It's a function, not a level

I look at work operationally, as opposed to hierarchically. In the contexts which I found myself being in during my 20 years of career, I must confess that I have not perceived a stable correlation between ability and position. I concluded that engineers (to take an example) in a company, no matter the size, do very much have the intellectual, social and emotional quotients to take the jobs of anyone above them in the hierarchy, up to so-called 'C-suite' functions. It is more a case of interest --intrinsic motivation--, in addition to artificial obstacles that evolved through labor's history. 

This conclusion has many ramifications. Today, I will mention only two. 

1. Many methods and tips, promoted in people-management or organizational-management books are quite saddening. Take carrot and stick for one. The strange theater play that takes place when a manager uses this technique to invisibly funnel his engineers into working better and harder. All while these same engineers may very well have read the book from which the manager copied this wisdom. What should they feel about it? I find it insults my intelligence.

A well-read man. Not to be confused with a donkey.

2. I have also observed that often, people in upper management turn their position switches and career moves into heart warming linkedin events. Generic, empty, lengthy goodbye statements, where everyone was so wonderful, how they learned from each person they met, how they are so grateful for all the opportunities to grow, and finally, despite this wonderfulness, for some obscure reason, the show must go one somewhere else. This is then followed by hundreds of comments and likes (proportional to level in hierarchy, with a scaling factor stemming from networking abilities) of those who together play this implicit game. I find this group-self-pat behavior actually unfair. Yes, yes, alright, life is unfair, so sure, let's play, labor's on the loser.

To balance this silly state of affairs, which rates an individual's relevance based on his position in a hierarchy (while hypocritically denying it), I would like to take the opportunity of this year's gentle coming to an end, and raise a toast to an incredible set of individuals.

Mere engineers. They joined our simulation team at AID in 2019, without any loud noise --linkedin or otherwise--, to enter a deep collaboration developing our technology, while enriching their surroundings in all aspects. A real A team, without exaggeration.

So thank you infinitely my dear gentlemen:

• Chih-Chen Kao: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/cckao/
• Davide Corradi: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/davide-corradi-20479052/
• Dongping Xie: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/xiedongping/
• Fabio Cremona: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/fabio-cremona-09308634/
• Leonardo Spano': https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/lspano/
• Himangshu Saikia: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/himangshu-saikia-a4a4711b/
• Michael Welter: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/michael-welter-80695411a/
• Tim Buchholz: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/timbuchholz78/
• Nestor Montoro: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/nsubiron/
• Ulrich Kuettler: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/ulrich-k%C3%BCttler-a016ab9/
• Wouter van der Stoel: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/woutervdstoel/