Reply to: Jonah

[vetran]

Mysteriously, some are never ever seen again. but the flavour lingers

FTFY

[BrilloPad]

Normally anywhere I work just shuts down.

Now that's what I call being a proper Jonah.

I bring my own whale.

Is that because all the employees leave because they have been probed?

[Eirikur]

The work I do often result in redundancies as this is what they hire me for

[jmo21]

I have had 4 contracts now and each and every one has had an element of staff redundancy

1st one they canned the entire consultancy and brought it in house
2nd one new Head of IT came in and canned all contractors
3rd one two company's merge and all contractors put on notice
4th one (current) all permies being canned and dev functions being outsourced (I am helping with transition)

Is this normal and part and parcel of the contractor lot or “YANCOTBAC”

I've never seen any of that in any of my contracts. (seen redundancies a few times in my permie days) so I guess we are extremes at either end of the spectrum.

[EternalOptimist]

"this fellow" in that case being a bored British classics graduate in, some army camp at the end of WW2 or shortly thereafter, and fed up with being shunted around apparently pointlessly.

Petronius never (in his surviving writing anyway) said anything like the above. It's like those fake motivational Einstein quotes that adorn the walls at clientco, such as "Creativity is intelligence having fun".

[TestMangler]

"this fellow" in that case being a bored British classics graduate in, some army camp at the end of WW2 or shortly thereafter, and fed up with being shunted around apparently pointlessly.

Petronius never (in his surviving writing anyway) said anything like the above. It's like those fake motivational Einstein quotes that adorn the walls at clientco, such as "Creativity is intelligence having fun".

Love a motivational poster...

[OwlHoot]

I've seen a little bit of this, but not as much as you or this fellow

'We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised.
I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation'

Caius Petronius-Roman Consul AD60

"this fellow" in that case being a bored British classics graduate in, some army camp at the end of WW2 or shortly thereafter, and fed up with being shunted around apparently pointlessly.

Petronius never (in his surviving writing anyway) said anything like the above. It's like those fake motivational Einstein quotes that adorn the walls at clientco, such as "Creativity is intelligence having fun".

[xoggoth]

'We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised.
I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation'

Caius Petronius-Roman Consul AD60

That brings back memories. There was a poster with that on it at a place I used to work. Was taken over by a Frog company.

[OwlHoot]

Change the culture so the job goes to the chap who can say "At my last place, I could see that nothing needed doing, so I left well alone."

With extra kudos if the chap's or chapess's last place was the House of Commons.

(My impression is the House of Lords already mostly has this highly desirable culture.)

[EternalOptimist]

Ahem.

In recent times, a popular quotation (actually by Charlton Ogburn, 1957[1]) on reorganization is often (but spuriously[2][3]) attributed to a Gaius Petronius.

His satire on the vulgar excesses of the the ex-slave Trimalchio is worth a read though. He was also a close confidant and adviser of fashion to Nero.

yikes. you are probably right. In any event, I found a great site called quote investigator

[Gibbon]

I've seen a little bit of this, but not as much as you or this fellow

'We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised.
I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation'

Caius Petronius-Roman Consul AD60

Ahem.

In recent times, a popular quotation (actually by Charlton Ogburn, 1957[1]) on reorganization is often (but spuriously[2][3]) attributed to a Gaius Petronius.

His satire on the vulgar excesses of the the ex-slave Trimalchio is worth a read though. He was also a close confidant and adviser of fashion to Nero.

[TestMangler]

I've seen a little bit of this, but not as much as you or this fellow

'We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised.
I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation'

Caius Petronius-Roman Consul AD60

Fairly sure he's now IT Director at Lloyds

[JRCT]

Standard for British business. Managers get raises/bonuses/promotions/new jobs by saying "I did X, Y, and Z", and nobody enquires too closely into whether any of it actually needed doing.

Change the culture so the job goes to the chap who can say "At my last place, I could see that nothing needed doing, so I left well alone."

It's interesting you say that. I've said in more than one interview that one of the best things I ever achieved in my last permie role was persuading the FD NOT to implement a new software solution and just to use the one we already had a bit better.

It took some doing, but eventually she agreed. Saved them thousands - not that I got any thanks for it. F%^&*£$rs!

[Jubber]

I've seen a little bit of this, but not as much as you or this fellow

'We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised.
I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation'

Caius Petronius-Roman Consul AD60

You love a gladiator don't you ?

[EternalOptimist]

I've seen a little bit of this, but not as much as you or this fellow

'We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised.
I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising: and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation'

Caius Petronius-Roman Consul AD60