The “obvious” answer to problems that highly-paid high-level management can’t solve (and likely they themselves caused) is to hire a highly-paid consultant who will agree with said management that low-level employees are the “obvious” problem. The solution the consultant (con + insult) advises is to suffocate efficiency with business models using lots of Japanese terms, and to constrict work flow with “lean manufacturing principles” that allow little flexibility in emergencies.
In no time at all, everybody will be fuming and work systems that have worked fine for years will melt down. In metaphor, the atmosphere of Venus — high temperature, crushing pressure, extremely toxic — will be attained. And the consultant will leave richer and go on to “improve” his next company victim.
And long-time employees will take early retirement. Young employees will find better jobs elsewhere. But mid-range employees will be marooned on the hostile work planet, marking their calendars as to years until retirement.
The “obvious” answer to problems that highly-paid high-level management can’t solve (and likely they themselves caused) is to hire a highly-paid consultant who will agree with said management that low-level employees are the “obvious” problem. The solution the consultant (con + insult) advises is to suffocate efficiency with business models using lots of Japanese terms, and to constrict work flow with “lean manufacturing principles” that allow little flexibility in emergencies.
In no time at all, everybody will be fuming and work systems that have worked fine for years will melt down. In metaphor, the atmosphere of Venus — high temperature, crushing pressure, extremely toxic — will be attained. And the consultant will leave richer and go on to “improve” his next company victim.
And long-time employees will take early retirement. Young employees will find better jobs elsewhere. But mid-range employees will be marooned on the hostile work planet, marking their calendars as to years until retirement.
(Yeah, it’s a true story…)