Here’s my concern with the just released Steve Jobs biography… Guys, Steve Jobs is a really popular figure.  He transcends business culture and pop culture.  He’s an icon, bla, bla, bla… This all means that everyone, everywhere is going to get a copy of this book for Christmas.  Which also means that for those of us who work in an office environment (i.e. me), work in the new year is going to be an infuriating hell. There are going to be sooooo many middle management types who read this book, get inspired by Jobs’ cut throat, non traditional management ways, and will then try to shake things up at work.  The problem being that they underestimate the size of their domain. This means help desk agents will be told to “think differently” about the way they engage their jobs, even through they have rigid scripts which they have to follow in perpetuity.  This means salespeople will be asked to radically re-envision their product despite the fact they sell a commodity and are compensated on volume. TL;DR - here comes a well intentioned but grossly delusional and ultimately troublesome bunch of flavour of the month management changes for all of us. Boo!  I’m gonna quit in 2012 and follow my dreams of becoming a coffee roaster or something.

Here’s my concern with the just released Steve Jobs biography…

Guys, Steve Jobs is a really popular figure.  He transcends business culture and pop culture.  He’s an icon, bla, bla, bla… This all means that everyone, everywhere is going to get a copy of this book for Christmas.  Which also means that for those of us who work in an office environment (i.e. me), work in the new year is going to be an infuriating hell.

There are going to be sooooo many middle management types who read this book, get inspired by Jobs’ cut throat, non traditional management ways, and will then try to shake things up at work.  The problem being that they underestimate the size of their domain.

This means help desk agents will be told to “think differently” about the way they engage their jobs, even through they have rigid scripts which they have to follow in perpetuity.  This means salespeople will be asked to radically re-envision their product despite the fact they sell a commodity and are compensated on volume.

TL;DR - here comes a well intentioned but grossly delusional and ultimately troublesome bunch of flavour of the month management changes for all of us.

Boo!  I’m gonna quit in 2012 and follow my dreams of becoming a coffee roaster or something.

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  1. cameronr said: So true. So very true.
  2. pineforcedars said: One of my co-worker’s dreams is also to become a coffee roaster. She’s already researched the logistics and everything. Have you seen the Parks & Rec episode where Chris tries to change the office with fancy swedish desks?
  3. vanmega posted this