Managerialism is totalitarianism - hence (obviously) evil; yet most middle class people are (pretty much) managers; not least because managers (having passed the point at which they outnumber functional people) control the purse-strings and dictate the conditions of service.
But also, managers need to be paid more; because:
1. (Almost) everybody hates being a manager - and only does it for the money. (Evidence? When did you hear of a retired manager staying on to do a bit of unpaid managing? Yet doctors, teachers, scientists all do this - or did before managers wrecked their jobs; and poets, novelists, dancers, musicians nearly always work for nothing (or, indeed, net pay-to-work).
2. Modern managers know that they do harm - that they are parasites.
This means that managerial morale is a problem (as, of course, is the morale of those they manage - but that's a different story). So how to improve managerial morale? Public Relations, is the answer - managers employ most of the working journalists and advertisers in inventing, running, writing-for the ubiquitous 'in house' e-mails, journals, newsletters, updates, special lectures, lecture series, conferences, and 'weeks' (womens' week, diversity week, transgender week etc).
These are partly for propagandising the managed staff - but, I think, mainly for the managers to try and convince themselves that they are doing an important, beneficial job - and doing it well.
And when you see what managers are and what management is, and state it clearly when you are at work, and say so all the time, like I did, you are hounded and vilified. Complete eye opened alienation from the hideousness of it all is first painful, then it is liberating. But it is only a first step.
ReplyDeleteTobias