Sorry if this sounds a little rantive. It was written with a glass of Vodka and lemonade next to me, with a head full of muddled ideas and feelings about the future.
..... Well, that is a little bit of luck to tell my side of the story if it all goes bad.
I rather like this SM3. I think I'll keep it in high rotation.
I'm glad you kept your job!! Don't feel guilty for having been spared the arbitrary whack of the institutional axe.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very kind and decent of you to write personal letters to the unfortunate.
As for obfuscatory jargon, it's used in academic administration as much as hospitals, I can tell you that. We are looking into "alternative revenue streams" here as we "double down on the high-touch experience." -- ???
Well, those are some interesting samples! We often use 'alternative revenue streams' here too. I wish I could broadcast some of the absurdities that came from my session yesterday, but along with the 'newspeak', there's other Orwellian things happening.
DeleteI also haven't so much kept my job, as I've just been contracted a little further down the road, with no certainty to the future.
I'm seriously thinking of just jumping across to 'Plan B'.
I absolutely detest modern 'business-speak' where many words are spoken, but not much is said and I can give a few examples of dealing with the Principal of my children's Primary School where I was informed that the school had 'strategies in place' for dealing with a kid who was bullying my daughter.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Scott, I am relieved that your job is still relatively intact, but like I said last week, always have a back-up plan. In the meantime, have another vodka and lemonade on me. Cheers.
Garbage talk Ivan be so frustrating at times. It is like trying to talk through a cloud when you are trying to address some serious issues.
DeleteAs for the backup plan, I'm seriously thinking of switching to plan B.
We knew it was the beginning of the end when they stopped calling it a newspaper and started calling it "the product". Then it was "platforms". One guy gave us a presentation in which he used a picnic blanket to illustrate that we were all outside the square. Finally we realised they weren't talking about a newspaper at all any longer, that was already dead as far as they were concerned. The end came one night when the deputy editor looked at a hole on the world page onscreen layout and said, "Make it go away". He wanted it filled with a James Bond story. I'm convinced he thinks James Bond is real, and Bond's activities should be covered among other international stories: Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Bond. This is not a Brave New World. It's a Stupid New World.
ReplyDeleteRobert, still faithfully reading the school library's copy of The Canberra Times - don't really know why, though - this explains a lot about the World News section lately. Section? That's a term ones must use loosely when one describes the "product".
DeleteThat kind of twisting of the language is becoming the norm. Product? Well.. I make pent of 'product' every day. At least I don't try to pass it off as a newspaper.
Deleteoh no, the blasted, hypocritical weaselwords of gov't... to cover up a raft of inept bungling and unvarnished cruelty. It's good that you're writing through this. I worry that the uncertainty won't go away for a long time - but the bumbling will continue, and that real people with real careers and responsibilities will be affected. It'd be comic if it wasn't so depressing & hopeless. rino
ReplyDeleteTho this government has an amazing capacity for bullshit, doesn't it? And I agree. This uncertainty will last for quite some time.
DeleteBut I'll always have writing.
Anyway.. I'll get past this, and be back to normal. Thanks though.