I try not to watch or listen to the news as quite frankly it's not good for my blood pressure.
Lost in the translation are some basic human behaviors that govern how employees react or perform in a job. Threatening or intimidating employees is a sure-fire recipe for the informal organization to strike back. You all know the tricks where the hot request is put on the bottom of the pile, or a small piece of information is omitted that delays an action. Many jobs are poorly designed from the outset and the employee is just following a deliberate written process.
I had a front row seat in such an event. In the late 1960's I started working for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation on the DC-10 program at Long Beach. I worked in the facilities organization supporting the Engineering Labs. Prior to this job I did the same sort of task at Boeing on the 747 program.
It was an exciting job as my first task was to put together a huge buy package of hardware needed to support the engineering test program associated with the certification of the DC-10. My job was to create a support documentation package for every item that was capital equipment (at that time anything over $200). My instructions were to create a package for each item that included the item description, a photograph, a justification of why it was needed and an evaluation of alternates and of course the pricing (low bid). The package was known as an AFE (authority for expenditure).
This took me a month to assemble working 7 days a week. The bonus was I got to make the trip to St, Louis with the team who would present the package to James S. McDonell himself. The final package totaling millions of dollars fit into two briefcases. I reasoned I went along because someone had to schlep the two briefcases.
When we arrived at the world headquarters, the team (less me) went off to meet the big guys and I was funneled off to "Harold" who would 1st review the package and insure it met their standards. Harold had a very small office that when he and I were in there it was semi-claustrophobic. It was an amazing experience to see Harold at work. His process was to remove the top sheet (AFE) and collect the remaining documents and neatly place post it notes on the remainder identifying the connection to the AFE. This process took him almost an hour.
I of course asked why the separation as I was told Mr. Mac (James S McDonnell) read every detail. Harold said he never looks at that crap and once it gets here the only scrutiny might be a question about a single item that cost $100K. It was assumed that Harold was the final filter but now I knew he was just a paper shuffler.
My boss did have me attend that final meeting with Mr. Mac as I was the single person in the room who really knew what was in the list. I was also cautioned to not speak to or directly look at Mr. Mac. The only questions that were asked: Does this do the job and is this full ask.
Now if Mr. Tesla asked me to explain my job or get fired, I would have to answer that my job was to create paper that no upper management looked at and was merely there for show. Guess we know what would happen to me. We did get the full authorization, but it was an important lesson for me. No one asked just what the St Louis process was -- my boss told me what he wanted in every package, and I complied. He was guessing!
As brilliant as the two-billionaire genius's purport to be, are they really that smart. Slash and burn works in the very short run but in time it fails. We already see critical employees were simply fired without understanding their real jobs. Food safety and nuclear weapons tracking are no brainers.
I saw some interesting applications of US Aid to foreign countries. In 1965 when I was in South Vietnam the aid agency supplied gasoline powered water pumps to small villages to provide a source of clean drinking water. In short order the wells were turned into carwashes and hooker hangs out. A lot of military vehicle drivers would get the mud washed off their deuce and a half truck while enjoying a short sojourn with the ladies of the night who also worked the day shift. The advertising signs were pure entrepreneur and read: Washie your Motah car, Quick, Clean, Safe and Sure!
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The above radio is a Xiegu 6100, and I had a chance to work a station running this QRP radio yesterday. It was real DX on 20M (about 500 feet way). I have a neighbor who is a ham, and he got one of these jewels. He was testing out a new station configuration -- bicycle mobile. Yes, he fitted this station on to the bicycle handlebars and the whip, a ham stick was fitted behind the seat on a small platform. It sounded great and with summer coming he is looking for a twofer with ham radio and a cardio workout. This radio can be found for under $500. This would be on a consider list for me if I was looking at a functional portable rig.
Them that know can make it go!
73's
Pete N6QW