Kiss and Tell

It seems to me that there is a new breed of worker in the American workplace these days...an obsequious, butt-sucking employee who has no goal in mind other than self-aggrandizement and monetary gain, usually at the expense of efficiency and quality worksmanship.

I guess I can't blame these types--after all, they seem to be the ones that current management want in positions of middle-management. Because they are all about self gain, they make nice puppets for management: easily controlled, unable to think independently, they are the perfect go-betweens for management. Unfortunately, they are not what the workers want in a supervisory capacity. Workers want someone who understands their job, the needs of the company, and the problems faced on a day-to-day basis.

This new breed of pissant, who are in place mainly to report directly to management on the vagaries of the employees, cannot hope to function alongside their "co-workers", since they are not truly workers at all. They are middle level, pencil-pushing functionaries at best, and at worst, are the bane of all true workers. This is especially true in today's work environment, when so many smaller companies are becoming, in part, employee-owned.

I long for the days when supervisory posts were earned, not by kissing butt, but by showing a knowledge of the company's needs and a thorough grounding in the skills required to meet those needs.

Hear that sound? That's two lips smooching a manager's butt cheeks...

And so it goes...