I work for Harrah's Entertainment Inc. -- the largest gaming corporation in the world. The Harrah's brass prefer the word "gaming" to "gambling" because it's innocuous and potential-customer friendly.
Today was an interesting day in a somewhat awful way. We had a human resources flack -- complete with soften-the-blow cheese humor and whiteboard markers -- come into our department (The Studio -- where much of Harrah's advertising materials are developed) to explain the mysterious "9-Point Grid" to us.
I battened down for the usual stream of BS and promised myself I'd gnaw my hand off before I dared to speak and get myself into more trouble as a rabble rouser... or whatever the current term is for someone who speaks up in the face of nonsense.
The Grid, it would seem, is a cute little "calculation device" for assessing and describing our performance as employees. This was good to know because we wouldn't want to slack off and see less-than-maximum shekels going to the rich white men who run the show. That just wouldn't do. No no. Besides, GE uses the Grid and we all know what a bunch of good guys they are.
The presentation was the usual horse-and-pony show you get when businesses do this kind of thing, and the Q&A that followed was, well, the usual softball game you get when businesses do this kind of thing. The presenter confessed, at one point, that, no, the grid wasn't "totally scientific" (the gods of MIT can rest easy -- their jobs are safe) and yes, a certain aspect of it could be "taken with a grain of salt."
At this point I had to raise my hand. You know that feeling, right? All the blood has rushed to your head and you just can't have your intelligence treated like a dog's favorite fire hydrant anymore.
"You said this wasn't completely scientific," I said. "Well, that is correct. If a scientist has a paradigm, and the paradigm has a component that you can take with a grain of salt, the scientist will dismiss the entire paradigm as useless."
This went on for a while, as you can guess. He parried with some bad jokes and patronizing filler ("Well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion") but basically I won on points.
But you never win these things when you work for a corporation -- you just begin something that you hope someone else will tune into. Most (not all) people accept the thimble-and-pea trick they're being sold, and you can't really blame them.It's easier to buy into it and hope life won't get more difficult.
My larger point is this: This is one small example of how corporations control their employees. Clearly, the "9-Point Grid" could do nothing more than a supervisor's hand-written appraisal could do. It's facility did not really lie in its purported use. What things like the Grid do is throw people off balance: What does it mean? How will it affect my performance reviews? My raises? How high do I have to leap to get through the highest square on the grid?
People get nervous; scared even. You can see it. They're confused. All they can glean is that they are being asked to work hard ("Your personal objectives will be constantly raised as you progress"), then harder and harder. And of course the message is clear that if you don't excel like a good little Harrah's employee, well you just might end up in one of those bottom squares that the presenter drolly implied were for, um, the losers among us.
The moral here is pretty much what your best teachers in school and college taught you: Question everything. Don't take guff like the Grid on face value. Corporations aren't your friends and the rich guys who run them aren't really out to be your best buddies.
But I'll say more on that tomorrow.
WHAT I HOPE TO ACHIEVE WITH THIS BLOG
The truth is, the world is in bad shape. I am not the doomsayer type. I like to have fun and occasionally shop at the forbidden fruit market. But the overwhelming body of scientific evidence tells us that the next half century might see us out. Whether it be environmental degradation or nuclear disaster (intended OR accidental). I have felt the need to join the discourse on the need for radical social change to try and reverse the ominous trends we're faced with. But, to my shame, I have put it off and put it off, choosing instead to read, discuss and donate some money here and there. Well, for some reason the events at work today that I described above took me beyond critical mass. So I've decided to start here with a daily blog, and then move on to building my own website. I'll expand on these things at a later date.
For now, I would like to invite you to visit my blog regularly. Much of what I will have to say is the result of many years of study and interviewing (I have worked as a journalist in the past). It is also the result of just plain thinking these things through over the years. At times I will tap some connections I have out in the world: very smart people whom you may well have heard of. I'll try to keep things a little lively but entirely meaningful. This is serious stuff and unlike most of the Washington speechmakers, many of us do really care what kind of world our children, and their children, will inherit.
Thanks for reading!
Adrian Zupp
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