More Management Insanity

If ever I needed further proof that the world has gone mad, it arrived in my work e-mail inbox today.  I had an e-mail, from management, inviting me to attend the opening of the very building I was sitting in, reading the said e-mail.  Now, two obvious points spring to mind here.  The first is that I work in the bloody building, so I have no choice but to be there on that day - I'm there every bloody working day, for God's sake.  The second is that the building is, quite obviously, already open - as witnessed by the fact that I work there and was reading the e-mail  inviting me to its opening at my desk in that very building.  Indeed, we've all been working there since the beginning of August and the place has been fully occupied since September.  So, by any definition of 'open', the building has been 'open' for nearly four months.  But not 'officially', apparently.  It seems for all of the past few weeks, as far as the Department is concerned, we haven't really been there.  The e-mail ended by asking to respond to say whether I would be attending or not - well, as I work there I really have no choice but to be in the building, so why are you bloody asking?

Anyway, this is sadly all too typical of what passes for management these days - they seem to be living in a strange parallel universe, where buildings aren't open until they say they are, despite staff having been working there for months.  They seem to engage in endless meetings, none of which ever seem to actually achieve anything, rather than actually managing staff.  Indeed, instead of managing staff, they keep imposing new working practices - formulated on the basis of non-consultation with the people actually doing the job - which seem to have no relation to the actuality of the job.  Ironically, although these schemes are promoted as increasing efficiency, they generally result in chaos, as they leave staff with no idea of what they are doing and, as they lack any management support, all at sea with regard to the job.  But what the Hell, we can all go the official opening - with a buffet lunch provided by the contractors who refurbished the building, (which means it will probably consist of a couple of Big Macs and fries on a rickety table, if their other handiwork is anything to go by).