Demotivating your employees.

Hobbes

http://demotivation.com/synopsis.html

Heard it on the radio this morning and the guy was pretty serious sounding. He was going on about how all employees are narcissistic and will never amount to anything so it is better to demotivate them then motivate them as it keeps costs down.

So checked up on it. The book exists.

The website normally deals with Satire, but after reading some of portions of the book I'm not sure. Its pretty disturbing if companies start doing this (and I can see parallels in it in some companies).

The Aer Lingus mess is probably the tip of the iceberg.

WizZard

"Least valuable asset". Hmmph!

*note: If your title includes the word "Executive", but you serve a trivial, non-managerial function in your organization (e.g. "Account Executive"), you are not an executive.

Brilliant! Looks like a satire - hope it's a satire.

Civilian_Target

Yeah - read the FAQ - it has to be satire.

Sleepy

Satire it may be, but there's definitely a point in there

Dundhoone

na the book is for real. There was an article about it in the times(or the indo, not sure) this weekend. Written by some american univeristy professor and detailing how the "noble worker" is just a myth , that workers are all lazy and pampered by companies and take every opportunity to skive off/sickie day. basically that companies should keep their workers in a constant fear of losing their job in order to make fear the motivation.
Bloody right wing fecker!! and a university professor, one of the highest paid lazy arsed jobs going

Hobbes

It still has me guessing to be honest. The guy on the radio sounded deadly serious, some of the book seems really serious as well. Some of the comments are funny.

Book (Social distancing) wrote:

Proletariat fantisizes that "We all put our pants on one leg at a time" fail to reconise that your pants are made out of pure virgin high twist wool and cost several hundred dollars a pair, while thier pants are made out of cotten/poly blend and can be picked up for about twenty bucks.

Oh appears the book is for real, as is the Chairmans edition which has a goatskin cover...

Description wrote:

Bound to be The Best
No great work of art is achieved without suffering. The genuine goatskin* cover that not so long ago served merely to sheath the life-support system for a grazing mass of distasteful meat has been painstakingly transformed by leather artisans into a supple, full-grain book cover of unsurpassed elegance. Ignoble beast- in death thou art perfected.

* Vegetarians, ask about our Tofu option.

PatPete

A lot of the tactics mentioned for Aer Lingus have already been proven to work in other Irish companies- some quite large.
What cheeses me off is that IMPACT are familiar with the tactics and from other enterprises ment.

Hobbes

Ok I got the book. TBH it still has me guessing.

The invoice had "Inspected by: Your mom" written on it. Other parts of the invoice suggest satire as well.

The book on the other hand. While portions of it suggest satire it does not mention anywhere the book is supposed to be comedy. Some parts look like complete piss-takes, but a lot of it I can map to real world senarios.

AARRRGH

Well, banks are famous for trying to keep morale low so people will not expect raises, promotions etc. They break your spirit so you feel you can't get a job anywhere else.

The reason I know this is true? My father worked in a large bank and was involved in this policy.

nesf

Well, the whole noble worker thing... Hmmm.

Tbh having to read every thread on here has convinced me that they are either an extinct or endangered species


The best satire is that which is seems so believeable. The kind that that you have absolutely no trouble imagining or the kind that has you agreeing with it at times.

Imho.

Hobbes

The best satire is that which is seems so believeable

True but a lot of it has parrallels to actual business practices. For example:

Compensation, page 175 wrote:

suppose you have a department of 100 employees who make an average of $25,000 per year while the average salary for that job is $28,000 per year. Now suppose you have a variable compensation plan in which the top 20% of the employees in that department will earn an extra $5,000 bonus at the end of the year. A bonus that represents a 20% increase in one's pay has a very controlling influence, but if the bonuses were averaged amoung the entire department they would represent only a $1,000 increase in pay per person. In this example, paying a large bonus would still generate a 9% savings over the average salary rate.

... Here is what I think. The book is total Satire with a grain of truth in it. However from what I have read so far now I am convinced that one or more managers, etc have read this thinking its for real. Employees performance review tips for example are disturbing.

nesf

I haven't read the book so I don't know tbh, but the parts you are quoting defintely have a grain of truth in them.

I'm sure we've all seen such practices in the workplace either directly or indirectly.

Although perhaps you could say that the workplace of today is a satire. It's just that your average worker hasn't noticed yet.

Victor

I heard an interview, I think on the Last Word, witht he interviewee condemning the culture of motivational speakers in a slightly facetious tone, but with a strong grounding in truth (remember the best jokes are mostly true).

Dundhoone wrote:

basically that companies should keep their workers in a constant fear of losing their job in order to make fear the motivation.

The difference being some think:

"companies should keep their workers in a constant fear of losing their job",

while others think:

"companies should keep their workers in a constant fear".

CV Specialist

Victor wrote:

The difference being some think:

"companies should keep their workers in a constant fear of losing their job",

while others think:

"companies should keep their workers in a constant fear".

If only the thinking was, 'Companies should keep their workers happy, and workers should keep their companies productive.'

Nightwish

sounds familiar- ross o carroll kelly's da, anyone?