Category: Corporate World (Page 3 of 14)

I recently wrapped up work on the Corporate Politics 101 series for this blog. At least, I wrapped up this phase of it. And I did so with a rebuke of office politics and the people who play the game. But I think there’s a bit more to say on the topic. I wanted to say a word about why I avoid office politics. And why readers should avoid them, too.

Let’s talk about all that.

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At the beginning of this year, I said I’d focus on an overview of life in the business world. I called it Corporate Politics 101. And it now has 9 short posts on navigating the business world!

In this post, I’ve collected links to the entire series in one place for easy navigation. Here you go:

1. Be Nice to Staff
2. Office Space was Right
3. The Peter Principle Now
4. Workers are More Competent than Leaders
5. Event Names are Ironic
6. Structure Hoards Power
7. No Bullshit Committees
8. ‘Best Practices’ are Anything But
9. CEOs are Roman Emperors
10. Special Projects

I hope readers have enjoyed the series. My idea was to present a set of very brief tips for navigating the business world. Especially for leftists who don’t have a background in it. I may add to the series in the coming months, but I see it as largely complete for now.

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Sometimes in the business world a company assigns a worker or (more commonly) an executive to a ‘special project.’ Companies call it by several names. They might call it a ‘special assignment’ or a ‘temporary assignment.’ They might relabel a person a ‘special adviser.’

Readers might wonder what all of this means. In short, it means one of two things. One, the company might be very gently firing the executive. As a nod to the phrase ‘quiet quitting,’ we might call this ‘quiet firing.’ In fact, this is the most common reason and one workers in particular should watch out for. If you’re suddenly relieved of all job duties and placed on a special project without much in the way of explanation or instructions, it’s probably time to brush up the old résumé.

Again, though, this applies mostly to executives. It often happens when a company buys another company. They, e.g., assign the executives from the other company to the role of ‘special adviser.’ That’s a very polite way to move them along. These days, companies usually just fire workers without warning. They rarely offer anything like a golden parachute or grace period.

Two, it might mean the company assigned the worker (or, again, usually executive) to clean up some sort of mess. Maybe another department has become dysfunctional. Maybe the company has a special need and put together a team to handle it. In contrast to the first scenario, this scenario offers benefits and career opportunities.

Readers who encounter this whole situation should first decide which of the two things is actually happening. That determination should guide next steps.

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