The Company Man High and Low

I have long been asking myself as well as some dictionaries how to describe this species in English. Coming in human evolution right after homo sapiens. I apologise at once for using the M word, believe me I use it in the most broad sense. Could be the company woman or boy or hedgehog or any other. In this day and age of political correctness to the extreme, when companies can spend 500 million US Dollars to defend the rights of their black workers (why not white ones?) and when we call have practically forgotten that there were many white slaves in the service of the moors in the 16th and 17th centuries, the rise of the company people has never been so prominent. 

The Cambrdige dictionary defines the company man as “a man who values the company that he works for more than anything else in his life and is willing to do whatever the company needs.” I think the meaning could be broader. I once was interviewed by two HR ladies in a major American soft drinks corporation; both were using the corporate slang and abbreviations a lot obviously enjoying it and paying little heed that no once else could understand them; also describing the position to me they used such gibberish or even gobbledygook as “embedding” (well, this one I liked in fact), “synergies” and other lovely words and phrases that could be best described by this extract from a long and old joke about why the chicken crossed the road. Many of us old bandits will remember but please let me quote it here:

ANDERSEN CONSULTING: Deregulation of the chicken's side of the road was threatening its dominant market position. The chicken was faced with significant challenges to create and develop the competencies required for the newly competitive market. Andersen Consulting ,in a partnering relationship with the client, helped the chicken by rethinking its physical distribution strategy and implementation processes. Using the Poultry Integration Model (PIM), Andersen helped the chicken use its skills, methodologies, knowledge, capital and experiences to align the chicken's people, processes and technology in support of its overall strategy within a Program Management framework. Andersen Consulting convened a diverse cross-spectrum of road analysts and best chickens along with Anderson consultants with deep skills in the transportation industry to engage in a two-day itinerary of meetings in order to leverage their personal knowledge capital, both tacit and explicit, and to enable them to synergise with each other in order to achieve the implicit goals of delivering and successfully architecting and implementing an enterprise-wide value framework across the continuum of poultry cross-median processes. The meeting was held in a park-like setting enabling and creating an impactful environment which was strategically based, industry-focused, and built upon a consistent, clear, and unified market message and aligned with the chicken's mission, vision, and core values. This was conducive towards the creation of a total business integration solution. Andersen Consulting helped the chicken change to become more successful.

Now. I used this example because after the two ladies finished describing the position to me I stupidly asked them, to make sure I understood correctly their half an hour speech – “So you just mean you want to save some money by hiring me, for me to change the situation a bit around here”? The two ladies looked at each other in dismay; obviously I did not get the job.

I mean, the company man not only obeys the rules so to speak, but also he (Ok, she, she!!!) will use anything in OK – their! – power to defend their position, to make believe he is not paid for nothing after all.

Ok let’s move to a more standard view of the company man and then we’ll return to complicated (as many of you my readers know there is seldom any point in my articles) – a friend of mine was interviewed – for a head of talent acquisition role – in a big four firm, and was told straight at the interview (by the managing partner) that he will not be offered the job because he is not a company man. My friend asked (being young and na?ve) what was meant by that and was told, literally, “when our management tells us to turn right and run to the right, we do that. The next day they tell us to run to the left and we do that. But you, you will start asking questions.”

Bingo!

After I head this story I knew exactly what the company man is. The term by the way is even used by the government, at least in Russia. Recently, one of some major scandals broke out at one of our ministries, when a major mistake was made that led to some large-scale losses for the country. The information was leaked out by an insider, a ministry official. This official was fired (probably also punished later) – and the reason was given that although he was right to draw the public attention to this major blunder it was not up to him as a company man to bring bad news out.

Often company people say or do what is expected from them, or do what will benefit them and their immediate surroundings, even if what they say is a lie or what they do makes no sense at all. A person I know, a general manager of a major American company, recently addressed the public saying literally that those with whom he worked before and who lost their jobs in the coronavirus crisis should contact him and he will do his best to help them. A friend of mine contacted the chap and as you might have guessed received no response, at the same time the gentleman’s post was immediately liked by many of his colleagues working in the same corporation. Company people, you understand. 

Another example I saw with my own eyes happen in the Ukraine many years ago, few will remember but let me remind you – it was the time when a major American consumer goods corporation entered the Ukrainian market, got scared, and left, firing all the people they had just hired. The general manager (who in fact did all the hiring, up to 40 people, not a lot but a nice bunch) made it a point, without making it public, to help every one get a new job, before he dismissed himself. 

Obviously times have changed. To be a company man now in major corporations is much more important than to be a good professional or to do your job well. This seems so unnatural to me because I have always believed, and this belief has been construed on a solid basis of personal experience, that it is what the little people do that matters much more than what the big executive says (these guys seldom do anything, they spend their life in meetings). (I cannot fail to note that Gandalf said the same to Lady Gladriel, that the little man counts, what he thinks and what he does – this counts much more than what all the kings and wizards think or do.) 

And if we agree that what the rank and file do is what really matters, and that this can drive a corporation forward or can send it to the bottom, then it logically follows that these people should not be told to run, left or right, or indeed anywhere. (Or to run to meet the CEO when he calls them, for running (for ladies) can result in broken heels, as some of my other articles point out). Was it the late Steve Jobs who said something like – “we pay people for them to tell us what to do, not for us to tell them what to do.” But obviously not all organisations see it this way. Which gives us the company man, again and again and everywhere. People who wilfully refuse to think. Refuse to think on their own. Refuse to say No to their manager. I think this is why our corporate world is such a sad place. And this is why it could be so much better. With anticompany people. People who are creative, individualistic to a degree, independent, free, fighters. People who not only know what to do but who are their own managers, who tell themselves what they should be doing.   I take orders from only one person – myself – these Captain Solo’s words best describe the anticompany men. And we all remember that he was a good commander, and a good soldier too, and won the battle against the dark side.