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I worked most of my post-college working life in corporate America. I left for about 4 years and now I am returning.
I've been interviewing a lot and I've been feeling "out of place" during the interviews, I could not put my finger on it but it dawned on me today.......the environments and people are very uptight and are like robots.
I guess I never noticed it while I was working in the corporate world but after stepping away and now retuning, I was able to clearly see it.
Hopefully my e-commerce websites will do well and I will not have to spend to much more time working for anyone else.
I am in my first big corporate office job - most of my job experience is in small and mid sized businesses - and what I see in "corporate America" is a lot of fear and paranoia on the parts of the employees. People are afraid to make decisions or rock the boat. The CYA'ing is over the top. People are defensive.
(But I have also noticed that generally, people are very nice as it's company policy that people be nice and helpful to one another, and they are nice, much nicer than the small businesses where you could be at the mercy of any one "strong" personality.)
There's a big disconnect between the top and the front lines. That's why that show that's on Sunday about a boss trying to do the actual work is entertaining - often they can't. The top guy doesn't really know what the job involves at the other levels.
And because things don't work well, they keep adding middle layers when streamlining works better. If one middle manager or VP can't do his job right, they get him an assistant, and then that position gets an assistant. Paper moves very slowly - sitting on many desks getting approval after approval - but the higher ups don't even know what they're approving really - it's just to make the lower guys nervous.
The only reason things go on at all is because the front lines keep on plugging away, trying to get the work out. Or they keep on goofing off and the middle and top doesn't know it. If they sense a problem they'll call for yet another meeting to put all the heads together, the heads that don't really know what's happening on the front lines anyhow, they'll discuss it and have to report back with some spreadheet and action plan -- and life at the front lines goes on as always until they get hit with a layoff.
I like that show too malamute. But I think it could go further, I know for a fact that many of the line managers in my company couldn't do the jobs that they manage. I really do think that even though it would be a hassle that every company would make management at least spend a couple days a years working in the departments that they manage. They could discover huge issues that they never knew existed.
I agree--- there are tons of corporations of all sizes and personalities.
I have worked for some real crap ones, but I work at a really great place now.
We have some problems-- sometimes there are decisions that are not made as fast as I would like but overall the culture is the best I have experienced and I actually really enjoy my coworkers and department.
I worked most of my post-college working life in corporate America. I left for about 4 years and now I am returning.
I've been interviewing a lot and I've been feeling "out of place" during the interviews, I could not put my finger on it but it dawned on me today.......the environments and people are very uptight and are like robots.
I guess I never noticed it while I was working in the corporate world but after stepping away and now retuning, I was able to clearly see it.
Hopefully my e-commerce websites will do well and I will not have to spend to much more time working for anyone else.
Needless to say, the feeling I had was "creepy".
I was working at a small online media company, very laid back, very employee friendly, drank at work on Fridays, etc.
Got laid off when the economy turned bad. Landed a job at orbitz paying very well plus opportunities for bonuses. Walked out of a meeting on day two, couldn't take the corporate atmosphere.
I think a lot of the problem is that the middle layer of management in corporate america insulates the top level management from the 1st line supervisors. I work for a fortune 100 company and the things that go on there and the amount of money they waste is absurd. Upper level management comes up with these new brainstorm processes to save money (supposedly) and more than 75 percent don't work, but lower level management tells them how great they work, and upper management pats themselves on the back and congratulate each other on what a great idea it was. One of the biggest that sticks out in my mind is they came out with a new repair and return process for the repair/replacement of telecom/networking equipment, components and cards. The process is labor intensive and nobody wants to go thru the aggrevation or time to do it correctly, so rather than follow the process, anything that is broken which would have normally been sent for repair, gets thrown in the dumpster! Then a new replacement is ordered in 1/10 the time it would have taken to follow the process. The 1st line supervisors support this because they don't want us wasting time to do it the way the big guys want. When the upper management asks how the new process is working, they tell them "fantastic" because they don't want to speak against upper managements ideas. It is costing them MILLIONS of dollars a year and the people who dreamed the idea up are bragging about how well it works!
This is just one example as there are many others. It's sad. We have had several technical people email the CEO and COO of the company and try to enlighten them as to what is going on, but they are painted as "crazy" or complainers, whiners or worse down at a lower level of management and then are magically terminated for some BS reason to get rid of them and shut them up. Then, we are all threatened to "keep our mouths shut" and "don't even think about emailing anyone" about the problems or you will end up like the last guy who did. Nice. Love corporate america. They have the "golden handcuffs" on me, because I am well paid and get a generous vacation/bonus package, so I stay even though it is horrible and I hate the place and most of the people I work with. The sad part is, I am not the only one in this position.
Then, you have the people who say "oh if it's so bad, get another job" but that is MUCH easier said then done when you are in a specialized field.
I was working at a small online media company, very laid back, very employee friendly, drank at work on Fridays, etc.
Got laid off when the economy turned bad. Landed a job at orbitz paying very well plus opportunities for bonuses. Walked out of a meeting on day two, couldn't take the corporate atmosphere.
Um, congratulations I guess?
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