“…and your little dog, too!”
Those of you who follow this blog are familiar with TMCCC. That Major Credit Card Company was a place I was employed for almost 22 years, mostly as a credit card fraud investigator.
To be fair, it wasn’t all Hell. I wouldn’t have stayed over twenty years had it been. I met some terrific people there. But, it seemed to suffer from the same diseases as do many corporations.
First, the Peter Principle. In the 1970’s Dr. Laurence J. Peter wrote a book regarding how corporations lose their functionality. In short, persons get continually promoted until they get promoted above their skill set, then remain forever stuck there, incompetent.
Second, paranoia. As the new kid on the block in the mid-Eighties, TMCCC fought to grow and keep it’s people happy. Sadly, it did so by questionable dysfunctional means. Because the Peter Principle had already kicked-in in management.
There was a woman who ran the H(uman) R(esources) Department. One rarely saw her unless someone was going to be fired. Then, she prattled about, to-and-fro, scaring the beejezus out of everyone. Until the ax fell. It got to the point where many of us would hum the Theme for The Wicked Witch of the West (from the film Wizard of Oz) when she was scurrying about. Under our breath, of course.
Another credit card company opened an office maybe five miles away. They had the same personnel needs as TMCCC. So, we were concerned about losing good people to them. A legitimate concern.
The Wicked Witch of the West H.R. Lady took it upon herself to park in the other company’s parking lot, watching for TMCCC folks who might be exploring other options. So she could find reasons to fire them.
After a few years of this kind of nonsense, many of the longer term employees had lost their espirit de corps. The company countered our malaise by giving us cheap plastic crap with the company logo on it. Coffee cups, beer mugs, pencils, pens.
And began putting up banners throughout the building reading:
“TMCCC IS A GREAT PLACE TO WORK!”
I don’t know about you, but, I always figured, if they have to tell you…
What a world, what a world.
Guffaw in AZ 
Oh my gosh… a blast from the past.
I went to work for a small, locally owned hospice company and very much enjoyed working there until they sold out to a major national company with headquarters in Dallas. It quickly became automatic to check the cars in the new VIP parking spaces for rental cars… knowing they were probably corporate people from Dallas. Lots of sick days started out in that parking lot…
And soon the coffee cups and banners appeared in our little office… telling us just how wonderful the company was and that they really “appreciated” us – with “service year pins,” and so much more. Yeah, right.
I watched as they gobbled up every other small hospice company in the state, so soon they were competing only with other massive conglomerates. I stuck it out as long as I could, loving the actual work with the patients, but after spending five years in middle management… I left, barely before becoming suicidal.
And I’m not kidding about that last.
Posted by MamaLiberty | July 18, 2012, 7:54 amGood to hear (but sad) that my job wasn’t the only one!
Posted by guffaw1952 | July 18, 2012, 7:57 amWhen I worked for a Major Investment Firm, it was rated in the top 10 “best companies to work for”. But the signs of Peter Principle and Corporate Malaise began to appear – cracks in the facade, as it were – as mid-level managers ascended to senior management due to retirements & what-not. Multiple meetings daily (“analysis paralysis”) had become commonplace.
My department hired some outside expert (“x-spurt” – an unknown drip, under pressure) to turn us into “rock stars”. I had already given notice at that point,and refused the training. Fortunately, they didn’t argue with me.
Posted by Rev. Paul | July 18, 2012, 8:08 amAt a company used to work for, there was an HR Manager whom we all called Andrew, The Angel of Death, after the character on Touched By an Angel. It was his job to travel to plants and fire salaried people, engineers and the like. I once had a hops-enlightened discussion with him at a company function, and he admitted knowing full well what his nickname was, and how he was perceived. I think he was a little sad about it.
Having said that, it wasn’t he who came to town 2 years later to lay me off. That was too bad, I think I would have taken it a little better.
One more thing – it occurs to me that parking in the competition’s lot to find who might be shopping around isn’t a bad thing, but a healthy organization would probably use that to find out what they could do to prevent attrition. At least that’s how I want to thing I would handle it.
Posted by Fill Yer Hands | July 18, 2012, 1:06 pmGlad I worked for Uncle Sam, I’d probably have been fired rather quickly… 🙂 I don’t take kindly to people like that!
Posted by Old NFO | July 18, 2012, 5:40 pmThe Peter Principal then, Dilbert today.
My last corporate stint was helping to turn around an old, established, automotive after market firm. It had been bought by a very senior auto company exec with his severance money. He brought in another senior auto exec. My crew beat all the old incumbent sales force many fold. We were thrown out of more places by Monday afternoon than the other saw all week. We were finally cut loose as we made too many people uncomfortable (OK, we were loose cannons on speed) but, damn, we made the phones ring with incoming calls.
A lot of people can’t handle success; it threatens their little power edifices.
Posted by WSF | July 18, 2012, 7:27 pmAhhh, good times, good times!! 🙂
I feel much as you do toward TMCCC. They hired me, when I desperately needed a part-time job to get myself through college. They later hired me full-time after I graduated and had no idea what I was going to do with my life post-academia.
So, I had a living, with benefits, during a very confused and often sad time of my life. And I am grateful for that.
Only problem? “Designed for maximum annoyance!”
It seemed like fiends in human form purposely made working there soul-crushing, mind-numbing, and self-respect-destroying.
Maybe that’s just the nature of large organizations. The need for streamlining and standardization crushes out creativity, flexibility, and well, fun.
There was always this push for “quality” , yet, if you didn’t adhere to a certain number of calls handled, time available to take calls, number of cases closed per month, etc. you were punished with bad reviews. So which is it? Quality or quantity? Both of course, and God help you if you fell short on either one.
But, working there did give me incredible gifts: I met my husband, worked side-by-side with Guffaw, and met several other friends who are still my best friends and will be the rest of my life (I hope!).
Bottom line: Great employees stifled by uncaring, bureaucratic management structure.
Posted by Tomi | July 19, 2012, 9:57 amYeah, this sounds familiar. Thanks for commenting!
Posted by guffaw1952 | July 19, 2012, 10:15 amWe’re almost at the “cheap plastic crap” stage…my “quarterly bonus” was a T shirt proudly proclaiming the company’s 25th anniversary. The bean counters are in charge and the spiral is becoming apparent.
But I have hope…
Posted by Larry | July 19, 2012, 11:57 am