First of all - some background. I've been working as a data entry clerk for a bank company. When I started the job, I was informed that accuracy was more important than speed, and as long as I managed over 5000 key depressions per hour, I would be fine. I can accomplish this quite comfortably typing with one or two fingers, but I can't use all my fingers, which would up my speed considerably.
Anyway - today I get hauled into the office for 'The Talk.' I was duly informed that while my accuracy is fine, I need to be going faster. Thing is, I can't possibly go any faster without learning to type using all fingers. I'm currently hitting over 7000 kdps per hour and it takes a major effort on my part to achieve even that. What annoys me is that I was told initially it was all about the accuracy - my accuracy has always been spot on and I've worked damned hard to keep it thus, especially taking my ADD into consideration - but now I'm being told it's all about the speed.
Also annoying was my manager's sanctimonious tone - "Now, I WANT to see continuous improvement, every week, and I will be reviewing you to make sure you do it yadda yadda." Inferring, basically, that I'm not hitting top speed because I'm lazy. Never mind the fact that I've practically worked my fingers to the bone ever since I started there - my aching wrists and fingers are a trstament to that. No, I don't meet her precious statistics, so that must mean I'm bone idle. Or something.
I resent that inference. Luckily I have another job so I can afford to kick this one into touch, but that's not the point. I'm sick of this kind of treatment. I'm not a child, or deficient in any way, or stupid. I might not be the fastest on the floor, but this doesn't mean I'm not working hard - and as ADDers are well aware, we often need to work twice as hard as everybody else in order to make the cut. "I don't want to put you under pressure," my boss says. Right. So she plans to resolve this little conundrum by, um, putting me under pressure? Does. Not. Compute.
Why are employers so ... I dunno, statistics-driven? Don't they realise that the workplace isn't a one-size-fits-all environment? Has anyone else, as an ADD-er, faced this kind of problem in the workplace?
I work in a fast food restaurant, but we're still told that it's OUR JOB to suggestive sell & upsize when possible. We've even been told that our district & area managers could be sitting in the alley listening to us, & that if we don't suggestive sell or try to upsize we will be wrote up or fired. What does my fast food job have in common with your job? Like you said, it's all about statistics or money.Management by calculator by mundane little people unable to manage by intelligence.
"A lot of (Hubbard's) work is very secular and a lot of it has to do with management. Where is the religion?" McKenna asks. "He also did found the religion of Scientology and there are religious writings, but one has to look at the information and make a choice about it. Clearly, if you look at the material that we use at e.Republic ... it's very secular writing."
Pearson, of course, has the same view. Before
he started at Government Technology, Pearson worked as a management
consultant in the Sacramento area. One of his biggest clients was
Allstate Insurance, where Pearson taught the Hubbard-conceived
principles of managing by statistics. In the Hubbard-based training, a
worker who had low statistics, or productivity, shouldn't be excused
for any reason and should be penalized accordingly.
This unswerving commitment to the bottom line apparently emboldened some managers to take the training too far, resulting in management by intimidation. Pearson and his consultants also pushed other Hubbard books and tapes while consulting. When it became widely known throughout Allstate that Pearson was teaching Hubbard management techniques to its agents, Allstate banned and repudiated the courses. But by then it was too late. According to a 1995 Wall Street Journal article, more than 3,500 Allstate supervisors and agents participated in nearly 200 seminars conducted by Pearson's firm. Years later, Pearson defiantly stands by the work.
"We did good work ... it's very secular," Pearson says now. "I have a lot of personal values, but when I'm working with a client, it's the client's needs that come first."
so there you go! i understand the principle - because if i am put under enough pressure i can almost force myself to change my behaviour so in some ways it is helpful for me (although painful) to be put under such intense pressure. but i don't think it is a very humane management technique, in the end.Forgive me if this isn’t the proper thread for this…I’m venting AND questioning.