Micromanagement and Fascism

With gratitude to columnist Max Barry, I reprint the first few lines of his column entitled “Why I Fled the Office Cubicle” of April 15, 2011. You can read his entire column at: http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/15/barry.cubicle.living/index.html?hpt=C2.

Please read his comments, then continue on for a few follow-on remarks.
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“There are two types of employee: people and human resources. It's easy to tell which one you are. If your boss says, ‘Todd, please have your team reach a final decision,’ you're a person. If she says, ‘Todd, please organize a team meeting, and because it's lunchtime remember you should supply food, and please cut the breads or sandwiches into either halves or quarters, to discourage over-eating, and remember that crumbs and spills attract uninvited guests,’ you're a human resource…

“The difference between people and human resources is that people have brains. People don't need a company policy on how to ascend stairs… People can figure that out for themselves. Human resources, on the other hand, are dumb as a box of hammers. They need everything spelled out.”
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There it is. In the world of cubicles, you have directions that tell you everything from how to disengage from a conversation to how to use a revolving door. Do you really need those directions? In the world of legal oblige you have a warning on your coffee cup telling you it’s hot. Do you really need that warning? In the classroom, teachers and students have “essential learning requirements” to tell them what to learn, and when, and how. Do they really need them? The correct response, in case you’ve become too intimidated by the forces of micromanagement to answer, is “No.”

If you don’t really need all that micromanagement, why do the micromanagers foist it upon you? They micromanage you because they want control. Whether they do or do not believe you are capable of surviving on your own, they want to manage your effort and energy, direct your thoughts and opinions. They are not interested in your ideas or motives. They do not respect you as a person. They do not value your independence. They are interested in maintaining their own power base, which includes you. You as a resource, of course, not as a competent, autonomous individual.

The micromanagement rules don’t apply to upper leadership, because they are in the power position, perceived to have the ability to think for themselves. The ordinary people, the minions, are perceived – or depicted - as incapable of critical thinking. That is why they must be told, directed, led, instructed to the tiniest detail. Micromanagement is born of arrogance.

“It helps when the little people
understand you’re simply
better than they are.”

Micromanagement leads to the division of humanity into people and underlings. In an office environment, the minions become human resources (as opposed to management). In a legal environment, the minions become plaintiffs (as opposed to counsel and judges). In an economic environment, the minions are known as consumers (as opposed to ‘the brand’). In the public schools, the minions include both teachers and students (as opposed to administrators and legislators).

You can be sure that this increasing trend throughout our society to micromanage the masses is leading to some undesirable side effects.
       * It is creating a mindset in which ordinary people are being taught that their ideas don’t matter and they cannot make a difference.  Only the ideas of the leaders and the organization matter. 
       * It is creating a mindset in which ordinary people are learning to wait to be told what to do rather than taking initiative.  
       * It is creating a mindset in which individuals assume no personal responsibility for their own actions because they are accustomed to someone else being responsible for them. 
       * It is creating an attitude among the leadership at various levels that “we” (leaders) know best and ordinary folks are too stupid to survive unless we explain to them what they must do, how they must act, what they must think.

This attitude of ineqality is dividing us into two distinct groups – those who get to set the agenda, define the tasks, direct the effort, and make the decisions, and the peasants who do what they’re told. This intellectual elitism is setting the stage for fascism.

Benito Mussolini & Friend, 1925

Of course, I might be wrong. I am only a minion, after all.

- Gryphem
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An earlier Gryphem post also addressed this topic. You can find it at: http://gryphem.blogspot.com/2011/03/micromanagement-and-ruse-of-superiority.html.