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I had a friend who would say that 10% of the workforce keeps the company running, while another 10% support them; whereas, the remainder role-play giving presen

I had a friend who would say that 10% of the workforce keeps the company running, while another 10% support them; whereas, the remainder role-play giving presentations to each other.

abraxas 4y ago
Yeah, that matches the Pareto principle and lines up with anecdotes collected by Graeber in his essay and his book "Bullshit Jobs" [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs
mjevans 4y ago
The numbers probably aren't that bad, but real need depends not just on the quiet moments where station keeping people keep things running smoothly. It also depends on the capability during incidents and outages. Institutional knowledge in playbooks people are too panicked to read or never ran what if disaster drills to write may as well not exist.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
> I had a friend who would say that 10% of the workforce keeps the company running, while another 10% support them; whereas, the remainder role-play giving presentations to each other. That's what it feels like when you're at the bottom of the org chart But I've worked in a few large businesses that had a lot of people doing work on the front lines. It ends up being more like 10% of the company in management. Most of our time was spent rushing to keep the front-line workers happy. When jobs are relatively interchangeable (e.g. a warehouse worker can quit their job today and start at a new warehouse tomorrow) you actually have to work really, really hard to avoid upsetting those front line employees. I worked through some convoluted business/engineering problems just to avoid making front-line workers the least bit troubled in their jobs. I know this is polar opposite of the stereotype, but it's especially true in tight hiring markets like the one we're currently in.
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  In Good to Great, Jim Collins says that in great companies people on the bottom of the org chart understands the business case for the business. In such a company, you don’t have to worry so much about “alignment”.
sys_64738 4y ago
Sounds like your friend got burned for some reason. Resentment breeds such fallacy.
madmax108 4y ago
... and the fun fact is that a large majority at these Cos believes they are in the former 10% whereas statistically they are very much in the latter.

I had a friend who would say that 10% of the workforce keeps the company running, while another 10% support them; whereas, the remainder role-play giving presentations to each other.

abraxas 4y ago

Yeah, that matches the Pareto principle and lines up with anecdotes collected by Graeber in his essay and his book "Bullshit Jobs" [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

mjevans 4y ago

The numbers probably aren't that bad, but real need depends not just on the quiet moments where station keeping people keep things running smoothly. It also depends on the capability during incidents and outages. Institutional knowledge in playbooks people are too panicked to read or never ran what if disaster drills to write may as well not exist.

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

> I had a friend who would say that 10% of the workforce keeps the company running, while another 10% support them; whereas, the remainder role-play giving presentations to each other. That's what it feels like when you're at the bottom of the org chart But I've worked in a few large businesses that had a lot of people doing work on the front lines. It ends up being more like 10% of the company in management. Most of our time was spent rushing to keep the front-line workers happy. When jobs are relatively interchangeable (e.g. a warehouse worker can quit their job today and start at a new warehouse tomorrow) you actually have to work really, really hard to avoid upsetting those front line employees. I worked through some convoluted business/engineering problems just to avoid making front-line workers the least bit troubled in their jobs. I know this is polar opposite of the stereotype, but it's especially true in tight hiring markets like the one we're currently in.

PaulHoule 4y ago
In Good to Great, Jim Collins says that in great companies people on the bottom of the org chart understands the business case for the business. In such a company, you don’t have to worry so much about “alignment”.

sys_64738 4y ago

Sounds like your friend got burned for some reason. Resentment breeds such fallacy.

madmax108 4y ago

... and the fun fact is that a large majority at these Cos believes they are in the former 10% whereas statistically they are very much in the latter.