It's management stupid! Nah it isn't, it's people

So it all started with a small citation out of a book. I don't even think it was a full paragraph. But still it was enough to open the gates of knowledge and fill the skies with angels not speaking the words of wisdom.* You read it all by clicking on the Linkedin logo below.

As interesting the tread was, in the end: "What is theory without practicing, and vice versa."

I'm not able to quote or cite parts of books, papers or studies. Nor do I feel the urgency to use this knowledge in discussions all the time. Most of the time one can say its correlation, at the most, since the context of whatever was studied often differs. Isn't it?

I always read stuff and think about where we could benefit from it in practice.

On the one side there are people stating that management makes people tick, on the other its people who make themselves tick. Here's my two cents on the matter.

It's management stupid!

Somewhat 22 years ago I was an operator at a chemical plant, producing pallets in a batch related extrusion process. For those who know, with extrusion, if anything goes wrong with the extruder, you can forget producing and reaching your daily quota.

It were harsh times. A plant had just been closed, we were on the verge of being shutdown for good as well. Every kilogram counted. Twenty tons a day was an absolute must in order to to survive. So we were told.

We worked our ass off. Twenty, twenty, twenty... extruder issue... fek.

Literally more then once, after my 8 hour shift, I needed to lay down for several minutes, just to pull myself together being able to go and take a shower.

And you can say what you want: It was management stupid! It was them forcing the 20 tons idea upon us. And boy did we do stupid things to prevale.

Nah, it isn't, it's people

Many years later, at the start of every shift, my colleagues would take a coffee and chat for a while. Not me. When I arrived, I suited up and started to do what I thought was needed. No manager ever told me to do that. I can say this without any doubt as the shifts for managers started one hour later then ours. So my shift manager was never there when my shift started, and the ones who were, they were busy finishing up their administrative tasks.

So it was me. All me. And sometimes I did stupid things.

Still not convinced you say?

OK. After I was elected the first time to be a shop steward, I did this for fourteen years straight. Some of the things I encountered started with a demand of either the management or the workforce. Sometimes they started because of me.

I walked around and noticed something could be handled better. Should be handled better. So I started looking into it. Got the the discussion going. Took on all the hours of hard labour at home, and the pressure at work.

I had put myself up that list to be elected. And there was no manager to tell me what to do.

It was just like De La Soul said: Me, myself and I.

So maybe we should agree that both sides are true. Or else we better should agree to disagree if you ask me. And this is where the asterix comes in...

* Did you get The Beatles hint at the beginning :)