Eric Wace thinks of Nicholas van Rijn:
"You bloated leech, do you expect to be carried home by my labor and my brains, and fob me off with another factor's post on another hell-planet?" (p. 415)
Observations
(i) Brain work is mental labor. The more accurate distinctions to be made are between:
work and leisure;
mental and manual labor;
"bloated leeches," who do exist, and workers by hand or brain.
(ii) Anderson demonstrates that van Rijn continually applies his brain to practical problems and also works manually when necessary, e.g., he stood for hours up to his waist in sea water to improvise a raft in the sinking skycruiser. (Wace notices but also seems to forget such details.)
(iii) Van Rijn does not fob anyone off but promotes according to merit.
(iv) As the series progresses, Anderson demonstrates that not all company owners are like van Rijn and that, consequently, major conflicts arise within the Polesotechnic League.
13 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, in THE MAN WHO COUNTS, we continually see telling details that should alert readers on who TRULY counts in the book.
Also, "bloated leech" is a loaded term. My view is that many gov'ts, not private persons, groups, organizations, firms, etc., are the true leeches. Or would be gov'ts, like the UN and EU.
Sean
Sean,
"Bloated leech" is indeed loaded. I carefully handled it inside inverted commas.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And you kept the italics Anderson used to indicate the private, interior thoughts of his characters. Not all writers use italics like that, using plain font for spoken dialogue and unspoken thoughts, which I've sometimes found a bit confusing. Italics tells us clearly which is which.
Sean
"You bloated leech, do you expect to be carried home by my labor and my brains, and fob me off with another factor's post on another hell-planet?" (p. 415)
"Ya, that's what the money's for!"
https://www.adaptabilitypractice.com.au/blog/mad-men-thats-what-the-moneys-for-and-emotion-deprivation/
-kh
"You bloated leech, do you expect to be carried home by my labor and my brains, and fob me off with another factor's post on another hell-planet?" (p. 415)
"Ya, that's what the money's for!"
https://www.adaptabilitypractice.com.au/blog/mad-men-thats-what-the-moneys-for-and-emotion-deprivation/
-kh
Keith,
But I don't think that Wace will be fobbed off.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, Old Nick would PROMOTE Eric Wace to an even more responsible post. And handsomely compensate him.
Sean
Are you familiar with the "Peter Principle"?:
"In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo used an agent-based modelling approach to simulate the promotion of employees in a system where the Peter principle is assumed to be true. They found that the best way to improve efficiency in an enterprise is to promote people randomly, or to shortlist the best and the worst performer in a given group, from which the person to be promoted is then selected randomly.[24] For this work, they won the 2010 edition of the parody Ig Nobel Prize in management science.[25]
In 2018, professors Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue analyzed sales workers' performance and promotion practices at 214 American businesses to test the veracity of the Peter principle. They found that these companies tended to promote employees to management position based on their performance in their previous position, rather than based on managerial potential. Consistent with the Peter principle, the researchers found that high performing sales employees were likelier to be promoted, and that they were likelier to perform poorly as managers, leading to considerable costs to the businesses.[26]
-kh
I have heard of some of that.
Kaor, Keith!
I have heard of the Peter principle. But what ELSE can a boss like Nicholas van Rijn do BUT to promote people who had been successful at their jobs in one place to another, possibly more important job at another location? Yes, the promoted persons might not succeed (I agree it's nearly a dead certainty some WILL fail), but then they might not. Only time and experience will tell.
Sean
@Sean: O.N. (Old Nick) can find out what will motivate Wace to continue to do what he is best at for as long as possible. If Wace wants to try something new, O.N. should find out if Wace has an aptitude for that, and if so, work to provide training and mentorship to help him succeed. Personally, I think Wace would make a crappy manager...
-kh
Keith,
I don't think we are told what job Wace is promoted to...
Paul.
Kaor, Keith!
I disagree, because Old Nick himself thought very well of Wace's abilities. So he might have done well where ever van Rijn promoted him to.
Sean
Post a Comment