The Satirical Retrospect 2019
From the Tagesanzeiger of March 3: at the University of St. Gallen a cultural change is to take place. Prorector Schmid emphasizes: "We are very serious about this." The last two weeks (!) have already changed a lot, he says, and he quotes a letter, a new expense regulation, an additional prorectorate with an accounting specialist and employee interviews... we should take a closer look at the HSG Change courses, something is going wrong.
From a newspaper article about outsourcing: "Novartis even wants to outsource management positions to global service units. Two sentences later: "Roche also intends to outsource routine work to service centers." Management as routine work? Is that the opinion of the journalist or that of Roche?
Sunday newspaper 10 March: Food blogger Nadja Zimmermann shows how the perfect Food-Insta photo works. These are really crucial topics, aren’t they?. The people of Africa probably can't wait to post perfect Food-Insta photos as soon as they have full Internet access.
In May Nethanyahu abstains from a war, because otherwise he would have to cancel the European Song Contest. Maybe the Middle East peace process should be completely rethought?
From an after-call article in May: "In the end, death defeated the great fighter". As if another outcome had been possible...dying as a fight? I would like to have it differently.
Suggestions from the world of advice for "simple fitness exercises that you can do in everyday life": for example, use shopping bags for balancing....don't be surprised if your boss constantly gets up at the next employee meeting and sits down again and stimulates his biceps with the mineral water pet bottle while you talk about suggestions for improvement.
In November, there is a debate about the insurance model for psychotherapy: CVP and FDP deny the undersupply – between you and me, that's even stupider than denying climate change. The SVP thinks that psychotherapy should never be paid for by health insurance anyway. No wonder as they also think that the unemployed are to blame themselves. We really are nowhere with respect for mental illness.
From my favourite category "much ado about nothing": A new book is published with the title "New Work Hacks" (emphasis on "new"), all with super-hip names of course. Here are a few examples.
- Retrospectives: Team meetings in which work processes and their results are reflected in order to continuously improve. Sensational, unprecedented.
- week of learning": the existing knowledge in the company is intensively exchanged and shared for one week. And the remaining fifty-one weeks? I have my doubts...
- Team Bootstrapping: "Everyone can get to know each other better during the discussion and development, which ultimately saves a lot of time afterwards". Groundbreaking, all that, isn't it?
From a report on the new McLaren: "In times of global environmental discussions, powerful sports cars are having an increasingly difficult stand. McLaren has recognized the signs of the times...". Further down in the text: "The 620 horsepower from the V8 twin-turbo mid-engine provide vehement propulsion...In the cockpit lined with the finest Alcantara...". Well recognized, the signs of the time...
17 November: a coach writes about dealing with ignorant bosses and behaviour in power- and position-related systems. My tip: if you are working in an environment where you need his tips: quit, you are on a sinking ship.
In this spirit: do the right things. All the best for 2020!
