i thunk so

I’m guessing my multi-part series on the banality and and ineffectiveness of middle management will go on for awhile, so I’d like to keep from piling on all at once. I’ll attempt to keep my comments focused on a few key points in each of the posts of this series.

For now, back to the show…

Remember the movie Jerry Maguire? Remember when he wrote that memo called “The Things We Think and Do Not Say”? Well I want to write a memo to middle managers everywhere. I think I’m going to call it “The Things You Say that Nobody Really Believes”.

There’s a new project coming, and I think you’re really gonna like it!
Middle managers are usually dismally deficient when it comes to the ability to inspire. Chances are if this project is going to be managed in much the same way as the project I’m currently working on, my top priority is going to be contemplating new and exciting ways to kill myself.

We have great opportunities for advancement here
Oh really? Do you mean it? Someday I may actually get to be just like you?

This company has an open-door policy
Is that supposed to be a perk? Let’s be honest. Do any of you really feel comfortable with the idea of going over your manager’s head to gripe to his superior? When has that ever ended well for anyone?

I don’t want to sound cliché, but…
Then you should probably just stop talking right now.

Of course there are worse things about middle management than their pathetic attempts at inspiration, but the point still should be made that people — normal people who actually do the work — respond to leadership by example, not a social class of professional elites incapable of drawing their own conclusions or formulating ideas of their own.

Filed by JP at 9:20 am under Opinions, Business