7 November 2008 Friday – Political correctness and crap management

Daveed’s parents seem to have spent the night with him again. I see them heading off in the direction of town with empty shopping bags.
I carry on scanning slides into the computer and listen to Mr Archer’s “Prisoner of Birth” on my MP3 player whilst I work.
I am not a J.A. fan, and the story is just too far fetched for words, but if you suspend your disbelief at the impossibility of it all, it is a good listen.

Late afternoon the tenant’s car leave. Hooray! I go out and turn my car round so that I can drive nose first onto the road tomorrow morning when I go shopping.
In the evening, S, HB and I have a Skype conference. This disables using the web cams and it is difficult to know when there will be a gap to speak. You can have up to 24 people in a conference at the same time, but that would be very difficult to manage.
I get a brief email from Ex-libris, my new blog follower. She is going to Britany for a holiday. I hope the weather gets better soon.
I keep an eye on the British news. The latest stupidity is from the councils who have banned their staff from using any Latin phrases. Just when I was not getting used to “baa baa rainbow sheep”, and Noddy and Big Ears not sleeping together any more. Next step will be to burn all the books with words longer than two syllables, and of course all the paintings whose content is not crystal clear to the viewer, same for sculpture too. We can keep that Emin bird’s bird sculpture in Liverpool though as it looks just like a real bird. Now that’s what real Council’s call art!
Perhaps the F***w**s in Weston will keep the burnt Grand Pier as it is, call it art and change its name to “Unfinished Pier” and charge an entrance fee to look at it.
Damn they think of everything!
In France they appear to respect authors and artists, and value their contribution to society.
It was S’s last working day today. It never ceases to amaze and disappoint me that all of the management that I have ever been within earshot of is so piss poor.
The real tragedy of it is, that lacking the knowledge, skills in management and social skills, they seal themselves into a little safety bubble and ignore what is going on in that nasty world around them. I suspect that they do not realise how useless they are and the demoralising effect that they have on their staff and on to the service that management should be providing.
They may talk the talk, but they do not have the least idea what it all really means.
They should be constantly reviewing their own performance, seeking honest opinions about their performance from below and above, and then doing something to improve themselves. Heaven forbid that they should set an honourable, hard working caring example for their staff to follow.
Leader? ship? Titanic more like. They will not change, because if they should by some chance ask themselves the question, they think they are doing a good job. Nope the thought would not arise in the first place.
Please get a grip ladies and gentlemen and stop being so self centred, ignorant, small minded, technologically ignorant, rude and lazy as you coast towards your pensions or your promotions. Yes this applies to you. Be open to new ideas, listen, and do not just pay lip service to your staff and customers. Get off your arses, out of your offices, out of your comfort zones and tackle the difficult things.
Don’t just appoint useless clones who have no management experience to management positions, where they can only have a negative and demoralising effect on those that they manage.
Make sure that they have a proven track record. Speak to those who have been “managed” by them.
If you are not prepared to manage, ship out and let the people who are capable of managing make the difference. Life can be hard enough without being managed by a bunch of headless chickens.
What? You’re late for your lunch appointment? Oh well you had better go then.
Rant over….
Any similarities to persons "alive" or deceased in the above rant is entirely unintentional and coincidental....