I have had several colleagues over the past twenty years who were in
typically "bureaucratic" organizations, i.e. government, who were in the
throes of changing administrations. One was very much involved in planning
activities for one very large agency, while the other was in the same type
of function within a division of the agency. One was demoted to perform
non-functions in his office for over six months (same pay), while the
other was "promoted" to a higher status executive group for a short
period, followed by a nose-dive upon the change in administration.
Each suffered enormously professionally, socially and emotionally. One was
able to obtain another post outside government, while the other suffered
from isolation and almost died from resulting stress illness.
I am glad that there have been several postings recently which address the
sad fact of social and professional isolation resulting from management's
actions. While I don't have stats to support the statement, I would
venture to say that major corporations are no different than governmental
beaucracies. Each deals with "problem employees" as social illnesses, and
while some employees may indeed need professional counseling resulting
perhaps in termination, more often it is the imposition of heavy-handed
managers who are themselves encouraged to "deal with" such employees. As
Robert Bacal notes, a compentent performer of yesterday may be displaying
a normal human reaction to an abusive "boss/manager".
I truly believe this is the norm, not the exception. Any stats out there
to support either view?
Regards,
John Constantine
Rainbird Management Consulting
Santa Fe, NM
--John Constantine <rainbird@trail.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>