Cafe Hitch-hike

2024-01-24

Differences between the book and what really happens

Random thoughts to a management course: OMFG, I don’t think any of this was. ever. attempted in the building. All I know was that a crony of a long-passed building grand pubah had a major task they were way underqualified to do. The crony’s power came from their gatekeeping ability: they determined what did or did not get processed, and they typically only processed what they felt like doing. I know I’m not exaggerating. Well, they got their comeuppance once our current GP was wise to their game, and they promptly retired. I heard the crony left the building’s finance a serious mess, but thankfully we got a brilliant CPA who was able to solve most of it within a year.

Planning? Who the hell can plan? Everything is in a flux. The name of the game is to throw bodies into a position as soon as possible, provided that they actually can get through the harrowing process known as hiring.

Oh, yeah, the hiring office has also been a revolving door since Covid. Most of their staff gave the institution and its chief financial officer (who was also on their way out) a big ‘fuck off’ before they went their merry ways. They’ve had a hard time keeping people since and are running on fumes. Like most departments in our institution, the organizational knowledge left and those who come in have to learn the job itself, mostly on their own, and they leave because they’re getting burned out by getting piled high and deep with doing the jobs of 2 people or more.

Like every other department in our institution.

Talent acquisition and development, was ist das?. Maybe the closest the word ‘talent’ came in the building was maybe me thinking of ‘local talent.’ I laughed so hard when tonight’s reading recommended ‘separation incentives’ for those whose skills or performance just isn’t cutting it. The norm in the building was to let people just coast along until they decide to retire or move on. They had a guy working there who hardly did any work for at least 4 years.

So…. management class. I will learn this because it is interesting. There had been plenty of places I’ve been in where knowledge didn’t prevail but who had the biggest mouth or could throw the most outrageous tantrum. I’ll still (attempt) to commit this to memory cos…. maybe it will come in handy someday like after the apocalypse, when people like me enter positions of authority and power.

Yeah, it will come in handy when I find myself in the position of warlady in the badlands. Thanks to my management class, I’ll be able to appraise the skills of the survivors or scrappy folk, and figure out how we can feed ourselves, care for our young, perhaps educate them, defend our shire, and we’d have a relatively decent quality of life. Talent management indeed! At least I can say college gave me something useful!

It also makes me think of the courses I took in my teacher training. I’d discuss my lesson plan based on what I was taught in training with my collaborating teacher. It was not unusual for the CT to look at me like, ‘WTF?’. I got to work with 3 and they all said the teacher training program needed a class called Reality 101. Two were good teachers, too.

Well, the funny thing is I’m still using that training even though I didn’t end up working as a teacher. I used the training and Reality 101 on my job and in my own work. Sometimes I was able to do my thing.

It’s just really something to see the difference between what things say in the books versus what really happens and how all of that looks. I’m just venting…. carry on!

downwind | upstream