Stormbringer's Thunder

Buona sera.  It's been a while since I talked about my buddy Neil. Since he had some circumstances that fit in with what I've been talking about off and on the past few months, he's in the spotlight. Wave to the nice people, Neil. I'm telling your story. At the Big Soulless Corporation where he works, there was a kind of "meet and greet" for new employees. One of the higher-level managers facilitated the thing, made announcements, had people introduce themselves and so on. Some of the questions he asked made Neil a bit introspective. He went up to that manager later, after most of the crowd had dispersed, and said that he had changed a great deal over the past few years. "In what ways?", the manager asked. Neil mentioned that he liked reading apologetics and logic things (including mine). When asked, "What the hell is apologetics?", Neil told him that it was the defense and presentation of the Bible and Christian faith. "Oh...

Listen, don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of businesses making a profit. Also, I don't hate the rich (after all how many poor people can give you a job, huh?).What grinds my gears is when any employer, big or little, will take advantage of the employees. I was pondering some of the stories that Neil told me about his cheapskate but very large Fortune 100 company. First, they claim to be interested in "diversity". Their propaganda has phrases like this: Diversity is about having a broad mix of talent in our operations A diverse workforce offers unique perspectives, ideas and solutions [With] diverse workforce, we can better meet the needs of the increasing multicultural clients, communities and individuals Build teams that bring together varied points of view to generate unique ideas and business solutions Age, experience, gender, ethnic backgrounds all contribute to a grand and glorious whole (my summary of some of their other propaganda)   And so o...

Neil's place of employment has been a source of articles for me on what is wrong with Big Corporate America. Mind you, I have nothing against big corporations or the rich, because poor people cannot provide jobs. I object to arrogance and stupidity in high places, however. The very rich and the very powerful tend to get arrogant and act stupidly. It's almost humorous, except that they hurt people and tell them that they are helping them. In this case, Neil's huge employer had a presentation for the employees. (You know, the "human capital" that gets used up and then discarded.) There was a list of the benefits that are given. In order to pad the list and make themselves into heroes, the bosses listed "benefits" that are required by law in the first place, and also benefits that are given by practically any sizable employer (such as having Christmas off). In other words, Neil wanted to ask (but did not dare), "So what are you doing that's diffe...

Trust in the business world. In a word, fuggedaboudit. Or, to borrow from Tony Montana, "What, are you nuts?" I've learned from my own experiences, from the experiences of co-workers and from simply reading articles that trust is not something you give away freely. You have to be slow and sparing when you give trust in the worlds of government, espionage, counterespionage, organized crime and big business. All of these have elements in common in their organizational structures and interactions. Trust has to be earned, and it has to be earned slowly. I trust some members of my crew more than others. Some of them, I trust with my life. But guess what? I do not trust anyone one hundred percent! That is "thinking" with emotions, frankly. And in my businesses, you can't let emotions interfere. "Can I trust anyone at all, Uncle Bob?" It depends on how much you want to survive (literally or professionally). If you're not interested in friendship at th...

Today's thundering rant has some advice for business executives. Uncle Bob has been hearing some unpleasant things from Neil and his friends. Too bad I can't get them to join my crew. It's dangerous and sometimes borderline legal, but my organization shows appreciation. Well, I do, anyway. Neil's department at a huge Fortune 500 soulless company is run from ivory towers with incompetent stronzos. They have to process forms in a "timely manner", and the semi-sentient subhumanoids that run the show have made the situation worse by quadrupling the work load and not providing extra staff to cover the work. The amazing thing is that the upper managers have no concept of how the work is done! They just come up with schemes and make things worse. And yes, the people that actually do the work resent the meddling of the ivory tower managers. Let me interject something that puzzles me here. How is it that his department resents having a manager that has no experience i...

Buona sera. I received some distressing news from Neil. (Yes, he's fine and the Bulletproof Bitch's influence is less pronounced in his life.) He works for a huge company that shall remain nameless for now. It's a "Fortune 500" company with international activities. They count their profits in the tens of millions of dollars each quarter of the year. The distressing news? No raises this year. Neil's company sent out a memo announcing that not only would there be no raises ("economic uncertainties"), but employees should work harder and be happy. Stronzos! Who likes to work extra hard without appreciation? Everyone wonders how big the salaries are for the CEO and the Ivory Tower Management, and if those will be frozen as well. Not bloody likely. Part of the problem is that this company has regulations to follow. So, they are in and out of court a great deal. If they are late or foul up somewhere, they have to pay fines. There seems to be a lawsui...