Bad Habits are People.

I recently worked for a largish company, almost corporation sized. I did an OK job there, and for my first year I worked ridiculously hard. My bosses worked hard. The company did well.

Then there was a change of management. They seemed to be obviously quite unintelligent people, incurious, and definitely not hard workers in the coal miner sense of the term. What I'd later learn was they were smart, just not in a way I had been experienced with. Their intelligence was the ability to control their own job. They'd delegate all work to get done by others then presented back in form they could perform a 2 minute spit and polish and presented as their own. They define to their own managers what good job performance looks like, and make sure these are results that could be achieved without them bothering to turn up. Those targets are presented to their own managers in a format they could present to their managers. These targets are sold as almost impossible. If we come close, we've all done an amazing job. The CEO then tells the board the same, these targets are impossibly ambitious. If we get there, we've done an amazing job.

It's not hard to guess what happens. At the end of the financial year, beyond all expectations, the company has exceeded the targets. The management hits the town for strippers and mutual fellacio.

The other intelligence these managers have is to sniff out anybody who might threaten contamination of their safe biodome of bullshit. If it's a entry level employee, when the bullshit perpetrators are promoted ahead of them, they'll leave by natural attrition. Same goes for the lower management. As long as everybody plays along, stays on message, then nobody asks questions. Sometimes a competent manager is mistakenly recruited. When the competent manager attempts to effect change but finds all management content to believe the bullshit which has fattened them for years without effort, why would they listen? Either the competent manager leaves or learns to go along.

Meanwhile, back on the company floor, things are a complete mess. Nothing changes. And the dysfunction which has always existed will always exist. Waste continues, man hours paid to a zillion employees who serve no practical purpose, and opportunities are wasted because nobody is allowed to chase them.

I think back and all the difficulties and excuses I made to not lose weight was self fulfilling bullshit. Arguements of the fattened establishment.

Real change requires removal of bullshit. And usually the source of bullshit is people. If you surround yourself with nothing but the truth, sooner or later things must change