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I believe the idea is you replace individuals who solely manage across the board, with the idea management is really a part time job. That so many executives sp

I believe the idea is you replace individuals who solely manage across the board, with the idea management is really a part time job. That so many executives split their time would suggest that might very well be the case. With that in mind, there are many efficiencies imaginable beyond just the C-suite. And the employees now have ownership, so they have more of a reason to take up more responsibility than the current environment where employees are increasingly detached from their work, for good reason.

TeMPOraL 2y ago
Huh, that sounds like taking yet another full-time job and smearing its workload across everyone. That already happened with quite a lot of occupations - thanks to "increased productivity" brought by computers, a typical white-collar employee is now also doing the job of a secretary (calendar, mail, setting up meetings), graphics department (PowerPoint), financial department (managing and reporting travel expenses), and couple other ones as well. And then everyone is surprised that real productivity doesn't seem to track the theoretical increase brought by technology. Well, maybe because most of that turns out to be replacing legible expense (salaries of well-defined jobs) with larger, illegible ones (everyone else doing tiny bit of extra work). Feels to me that your proposal would end up being just another case of that.
- jancsika 2y ago
  > graphics department (PowerPoint) You started the paragraph with the word "workload," but here the load is about as close to zero for the average employee as one could get without being pedantic about it. People aren't using virtual brushes and learning color theory to digitally paint their PowerPoints, or even composing their slides effectively in the visual space provided as a graphic designer would in Photoshop. They are writing and revising their drafts in PowerPoint, often using the default templates or perhaps 2-3 minutes of trying out different themes. That ends up smearing all the costs and benefits of default PowerPoint look-and-feel across the audience for all these boring presentations. But I claim the cost to the employee's time and education due to them technically having taken on the responsibilities of a graphic designer are, on average, effectively zero.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    Maybe I named the department wrong, but my point is, back before PowerPoint, in the era of more analog presentations, large companies had a separate group of people you would ask to prepare charts and graphics for your presentation. Nowadays, you have to do it yourself. My point is that all of us are constantly distracted by random, intermittent tasks outside our specializations, which previously were done by dedicated specialists - people who could afford to become proficient at that work. This is a huge productivity hit for everyone.
    - reaperman 2y ago
      A few corporations still have a separate department dedicated entirely to generating things like PowerPoints. McKinsey for example. The consultants are good at creating PowerPoints if they need to, but they can just outline it or flesh it out as much as they like and toss it over the fence to the "PowerPoint department" which will complete it overnight based on the instructions/outline/information/draft sent in by the requesting consultant.
      - klysm 2y ago
        Yeah but slide shows are a core competency for McKinsey.

TeMPOraL 2y ago

Huh, that sounds like taking yet another full-time job and smearing its workload across everyone. That already happened with quite a lot of occupations - thanks to "increased productivity" brought by computers, a typical white-collar employee is now also doing the job of a secretary (calendar, mail, setting up meetings), graphics department (PowerPoint), financial department (managing and reporting travel expenses), and couple other ones as well. And then everyone is surprised that real productivity doesn't seem to track the theoretical increase brought by technology. Well, maybe because most of that turns out to be replacing legible expense (salaries of well-defined jobs) with larger, illegible ones (everyone else doing tiny bit of extra work). Feels to me that your proposal would end up being just another case of that.

jancsika 2y ago
> graphics department (PowerPoint) You started the paragraph with the word "workload," but here the load is about as close to zero for the average employee as one could get without being pedantic about it. People aren't using virtual brushes and learning color theory to digitally paint their PowerPoints, or even composing their slides effectively in the visual space provided as a graphic designer would in Photoshop. They are writing and revising their drafts in PowerPoint, often using the default templates or perhaps 2-3 minutes of trying out different themes. That ends up smearing all the costs and benefits of default PowerPoint look-and-feel across the audience for all these boring presentations. But I claim the cost to the employee's time and education due to them technically having taken on the responsibilities of a graphic designer are, on average, effectively zero.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  Maybe I named the department wrong, but my point is, back before PowerPoint, in the era of more analog presentations, large companies had a separate group of people you would ask to prepare charts and graphics for your presentation. Nowadays, you have to do it yourself. My point is that all of us are constantly distracted by random, intermittent tasks outside our specializations, which previously were done by dedicated specialists - people who could afford to become proficient at that work. This is a huge productivity hit for everyone.
  - reaperman 2y ago
    A few corporations still have a separate department dedicated entirely to generating things like PowerPoints. McKinsey for example. The consultants are good at creating PowerPoints if they need to, but they can just outline it or flesh it out as much as they like and toss it over the fence to the "PowerPoint department" which will complete it overnight based on the instructions/outline/information/draft sent in by the requesting consultant.
    - klysm 2y ago
      Yeah but slide shows are a core competency for McKinsey.