Thursday, July 14, 2005

Who Does More Harm?

I've had this discussion with a few friends in various organizations. The question is simple but generates some interesting answers. Who does more harm to an organization, HR or IT? Now, I'm not talking about malicious activity like the grade-A assholes from Enron, Adelphia or MCI. I'm talking about departments (HR or IT) in an organization that seem to do their best to destroy employee satisfaction and an organization's progress. Sadly, it often feels like a race to the bottom between the two groups. Please let me know which group you feel does more harm to, or severely hamstrings, your organization.

Remember all of the dumbfucks and assholes from high school. Most of them are in the workforce. With unemployment rates hovering around 5%, most of these people end up employed. How does that happen? I know that at least 10% of my high school peers should be incarcerated or institutionalized. Realizing that I grew up in an industrial arm pit, that might not be a fair example. So, we can leave out the kids that would eat their own crayons, or eat the hands of others that were holding a crayon they desired - my high school was a bit rough. So, let's move on to undergrad. I went to a large, land grant university. I know that at best only 60% seemed capable of working, or at least getting to work. Of those folks who could get to work, you really only want to converse or work with 10% of them. Then there's grad school - dear God, it should have been better, but now the problem goes the other way. Most of them get to class, don't eat their hands(but have been caught nibbling the hands of others), don't wet the bed or threaten their classmates, but at the end of he day, they're not that fun hang around. So, back to my point - hey how did I get all the way to Tangentville? My point, is there are lot of people in the workforce that might not make your life better or easier -at times these folks can make life down right difficult. Besides a sociopath bully of a boss, do you think a larger proportion of the "unsavory" folks end up in HR or IT?