Newspeak and Other Corporate Crimes

Newspeak and Other Corporate Crimes
Originally uploaded by 365 Things

What: A brochure about a "reduction in force" (aka RIF) program.
Origin: My workplace, circa mid-1990s
Usage: Not at all, I should have shredded it with the rest of the 90s.
Why kept: I thought I might share it with some of my former colleagues, comedy. Thus, It Might Be Useful. (Also, Out of Sight, Out of Mind, and Storage Boxes Are Evil.)   Because it actually still makes me mad, chances of engaging with comedy in a positive and gentle way are pretty close to zero.   Thus, it must go!
Destination: Shredder, then recycling.

Confession: The guy who ran the place (a man I had some political differences with, in and out of the realm of the work world) behaved like a total tool. I'm definitely hanging onto that. Hopefully this clinging will be shredded with this bizarre document.

We might find the oddly distorted clip art cover to a brochure encouraging people to "elect" to lose their jobs (we were not supposed to use the term "RIF," and the fiction was that employees had a choice in the matter) to be state of the art for desktop publishing in the mid-90s in a financial institution, the set of instructions focusing on how we, as management, should behave? Uh, not so much. My favorite: "Be positive and express what a great opportunity this is."

Ech. While there were some great people, particularly our HR management, trying to do their best...when leadership is on the wrong track, the best is never going to be enough.

I didn't wind up working there all that much longer. "Life Transition Program" indeed!