We have just spent the like six years or so in the midst of a reality TV craze. It seems like every show that came out was a reality show. While I am glad they seem to be dying down finally there is one kind of show I wish I got to see, Corporate Reality TV. Am I the only one that would have been interested in this type of show? It is clear this could never happen because no company would ever agree to allow themselves to be put on national TV. Not only would their competition look for important information they typically dig through dumpsters to find (dont laugh, it happens) but we would also get to see just how ridiculous corporate America really is. I happen to be in management for a large international insurance company. I am confident that the majority of companies out there operate in a very similar way to my company. I am a front-line manager so I am still the one listening to the orders. Upper management holds meetings and conference calls constantly. They always ask us to spend more time with our people when they end the fourth conference call of the day. I have been in my current position for approximately eighteen months. I do not recall being on one conference call that was of any value. I know for a fact that these conference calls are not effective because I spend the majority of the call emailing my peers who are also venting to how useless the call is. If you really look around your place of employment you can see just how many things would be comical to a viewer from the outside. A recent example that comes to mind has to do with the newest push to encourage diversity. I do not think this is a joke if it is handled properly, especially my company that is 80% white people. We just passed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. My company, who has never celebrated it before to the best of my knowledge, suddenly required every office to have a contest on who could have the best MLK Day celebration. We were asked to take pictures and submit them to upper management to pick the winner for the contest. Here is the best part, they would not reveal who the winner was to anyone but the winning office, and they did not reveal the prize. These are the types of things I think would be extremely enjoyable to watch on TV. Whose brilliant idea was this whole thing? If it is that important, why wouldnt you publicly honor the winning office rather than keeping it a secret? My guess is that they really had no intention of picking a winner or offering a prize. I think they just said that to get people to do something for this holiday now that diversity it the hot topic. Sometimes I would also like to see just how the butt-kissing chain works from an outsiders view as well. How does anything get done when all people do is kiss their supervisors butt? I am not and will not ever be a butt-kisser and this clearly has an affect on my career. There are so many dynamics that exist in the workplace. Rather than watching some has-been celebrities trying to learn to ice skate maybe Fox can pull off this idea and we can get some real entertainment on the boob tube. |
