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Where are you working? I've been working in BigCorps for ~10 years and the usual standard is that most people are functionally illiterate and only the accountan

Where are you working? I've been working in BigCorps for ~10 years and the usual standard is that most people are functionally illiterate and only the accountants can add and subtract fluently. Never once have I written an email with content (as opposed to just "let's meet to discuss" or "you can follow my progress in JIRA-4001") where the other person doesn't ignore the email and reply with their own request for a meeting. Only the most basic literacy is now required in most corporate environments.

vegetablepotpie 4y ago
I have to say I agree. My corporate environment does not reward competence. It’s much more valuable to be approachable and likable. You don’t need literacy to do that. I work in a large engineering company. I don’t think we’re necessarily contradicting the parents post though. You need some people with some amount of competence to get work done. If it’s more valuable for individuals to play political games instead of delivering value, and the people who deliver value are ostracized, the team, or organization will fail. If the organization is one of those too big to fail companies, of which our country has many, the buck will stop at our nation being over taken.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- ElevenLathe 4y ago
  I am a little more charitable and just think that literacy is just literally not very useful the way most companies work. These people would not have been useful white collar workers in 1950 but it isn't 1950 anymore. Yes, they would probably be better served if they (and I -- though just the drafting of long emails is often useful for me, even if the recipients never read them) had the option of asynchronous communication, but they can get business goals done anyway. It's apparently not that big of a deal
  - JimBright 4y ago
    How you present yourself to others will always matter. Others may not say something to you directly about it if you dress poorly, or have bad grammar, or cannot do basic math, but the skilled WILL laugh at you quietly. It's human nature to mock incompetence. You cannot legislate or morality police it away. And in corporate America, you will be passed over for promotions and plum assignments. The only "professional" career where obvious ineptitude is publicly rewarded is politics.
    - ElevenLathe 4y ago
      You and the GP keep bringing this back to "incompetence" but I want to make clear that I disagree that people who don't want to read my longform emails (or are incapable of doing so) are incompetent. Socrates was probably illiterate. I am just saying that literacy is, anecdotally, not that relevant a skill in 21st century corporate jobs.

vegetablepotpie 4y ago

I have to say I agree. My corporate environment does not reward competence. It’s much more valuable to be approachable and likable. You don’t need literacy to do that. I work in a large engineering company. I don’t think we’re necessarily contradicting the parents post though. You need some people with some amount of competence to get work done. If it’s more valuable for individuals to play political games instead of delivering value, and the people who deliver value are ostracized, the team, or organization will fail. If the organization is one of those too big to fail companies, of which our country has many, the buck will stop at our nation being over taken.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ElevenLathe 4y ago
I am a little more charitable and just think that literacy is just literally not very useful the way most companies work. These people would not have been useful white collar workers in 1950 but it isn't 1950 anymore. Yes, they would probably be better served if they (and I -- though just the drafting of long emails is often useful for me, even if the recipients never read them) had the option of asynchronous communication, but they can get business goals done anyway. It's apparently not that big of a deal
- JimBright 4y ago
  How you present yourself to others will always matter. Others may not say something to you directly about it if you dress poorly, or have bad grammar, or cannot do basic math, but the skilled WILL laugh at you quietly. It's human nature to mock incompetence. You cannot legislate or morality police it away. And in corporate America, you will be passed over for promotions and plum assignments. The only "professional" career where obvious ineptitude is publicly rewarded is politics.
  - ElevenLathe 4y ago
    You and the GP keep bringing this back to "incompetence" but I want to make clear that I disagree that people who don't want to read my longform emails (or are incapable of doing so) are incompetent. Socrates was probably illiterate. I am just saying that literacy is, anecdotally, not that relevant a skill in 21st century corporate jobs.