Management Types

I’ve always had a natural dislike for people who manage people. These are people who are masters of double-talk, vague-speak, and overall undecipherable talk that generally sounds good. I’m talking about the kind of speak that makes the speaker sound informed on the topic without ever giving any insight into the truth of the matter. These are people who, when asked anything, will give you a long winded explanation that will not give you the slightest answer!

I was at a long meeting today, and I rediscovered these feelings all over. This type of thing is usually expected at pep-rallies given by HR staff, or CEOs but this meeting was a technical meeting – with a team mostly composed of programmers and IT people. It might be my prepdisposition to categorize people but usually tech people don’t bullshit, so when a semi-colleague started to give non sequitur answers I started to think. This person is not a techie by training but is one by choice. This doesn’t mean he works in the tech sector, it’s more like he forces his way into programming projects and other similar stuff.
Everything about this dude ticked me off, and also made him the perfect candidate for some high-level management position. He has a condescending attitude, where he will give you a slight grin while giving you an answer. His answers are never answers, but strings of words put together that employ a lot of management speak: design flaw, software roll-out, burning chips, firmware errors.

I’m beginning to think that the current corporate structure facilitates, no, requires a certain degree of convoluted talk from all people in high managerial positions. Maybe this way, the manager can abstract himself away from his underlings and by mere manipulation of words and confuse them into working and not questioning why this person, who almost in all cases makes more than they do, does very little work.

I’m baffled, but at as N. says, I’m really good at bullshitting. Maybe I’m lined up for a good management job!

recommended reading: Death Sentences