and sculpt their noses, and the group will be destroyed by the forces of evolution. Maybe one, maybe with the whole company, but in the end, the viability of the company is primarily the responsibility of senior managers. If they put the parasites on your bosses, why should you save the ship that the captain sent to the reefs?
I especially like the other wording of option three, made about two thousand years ago:“Do not give the shrine to the dogs and do not throw your pearls before the pigs, so that they do not trample it underfoot with their feet and, turning, do not tear you to pieces.” Does anyone need a link?