Corporate Fascism

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Greetings all.

I come across so many incidents of Aspies being persecuted in workplaces that I just had to start a thread about this subject. To it all I could add my own experience of having fought a wrongful dismissal suit, its reasoning borne of nothing more than my sociall "difference".

It appears that upper managements in most if not all companies have a common trait in their modus operandi and that the "polyticks" and "procedures" include bullying and then wrongfully dismissing certain individuals based on their vulnerabilities, their "not fitting in", and their perceived "unsuitability" of being any value to the employer.

I would like to take this time to relate to you a conversation I overheard one day while I bottled my batch of beer at one of those You-Brew places. As I bottled my beer (long and time-consuming process) another brewer yammered away next to me with the store's owner about having a brother who was an upper manager of a company. The man related very graphically about how this brother was sent (and paid by his employer) to a school for people in upper management for "training" in "managing" people

In a nutshell, the course ought to have been called: How to be an @sshole The "training" included about how to undermine employees' reputations unbeknownst to them, how to "prove" all sorts of evidence against them, and how to present the allegations to them in a bombshell so there is no real recourse or any chance for the employees to defend themselves. That was their way to weed out the "undesirables" from the company ranks. The man did end the conversation with a phrase: "someday, it will all blow up in his face".

That story echoed my own experience working in a nursing home in a lot of ways. Obviously, my own story is not unique and now on this forum, Corporate Fascism reigns like an epidemic unto itself.

...and their voices rang with that Aryan twang (The Tragically Hip, Bobcaygeon)

The evil of corporations.

Papillon, have you considered becoming a Socialist.

Socialism is a belief that resources should be divided fairly. All enterprise should be owned by the people that work in them, rather than lazy rich shareholders. Just imagine working for an organisation where you have a say in how that organisation is ran, rather than being ordered around by a manager.

Think about it. It is worth considering.

The problem is that much management only tend to reach the position that they are in through strong social networking and careful attention to their career (irrespective of the impact on others). This means that often their behaviour is not totally rational.

It's not always like that, but a good management team will critically look to see if a person is the best person for a role, and if necessary seek to replace them. While this is bad for the individual concerned, it can make the difference between the company surviving and succeeding or failing, particularly in a small company.

One of the reasons I like working in IT is because Aspies tend to be tolerated a lot more. Some people would complain about the Geek stereotype. Not me, it provides a template of expectation for NTs to understand AS, even if that perspective is skewed a little.

I once worked at one place where employees were not allowed to talk to each other in work time, where all comunication had to be via a rigid computer system (not even email) and everyone had their own cubicle with 6ft high walls.
That really wasn't so bad, just a shame they wanted me to work on obsolesent technology, or I would have stayed on..
Obviously, it drove the NTs mad, as they hated not being able to gossip about Eastenders all day long..

That's what I like about my job, too. I'm not sure if my over-chatty NT office mate understands us ( ) but at least she acknowledges that most of us don't like small talk, inane babbling, and leaving the office door open so people can stop by.

After teaching special education for three years then quitting and trying to make it in the corporate world, I quit.

Now my days are filled with the most delightful bunch of freaks in the world, My Kind!

I imagine that I would feel just as comfortable in a succssfull all aspie business,
I just can't find one.

I no longer think that way. Not having worked in a government agency. I have been studying them, and I think it is the other way around. None of these guys own the government, yet I had the same problems (worse) with them. The same problems occur in most companys and governments. It's called line management. Organization by a tree structure.
The managers who make the most trouble don't own the company. Sometimes, they are actually put in to ensure that the resources are distributed "fairly." However, they have no stake in the workers productivity. They evaluate the people under them. They solve problems.
It is important to realize that they have to fill out performance evaluations too. They are rated according to the perception of their capability. Socialist, fascist, democratic, corporate, religious,... the middle manager has to prove that he is doing something. They then have to make problems if there are none.
They get points on their performance if they solve problems, get rid of trouble employees, move peoples offices, and if the office has a high rate of turnover. They get paid according to how many workers they manage, not on the productivity of each worker. Remember they don't own it. The owner or the voter or the dictator get all their information filtered by the managers. So the middle manager can manipulate them; flatter them, tell them lies, etc.
So managers have an incentive to make problems, call people troublesome and then get rid of them. They throw away anyone who doesn't praise them openly and constantly, and fill the spaces with their own buddies. They also have an incentive to make more paperwork and to make extra levels of management beneath them. If the employee is too busy with paperwork and fails, it is the employees fault. The middle manager found the problem by requiring more paperwork.
Anarchy and matrix management have fewer of these problems, for short periods, but are intrinsically unstable. Historically, anarchy almost right away becomes feudalism (i.e., extreme line management). One troublemaker in a matrix managed company can bring down the whole organization. Line management seems to be the most stable form of organization. It sometimes works well. But often line managers get ahead by being jerks, not by raising productivity.

Personally I like the idea of small co-ops, under a federal system and with no-one becoming a charismatic personality.
The same problems have come up in evry job I've been in, but usually for different reasons, some managers are target obsessed, some want to prove they are troubleshooters, some they are man-managers, etc. I think as most managers are NT and seem to thrive in an environment where reality is flexible, but people are not ( in the mindset of the manager) then people must go. The things people will do to make an extra few pounds, have a bigger car, or seem to others to be closer to the core of things never fails to amaze. My ex-wife was trained in sales by a leading newspaper company (before I knew her) and when she later took another sales job and her training resurfaced I could not recognise the person I married. Essentially any sense of morality went out the window, she would ask questions to get agreement and then use this as a way of getting continued agreement (cheap brainwashing techniwue, but so f****ing effective along with her other bits and pieces). Her boss was probably the most manipulative person I have come across and had no notion at all of dealing with people, they were obstacles to be negotiated and overcome.
The whole notion of managers as people who HAVE to do things, be it achieve targets, solve problems, whatever, leads to the situations where problems are invented if they are not there. Integrity, stability, fairness, etc all come a poor seconf when you have to prove yourself and when you are in a position of power.

Instead of trying these Aspie-Unfriendly jobs, try some jobs that are AS freindly, if you can get a bachelors or not, like any type of Engineering, Scientist, Mathemitician, IT, CPA, Actuary, etc. If you don't get a Bachelors, or Technical Degree, you will end up at Wal Mart or a Hellish-like noisy workplace job.

that jobhunting and dating are the same thing. Those employers may be looking for the perfect person for the job, such a person does not exist. Often for the role of Engineer, Accountant or whatever, the perfect most like to sleep with.

Realize though, that It has been 7 years since I was employed.