Management and values
Toni, my observation is that things have seriously gone down hill in the past 50 years.
It used to be that you earned respect and were given authority. People with shared values built trust. There were actually -- and I know this is hard to believe -- actually good bosses who were consistent and fair, who actually did their job to provide the workers what they needed to get the job done. People knew what was expected of them and knew what to expect.
My observation is that today, management has been taken over by narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths and nut jobs who not only don't know what they are doing, but impede the work being done and then not only don't give credit where credit is due, they take credit for successes which occured in spite of all the failure factors they employed. Anything, any time, may change in any way without rhyme or reason leaving people confused about what might be next, but most are sure that it will not be good news based on past performance of dysfunctional management.
The work place seems to be a microcosm of the 1971 Phillip Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment all over again: The Guards (management) has been given the fiat that they are in charge and must maintain order (mostly without physical violence) and the prisoners are dehumanized to be manipulated and stressed with nonsensical nonsense which inhibits their productivity. Moreover, artificial restraints are employed to make a really bad situation worse (withness Governor Gregoire making another round of cuts across the board when the school system must maintain certain levels by law). Arbitrary cuts and restraints without reasonable limits go a long way to make the work place intolerable.
Sure, the job can be terrible, but if the workers see the need to accomplish it, have supportive management to empower the employees (oh, just stop it! stop laughing! empowerment does exist, but it's never been employed) and have truly shared values (and not the artificial unworkable ones printed in some booklet by HR), the dysfunctional environment can be transformed into a productive work envirnment.
Good luck with that.
