That attitude [toward management] has enormous background and implications for me. I worked through the critical “management” years of my career working for the man, I had my cubicle and my paycheck. Unlike most people, I fully realized that because of that work, I was missing out on the lessons of self-employment that would become important later. (Fortunately, I got out in time to re-capture the skills.) The formula is well-known, if you turn 35 and you are still managing people instead of moving to upper management and making the real money decisions, shall we say there is a hotel in your future.I have always been a foremost opponent and critic of the North American brand of middle-management. If you hire a man to do a job and leave him alone to do it, he doesn’t need management, at least not on a daily or hourly basis. If your thinking is contrary, he furthermore doesn’t need any management from you, ever. This enormity of waste in our management practice is totally apparent to overseas competition.
Just because America has middle-class doesn’t mean we should also have middle-management. Take another close look at which American jobs have disappeared in the past 15 years. All those industries were bloated by middle-managers, all no doubt sold on themselves as firm believers in “scientific management”. The displaced workers are bewildered because they knew they were doing their job right. There are still jobs left but could that be because those jobs have no guess-what? By cutting the fat, the Asians save half their production costs right there.
I’m not saying the Asian model is superior because it probably is not. Their management chart doubles as a family tree. I’m saying they have no people managers. Instead, a foreman for roughly every 60 employees, and nobody gets that foreman job until they are an expert at every last step of the way. Big time. Contrast that to how many “managers” I’ve had with [an MBA but] no clue how to do my job. They only knew how to criticize [sometimes laughingly called an ‘employee evaluation’] and give lame pep talks. Like that perennial customer always being right bull and that enduring 80/20 rule they think they invented.
Two incidents of note today. Rankin, who I am now fairly certain is the owner of Findiit.com has been in touch. He is as strapped for cash as any startup. I let him know he can contact me if he needs any allies in this part of the world. In return, I’d like him to tell me how he, as he says, learned to created an interactive web site entirely on his own in a few months. As you know, I have failed at this for years. Not failed, because I haven’t quit yet, but a simple dead-end can stall me for months. I have nobody to turn to that is anywhere near my league in what I’m attempting.
Second, a sincerely interested party has come back a second time to look at the room. She is a language teacher, quite the respectable-sounding school marm type, and recognizes this place as a bargain if you value a hassle-free home life. The past 18 months have been hard but I know this place was the right decision for everyone. If she moves in, I can assure Wallace everything will keep in perfect order when he is away. And maybe he’ll be tempted to stay here longer, which was the original idea. He says I have all the energy, but in fact he is the one who always wants to go somewhere and I have to decline the invite because I’m exhausted.
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