Category: Uncategorized

Newspapers Hide Behind The First Amendment They Trash

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

I laughed out loud when I read my local paper today. Last August, when newspapers ran editorials protesting Donald Trump’s “attacks” on the media and the freedom of the press, my local paper participated and subsequently published the First Amendment on the editorial page each day for weeks to drive home the point.

Today, my paper, the Florida Times-Union, published a heart-clutching editorial warning of the perils of fake news. They asked: who should be responsible for “sorting” “fake” from “real” news? Then they listed the leftist, partisan Snopes as a reliable source. They earnestly pointed out that France is fighting the scourge by proposing a law that would prohibit “disinformation” in election campaigns. Why not? Most of the countries in the EU are already arresting people for anti-Muslim migrant thought crimes.

The fact that the T-U made such a mockery of the First Amendment, our most cherished right, so soon after plastering it across its editorial pages in defiance of the president’s (accurate) attacks on these partisan hacks who pose as journalists, made me cringe in horror and disbelief.

First Amendment Fake News
Garbage in…garbage out. Fake News and the First Amendment.

They didn’t even realize that they were undermining the intelligence of their readers. They wrongly assumed that we needed (or wanted) to be told what to believe and they were happy to provide a list of biased resources to help us out.

CNN and MSNBC are famous for this paternalistic approach to disseminating information. When Wikileaks released the damaging Clinton emails, CNN’s  Chris Cuomo told their viewers, “Remember, it is illegal to possess these stolen documents. It is different from the media. So everything you learn about this, you are learning from us.” No wonder the leftist mobs look like saliva-bubbling zombies.  They’re being programmed by half-wits like Cuomo to become shrieking, raging Manchurian Muppets.

These people are desperate to control the narrative. Too bad. It’s not their job. The observant among us know that we should weigh any corroborating evidence presented in all news items. And we’ve found that a large percentage of the stories corporate media deems to be “fake” are in fact true; they just happen to put one or more powerful people or interests in a bad light.

The vulture elite prefer to control the narrative, so they can be free to continue to work against the interests of the people of this nation without scrutiny. They’ve bought up the media companies, Hollywood and politicians (in both parties) to do just that.

Still, as long as the T-U pretends to be a “news” paper, I’m happy to remind them that their job is not to “curate” the news or reprint propaganda. Journalist should be unbiased, committed to following a story wherever it leads and then reporting the truth no matter who it embarrasses or heralds.

Unfortunately, journalism is dead. In the mainstream, anyway.  There are only a handful of true journalists left and they are in the process of being silenced and demonetized. In a post-truth world, exposing the truth is a dangerous vocation.

Populist and conservative media outlets that question the official narrative are being attacked and/or ridiculed. They’re also having their social media accounts shut off without warning (and years of content is being flushed down the memory hole) and globalist banking and financial institutions are preventing these companies from monetizing their operations. PayPal accounts are being canceled, banks are refusing to do business with these journalists and other lawful companies that espouse or represent “beliefs” that they don’t agree with.

Funny; I don’t recall these banksters qualifying the multi-billion dollar bailouts they were given by Obama. A lot of that money came from taxes paid by the businesses they are now strangling to death. Hitler did this to the Jews before sending them to the camps. He shut down their ability to make money. Is this what America is about now? This is biased, authoritarian racketeering. It’s crossing some seriously dangerous lines. And it all started with censorship, mislabeled as “hate speech” or “fake news.”

Meanwhile, corporate media presstitutes are celebrating the persecution of independent and citizen journalists. They turn a blind eye and continue to publish the propaganda pushed by elite media owners under the misguided belief that they are beyond reproach. I hate to break it to them, but if they continue to support and endorse this tyranny, the boot will be on their necks, too. Sooner than they think.

Sadly, as I leaf through my paper daily, I find that its pages are littered almost exclusively with AP and Washington Post stories. Most stories put quotation marks around anything the president says (to ridicule and/or undermine him). Few, if any, stories even cover his significant accomplishments, and when they do they always find a way to put a negative spin on his achievements. In fact, 92% of all news stories are critical of President Trump.

When they’re not bashing Trump, they’re running stories or investigative reports designed to inflame racial, gender or sexuality relations. This is partisan hackery. Last week, they actually reprinted a Washington Post “news article” about what Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah thought of one of President Trump’s policies.

Meanwhile, two weeks ago, AT&T announced that they were adding Jacksonville, the market the T-U serves, to the list of cities that will be irradiated with 5G next spring. All I saw was one item in the Jacksonville Business Journal. The Times-Union is interested in more hard-hitting stories. Who cares about the well-documented health hazards we’re going to be subjected to? To say nothing of the creepy surveillance capabilies 5G promises, much to the glee of the anti-human technocrats behind this abomination. The T-U editors think that a Trevor Noah brain fart is more newsworthy. Fake news? Meet dumb news. Different approach; same outcome: The deliberate dumbing down of our citizens.

The elite-sponsored push for banning so-called “hate speech,” is tearing at the very fabric of this country. It’s Orwellian. I may not agree with what some people say, but I’ll fight to the death for their right to speak their truth, whatever it is.

People are motivated to come to our country first and foremost for FREEDOM. It’s no accident that the First Amendment of our Bill of Rights is Freedom of Speech. Most people see the Bill of Rights as rights granted to us by the government; not so. The rights are there to remind our government to not trample on the unalienable, God-given rights of all people. If, in our ignorance or apathy, we let them take our rights, we won’t get them back. I hope the Times-Union and all media outlets realize that someday before it’s too late.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

When Your Manager is too Busy to Manage

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

You just started a new job and you discovered that your manager is too busy to manage; they’re not available to provide you with any sort of orientation, thorough understanding of the expectations they have of you or the resources you need to achieve those expectations. Sound familiar?

We hear it in every job interview: hiring managers say they’re looking for a “self-starter” who can “jump in” and “run with the ball.” We should run… for the nearest exit, but how many of us can afford to these days? “Self-starter” terminology is the calling card of a “drive-by” manager who will have zero time for you from day one, but who’ll expect you to hit it out of the park while blindfolded.

You’ll spend too much time hunting them down to get clarity or direction on a project; sometimes you’ll need to catch them on the way to the bathroom, and they’ll wave you off by telling you to look for stuff on a network drive filled with hundreds of mysteriously labeled folders or the company’s poorly designed intranet site, which has limited search capabilities.

Sometimes, they’ll tell you to reach out to “Jack” or “Cindy”…and neglect to tell you their last name or function. This is how EVERY major company in the U.S. runs these days.

Often, there isn’t even someone on your “team” who can provide you with any guidance in your manager’s absence. I remember when companies filled departments with people who served a specific function. Today’s masters of the universe assign one person to handle the workload of three or more people. That’s why the corridors of Corporate America are filled with bleary-eyed zombies who frequently miss lunch and subsist on 10 hours of sleep a week. It’s a wonder any organization can run at all.

Limited or non-existent support personnel are not the byproduct of the wonders of technology; they’re the result of bipolar leadership enamored with achieving “economies of scale;” translation: if they hire fewer people, they get to keep most of the money. And they do.

Data from annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found that in 2014, senior executives made 949 times more money than the average worker; a far greater margin than the 271:1 ratio the Economic Policy Institute reported last month. How far have we fallen? Fifty years ago, the ratio was only 50:1.

Dis-organization Structure

You may have noticed that your company has a boatload of executives who make fat salaries and either do nothing at all, or they spend their days behind closed doors with other senior management/executive colleagues reviewing PowerPoints of plans or strategies that will never be implemented (either because of lack of funds or because other priorities emerged to make that priority obsolete before they broke for lunch).

Sometimes, they’ll forget to tell the minions putting in late nights and weekends working on the now-obsolete priority project that it’s been scrapped until days (and many work hours) later.

Most mid-sized or large organizations have a C-suite Chief “Something-or-other” Officer who reports to the CEO. The unpopular member or idiot of the C-suite bunch is undermined with a “non-C” title of executive vice president; reporting into the ruling classless are too many senior vice presidents, vice presidents, assistant vice presidents and directors—this is where all the “Game of Thrones”-like activity takes place.

While the execs indulge in leadership turf wars and useless, daylong meetings, the managers, specialists or coordinators (who are excluded from the Big Dog huddles) handle the day-to-day activities that keep the lights on, despite not being involved in any key decision-making discussions.

This would all be laugh-out-loud funny if wasn’t so physically, emotionally and, yes, fiscally detrimental to the well-being of all employees. C-suite wannabees are so caught up in the politics of managing up and jockeying for position that they don’t lead their employee(s) or keep them up to speed on important company- or industry-related issues; often, worker bees get their company information from external media sources.

But somehow, they are expected to know all and to deliver on a moment’s notice. Sometimes, you’ll get a call or email at some ungodly hour of the night or on the weekend with an “urgent” request to handle something in an hour that would ordinarily take a week.

The odds are good that your boss received the information or request more than a week earlier, but they just got around to opening the email…or they knew about it, but were so busy with other “priorities” that it fell through the cracks and now they’ve made it your monkey at (literally) the eleventh hour. Obviously, you should have been included in the meetings on the issue.

Dysfunction Junction

At some point after a couple of months on the job, your drive-by manager may become inpatient with having to “micromanage” you, because you run everything past them before sharing it with high level stakeholders. Because of their lack of sleep, they forget that the week before they told you to run everything past them. How do you manage sleep-deprived, malnourished, overwork-related psychosis? And how can you not be paranoid that your contributions might be off the mark?

Should you point out to your boss that they are habitually unavailable to provide appropriate guidance to help you get to the level where you can feel comfortable with your output, or do you shut up, wing it and hope you get it right? Lose-lose. If you miss the mark too often, you’re out of a job. And if you tell your boss he or she is a lousy manager, you’re out of a job.

What happened to “working smarter?” It seemed to begin its slide into oblivion around the 2008 financial collapse, and now it looks like they finally slapped the toe tag on it. That’s too bad.

I recall when a well-staffed team led by a capable director got things done quickly and efficiently. Companies that are top-heavy with low- or unproductive executives, drive-by managers and one or two disconnected worker bees are spending a whole lot of money to yield little or nothing in return. We’re not overachieving; we’re just overworked…and overdue for smarter, focused and attentive leadership.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

Disposable Job Applicants: Today’s Dehumanizing Recruiting Practices

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

The three biggest lies in the world are: “the check is in the mail,” “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” and when recruiters tell you “we’ll get back to you.”The dehumanizing recruiting practices that recruiters and/or human resources (HR) professionals employ these days are downright reptilian in nature. Now that the gig economy has produced an endless supply of desperate job seekers, job applicants are disposable.

Call me...maybe??? Not reptilian recruiters
Call me…maybe??? Don’t expect a response from a reptilian recruiter.

I addressed this unfortunate trend in my first post for this blog last year and it looks as if things have gotten even worse. It doesn’t matter if you do a preliminary phone interview or if you’re called back for multiple face-to-face interviews and are a runner-up for a position, the odds that a recruiter or HR contact will get back to you if you aren’t chosen for a job are slim to none. And don’t even think about asking for feedback as to why you weren’t hired; they can’t be bothered.

I had an experience with Deutsche Bank a while back that made my blood boil. Their recruiter found me on LinkedIn and, after a preliminary phone interview went well, I was asked to come in for a face-to-face interview with a handful of people who interacted with the position they sought to fill.

I was asked to come in two more times to meet more people and then…nothing…no call or email thanking me for my time and informing me that they hired someone else. After getting the big rush, I found myself getting the bum’s rush.

I emailed the recruiter weeks later and got a curt response saying that I didn’t get the job (which I already knew), and she completely ignored my request for feedback; I wanted to know why, after being brought in numerous times to meet an army of people, I wasn’t chosen.

That feedback can be helpful when interviewing for future positions. This was a courtesy that HR recruiters (back when they were known as personnel department staff) readily provided. Besides, I didn’t even apply for the job; they sought me out, so how dare they blow me off?

I went out of my way to accommodate them, despite the expense involved with multiple interviews (commuting, wardrobe, portfolio material, etc.). You can barely afford these expenses when you’re unemployed.

Return to sender: applicant unknown

More recently, I was contacted by a former employer who seemed eager to bring me back into the fold; I had had some success with the company a few years back and still had some friends there, so I was excited about the possibility of going back. After a phone interview that went well, the hiring manager seemed eager for me to come in the very next day for a face-to-face interview with his VP.

Inevitably, he couldn’t make it happen, because they were planning to leave on a two week tour of the company’s facilities the day after and they were super busy. I wasn’t surprised they couldn’t make the meeting happen, but I assumed we would reconnect when they returned.

It’s been five weeks and I’m still waiting. I sent the hiring manager a LinkedIn message more than a week ago and he hasn’t responded. I have no idea if they decided not to fill the job (it was a newly created position), or if someone internally didn’t want to rehire me or if they found someone cheaper. At this point, I guess I’ll never know.

This scenario plays out over and over. I’m at the point where I don’t trust any “good” interviews anymore. I’m not alone; my friends tell me they are experiencing this phenomena, as well. There’s simply no follow-through anymore. If you aren’t selected for a job, you’re expected to just vaporize, no questions asked.

You can get whiplash from this type of interaction. No wonder record numbers of people have stopped looking for work; who has the stomach for this type of abuse? When you lose your job and struggle to find work, you’re already operating with a diminished self-esteem. Being disposed of in such an inhumane manner can destroy what little mojo you have left.

A message to recruiters

Here’s the thing: it’s not okay. So what if you have hundreds of candidates to choose from? Your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) bots do most of the work for you, anyway. If you reach out to a handful of prospects and take up their time (and money) with phone, Skype or in-person interviews, your job doesn’t end if the hiring manager doesn’t choose them for the job.

Call or email them and let them know they didn’t get the job and, if possible, why. It’s not that hard to do, or time consuming…and it’s the right thing to do. Karma can be a bitch, you know. And in this gig economy,  if this is how you roll, it’s highly likely that someday soon you will be the one waiting for a call or email that will never come.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

American Workers are Less Productive: No Job Security, No Motivation

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

American workers are not feeling the love. A lack of job security, combined with increasing responsibilities (and fewer resources) has resulted in exhaustion, low morale, lack of motivation and (drum roll please)…lower productivity.

The U.S. Department of Labor said last Tuesday, that productivity fell 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2016, while labor costs rose by 2 percent. U.S. worker productivity has been weak for the past five years and stands at 1.2 percent, less than half of what it was before the 2007 recession, when it was at 2.6 percent.American Workers are Less Productive

Many economists say Americans are working more to create less, because workers have outgrown existing technology. As a result, we can expect “restraining” of wage growth and more layoffs. And so the epidemic of myopic economics continues.

Don’t these geniuses realize that reducing financial incentives and increasing employee workloads as the result of layoffs will only drive productivity down further? These “experts” may know the price of everything, but they know the value of nothing.

U.S. workers today are routinely being pushed to their mental and physical breaking points. Workplaces are toxic work environments staffed by people either in the midst of a psychotic break or on the brink of one. The stench of fear and uncertainty lingers in every cubicle, assembly line, water cooler, coffeemaker and non-subsidized vending machine.

It doesn’t help that employers like Disney, Toys ‘R Us, Xerox, Pfizer, and Microsoft are turning to “insourcing” of H1-B visa workers in order to lower their payroll costs, despite posting record earnings…and then they force their poor displaced American employees to train their “guest” worker replacements or forfeit their severance.

Corporate Hunger Games?

As an unwilling participant of the gig economy, I’ve been flitting in and out of different corporate offices for the past four years. The mass psychosis and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) I see is alarming, but not surprising.

When you experience three or four (or more) reorgs a year and know that on any given day you could walk into work and be handed a severance package, even if you’ve been a rock star employee (damn those surprise mergers!), it’s bound to damage your psyche to some extent at some point. And at the end of the day, you become aware that there is no “i” in team, but there is one in “survive.”

This past year, I’ve had two assignments where the person responsible for training me held back information I needed to know in order to do my job. Both women were overworked and clearly needed my help, so I can only conclude that they felt that if I knew as much as they did, they wouldn’t survive the next reorg.

They obviously felt it was safer to be overworked to the point of mental and physical exhaustion than to have the well-trained help they desperately needed. How sick is that? Still, they survived round after round of layoffs and salary dumps, so I suppose it’s not an unrealistic fear to expect to be replaced by a contractor who probably made less than they did.

Needless to say, this epidemic of fear and loathing in workplace after workplace makes it hard to stick to a new employer, even when you do a good job under most challenging circumstances. It’s like an endless loop of different movies made with the same script. Sometimes, I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

No rest for the corporate weary

This environment of perpetual job insecurity has scared workers into being on the job 24/7. According to a study by Project Time, more than half of U.S. workers left unused vacation time in 2015. In fact, over the past 15 years, American workers have been taking less and less vacation time.

These poor souls likely feel that if they take time off, their bosses might replace them with an intern or hourly contractor…or worse, that someone of importance may decide that their department functions just fine without anyone in their role.

These are the same people who make work calls after dinner and send emails at 11 p.m. on Saturdays in an endless quest for validation and job security. It’s madness! But this is exactly the frame of mind that bipolar CEOs value in their employees.

Rising labor costs? No shit!

Hiring people costs money, and when your business model involves having a revolving door of “talent,” even if you’re replacing 20 full-time employees with 10 gig contractors or H1-B visa guest workers, you’ll end up throwing a lot of good money after bad. Recruiters, equipment and training costs add up.

And then there is the learning curve. It takes a while (sometimes years) before most employees achieve optimal knowledge of their company and/or industry. Many employers learn the hard way that inexperience can be pretty costly, especially in industries that are heavily regulated.

And how many times have employers carelessly displaced long-time employees, only to find they also unwittingly displaced a lot of company knowledge that their low-cost millennial or H1-B visa colleagues didn’t have? Too many; but they repeat the process, anyway. Einstein said the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. So, there you go.

And while we’re on the subject of insanity: If a company wants to treat employees like disposable widgets, then they should stop asking employees to participate in charitable drives in the company’s name. This is inconsiderate at best, and perverse (or even sociopathic) at worst.

Also, I’m not sure why this isn’t obvious, but it’s never a good idea to have leadership team members spew empty rhetoric about “teamwork” and “commitment” at employee or town hall meetings in the same breath that they announce layoffs. What is up with that? I can’t think of a better way to incite workplace violence or corporate espionage. Seriously.

When I worked at Philip Morris in the 90s, we were hit by lawsuits left and right while dodging regulatory challenges by the FDA. If our then CEO had followed today’s popular strategy of slashing headcount and hiring cheap labor, the company probably would have folded before the end of the millennium.

Instead, they doubled down on staffing up, paying above average salaries and they had the best benefits. They understood that if they were going to survive, they needed a knowledgeable and dedicated workforce. Not only did the company survive, but it thrived…the stock split multiple times during the 90s and they’re still around today.

If employees feel valued, enjoy support, and know that if they do a good job, they’ll not only stay employed but they can expect to be promoted and rewarded financially, well…there’s no end to the growth a company can experience. Until “leaders” rediscover the core fundamentals of entrepreneurial success, true growth and peak productivity will likely remain elusive.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

A Casualty of the Gig Economy: My Life in the Brave New Workplace

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

A lot is written about the trendy, flexible perks of the gig economy. Sure, it can be “liberating,” if you have a husband or wife who is a high-powered lawyer or doctor and you can “gig” with abandon between sessions of binge-watching “Orange is the New Black,” but for those of us in single-income households, these new “alternative work arrangements” are nothing short of a nightmare that keeps us on the constant brink of financial disaster.

The gig economy is even harder on people over 50; we’re less likely to be able to slide into consecutive contract positions as effortlessly as workers who are in their 20s or 30s.

Last week, my latest “gig” ended prematurely, because the multi-billion dollar medical device company that had hired me just three months earlier decided to dump all the contractors in my business unit. This was the “first wave” of their third reorg in six months.

This was supposed to be a one year assignment…so much for honoring our contract. I didn’t see this one coming, because several managers had sent my manager unsolicited compliments about my work and I really liked it there.

I actually thought I had a shot of staying on and eventually becoming an FTE (full-time employee). My hiring manager even dangled that possibility during my interview. Huh…foolish mortal. At the end of the day, I was just another anonymous blip on some overcompensated executive’s spreadsheet.

Health care or wealth care?

This scenario was déjà vu all over again for me; the gig I had before this one — this time with a multi-million dollar health care system that is owned by a multi-billion dollar global chemical company (chew on that alliance for a while) — ended exactly the same way after only four months. Again, I was told this was a one year assignment, and again, I was caught under the wheels of a budget-cutting reorg.

It’s not just small- or medium-sized budget-conscious businesses that treat their workforce like the girlfriend they like to sleep with but will never marry, its billion dollar health care conglomerates, and equally flush Wall Street and Silicon Valley mega-employers.

If they can’t afford to hire people at a decent wage and provide benefits, who can? Of course they can; they just don’t. And they have our government’s blessing to treat us like disposable napkins…wipe and toss.

After a lifetime of steady, salaried middle-management employment, it’s hard to find yourself unprotected as an independent contractor. Gone are jobs that pay a living wage that increase with time for work well done, humane work hours, job security, health insurance, pensions and other traditional benefits.

We no longer have rights or unions to protect us and keep us steadily employed. In fact, the globalist-owned media has been waging a successful propaganda campaign to demonize unions for years, while our politicians (beginning with Ronald Reagan) have been simultaneously gutting the rights of unions and union members.

This is a tragedy, especially since gig workers can go weeks (or months) without work and we live in fear of getting sick or injured, because if we can’t work, we can’t earn money. Frankly, I could use a strong union right about now.

And when we do find work, it’s usually through temp agencies we’ve never heard of (some are offshore). They place us and pay us (while taking a piece of every hour we work). All we can do is hope that, since they have our social security number and all of our proprietary information, that they don’t sell our identity to some cyber criminal or exploit it themselves.

What’s to stop them? I’m not aware of any protections in place. Again, this is not a priority for our “representatives” in government.

The curse of NAFTA

The table was set for our growing transient workforce with the passage of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). We have Bill, and yes, Hillary Clinton to thank for this travesty. NAFTA gave greedy corporate chieftains access to unlimited cheap, offshore labor and officially placed the middle class American worker on the extinction list.

The post-NAFTA war against the middle class began when companies started getting rid of our pensions; phase two involved outsourcing tech support and customer service to countries that provided cheap offshore labor for U.S.-based companies.

Eventually, with the assistance of bought-off members of Congress, greedy corporate titans started bringing in foreign workers through H1-B visas. The rationale was that there weren’t enough qualified people in this country to fill the many “jobs” they were creating.

This is a lie, as the recent Disney IT employee fiasco proves (they let go of their U.S. IT team, imported foreign workers to fill the positions at lower wages, and forced the displaced workers to train their replacements or forfeit their severance packages).

Other companies have, and continue, to follow Disney’s example. Mainstream media has (surprisingly) covered this issue, and still not a peep from Congress or Obama.

Elizabeth Warren did recently mention the need to address this issue, but to date, she hasn’t introduced any legislation to remedy the situation, so who cares what she thinks? She’s paid to fix these things. So, get to steppin’ Betty.

To make things worse, our taxes are used to provide these companies with subsidies. So, essentially, we’re paying for our own funeral.

More than half of all jobs created since 1995 were non-standard jobs, which include part-time workers, contract workers or self-employed people, according to a report published in May 2015 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

While our politicians hammer us with wedge issues like gun control, whine endlessly about the “humanitarian” need to let in an an endless stream of unvetted refugees and pat themselves on the the back for enforcing the “Dreamer Act,” they ignore the plight of their constituents, the  American worker.

The American middle class is dying, and while Congress and Obama administer the last rites, it’s becoming obvious that there won’t be anyone left to attend the funeral.

At my most recent “gig,” I worked with some people who had been employed for anywhere from six to 18 years. The only three people “hired” within the past year, including me, were contractors…not one FTE.

One of the “vested” employees often griped about the threat of her bonus being sub-par this year. She knew that I had a solid career as a salaried management employee until recently and that, despite being good at my job, I couldn’t find a similar role in this economy.

She sympathized with my circumstances, but I could tell she didn’t think she was at risk of experiencing a similar fate…after all, what happened to me only happened to “other” people, not her. I wish I could tell her that she’s right, but I know better. The reality is that if we all don’t push our representative to fix this now, my gig worker misery will have a whole lotta company soon.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

The Curse of the Bipolar CEO

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare

The average person who suffers from bipolar disorder endures a lifelong struggle with mood swings and fluctuating energy levels, all while trying to maintain stable personal and professional relationships; not easy to achieve, to be sure.

Fortunately, many find relief with medication and the support of loved ones, and they can lead successful, fulfilling lives.

But what happens when a bipolar person is in a position of power and/or has achieved an impressive level of entrepreneurial success? Would you feel comfortable suggesting that they need to take their meds, if they feel they don’t…or to lash out at them if they call you at 3 a.m. to discuss their latest great idea?

If they sign your paycheck or you’re dependent on them financially in some way, odds are you wouldn’t. A LOT of CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs are bipolar, and they are just as likely to be proud of it and acknowledge that their mania is the reason they are successful.

What they don’t always acknowledge is the collateral damage they often leave in their manic wake. But, hey, you gotta crack some eggs to make an omelet, right? Sadly, those of us who have had the misfortune of toiling for manic depressive leaders have been those eggs, and the yolk is often on us.

I’ve worked for more than my share of bipolar CEOs and executives, so it’s safe to say I had to reach for the Maalox more than once.

Bipolar giveth and bipolar taketh away

One manic depressive executive I worked under early in my career—let’s call her Dara—had my whole department in such a perpetual state of flux that we checked in with her executive assistant each morning to find out if Dara was up or down that day. Needless to say, no one approached her on “down” days, even when it was necessary.

The C-suite loved Dara, though…she was a straight-shooter…a risk taker….and she didn’t need (or want) to be micromanaged. Not surprisingly, those were not traits she ever wanted to see in us. Those who were foolish enough to try to emulate her were swiftly terminated.

We were paralyzed by her inconsistent direction and her fluctuating mood swings. Still, those of us who survived her manic meat grinder intuitively found a way to succeed, inadvertently ensuring that she remain gainfully employed.

What else could we do? Her bosses never bothered to investigate the psychological minefield that was her department.

The day did come, however, when she popped a wheelie on national TV and the powers that be got a very public glimpse at the personality we had struggled to manage for years. And just like that, she was gone, and we all heaved a spontaneously sigh of relief and broke out into a chorus of “Ding, dong, the witch is dead…”

Of course, on some level, we felt bad for her, because we knew she was ill, but then again, she had pushed many of us to the brink of mental illness. And in our results-at-an-cost corporate culture, her impact on our mental and emotional well-being was low priority.

The CEO’s Disease

Years ago, psychologists labelled bipolar disorder “the CEO’s disease,” with reason. Numerous studies have found that the manic stage of the disease tends to breed successful entrepreneurs. A recent joint study between Stanford University and the University of Denmark confirmed earlier research, finding that successful people who are bipolar tend to be uber-successful, often earning much more than their peers.

The study also confirmed that the opposite is true for those who can’t effortlessly slide up the corporate ladder through nepotism or who don’t catch a lucky entrepreneurial brake: average bipolar Joes and Janes tend to make much less than their colleagues.

Donald Trump: The Elvis of bipolar CEOs

Unless you live in an underground bunker with no Wi-Fi, you’ve no doubt been exposed to the clown show that is Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. Having grown up in New York City, I am more than familiar with this bloviator in a Mafia Don’s clothes.

Trump is a self-made business tycoon…because he tells you he is, but if you scratch off the cheap, gold paint (found in abundance at any Trump-owned property) you’ll find a string of failures and bankruptcies. He’s not even self-made; his father, a wealthy Brooklyn slumlord, greased his entrepreneurial wheels.

Trump parlayed his hubris and Rapunzel-like comb-over into mainstream success with “The Apprentice,” a TV show that allowed him to yell, “You’re fired!” at some hapless participant on each episode. One person’s humiliation became a control freak’s wet dream…and the nation was enthralled!

Now he has a significant lead over the cattle car full of Republican/globalist hand puppets running for president. And, why not? Unlike the others, he is a straight-shooter…a risk taker….a guy who says what many of us think, but won’t admit in polite company. Plus, he’s running on his own dime! Like the honey badger…the Donald don’t care.

This is a dangerous trap, because when it comes to this Elvis of bipolar entrepreneurs, rest assured, that for every one thing you like about him, there will be ten things that you will find appalling.

Bipolar CEOs are often adept at consensus building. If gifted with sufficient charm, they can get us so focused on their cause when in the throes of their mania, that we’re blinded by the toxic lead under the cheap paint.

This is why so many boardrooms end up putting these literal maniacs in charge of their companies, leaving those of us who owe our livelihoods to these human pendulums to cringe in uncertainty, and to live with the reality that today’s promotion can easily turn into tomorrow’s termination. Not fun.

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedInShare