Bad company?

Wisdom from elsewhere:

Readers Doug Schulek-Miller and Marilyn Kennedy provide the following test:

Are the following “true” or “false” with respect to your company?

1. In the past six months, management has made a series of decisions so inexplicable that most of us have no idea what the organisation is trying to do.
2. My boss often makes a decision and after everyone is working on implementation, reverses it.
3. In the past year, several top performers have quit without first getting new jobs.
4. As I look at my co-workers, I see many of them on the verge of burnout and some are constantly on the edge of hysteria.
5. I have serious doubts that the organisation will survive. I can see it being bought or merged. 
6. The grapevine is always active. There are no quiet periods but each new outrage excites the troops less.
7. If I were asked to explain why we do something in a particular way, I’d say that I don’t know.
8. Most of the long-time employees in my area would be unemployable elsewhere.
9. My boss would not be able to get the same kind of job elsewhere.
10. We are sitting on a time bomb. The organisation’s most important product/service is not competitive. Management now puts more emphasis on individual style.
11. Productivity is gradually declining everywhere. There used to be a few highly productive areas but they’ve given up.
12. Management has made gurus of its least productive but longest-term employees.
13. Punishment for asking “why” and “how” questions is swift and certain.

If you were to answer “True” to 8 or more of these questions, one might ask why you are still working where you are, or why your company hasn’t called in outside help.

Bob’s Last Word:

Eight? The economy must really be bad …

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