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The Disneyfication of a University

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Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#141

Post by Consultant32452 »

bumby wrote: post #136
alasdair_ wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your story reminds me of an anecdote in The Economist where an econ professor wondered why it was socially unacceptable to hire someone to help his friends move house rather than helping directly himself, when he didn't want to.

This made me genuinely chuckle. I love economic theories applied to real life when they border on absurd because they assume everything is about maximizing utility. I'll be sure to farm out all my spousal duties if I have better things to do and I'll report back on how that went.

One time my wife explained to me that she didn't feel like I appreciated her doing my laundry. I responded that she should stop doing my laundry. I didn't feel like it was her "job" to do the laundry and if it was the source of some emotional problem, it could easily be avoided. I thought I had solved the problem. She's my ex-wife now.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#142

Post by nkrisc »

reggieband wrote: post #97

When I was a high-school student I hated pep rallies [1]. The entire school was dragged into our gym, sat on the bleachers while the football team ran into the room through a paper banner and various students on the pep squad would juggle, dance and force everyone to make some noise. It felt like a gigantic waste of time. Nearly 30 minutes for 450+ people. When I joined in the corporate drudgery I hated all of the eq…

It works, for better or for worse, because most people do believe in it. Most people like pep rallies (however hard for me to understand why). Most people like seeing their name in a powerpoint near a bunch of exclamation points and showered in clipart confetti.

I never understood why we celebrated product launches. Half the time it seems the thing quietly dies a year later. Why don't we celebrate things that go on to actually provide value instead of just celebrating that labor was done? What's the point of labor that doesn't produce value? Should that be celebrated?

Because for most people social recognition makes it worth it, regardless of how meaningless it really is.

If you can't tell, I don't really care much for celebrations.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#143

Post by AWildC182 »

Seenso wrote: post #25

Several years ago, I had to attend a full day "culture training" session given by Senn Delaney (a division of Heidrick & Struggles) [1]. It was also a massive waste of time. Our company actually has a really great culture, and what I remember of the training amounted to a somewhat subtle attempt to indoctrinate employees to be more blindly obedient to management change initiatives. There was some other stuff, but I h…

I used to work in a facility that was doing manufacturing as well as software/engineering. The manufacturing techs were generally treated like cattle and subjected to this stuff as most of them were max high school level education and/or foreign and while plenty intelligent, didn't have the financial capability to tell them to fuck off. As such they were generally able get them to play along with all the synergizification training because whether they bought into it or not, they were conditioned to play along through social pressure.

I think what we're seeing is the same principles that worked on the mid century manufacturing laborers being refined for the information economy age.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#144

Post by smoyer »

Hey GW ... I hear that "Don't Be Evil" is available again and seems like it would be suitably generic.

On a more serious note, I'm on staff at a relatively major university having spent the previous 30 years in private industry. One of the things I (now at least) appreciate is that the university isn't supposed to have a corporate culture. There isn't a profit motive, it provides a safe-haven for "new thoughts", and should be altruistic in ways even a non-profit corporation can't be. (Note - not all "new thoughts" end up being right). As we work on the university's infrastructure, we commonly ask ourselves how we (as staff) can make the student's experience and/or education better. We're not directly interacting with students (most of the time) like the faculty but I feel the pain of this GW professor - perhaps their president needs to ask the same question.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#145

Post by notyourday »

andrewfong wrote: post #114
notyourday wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the pay is lousy feelings become important.

When the pay is good, feelings are important too. Consider, if you're well paid, your skill set is (probably) in high demand in the industry and getting a similarly high pay at other places is (relatively) easy. At that point, feelings play a pretty important role in getting you to stay.

> When the pay is good, feelings are important too.

When the pay is market then the feelings are important. When the pay higher then market, the feelings are not important. That's how finance keeps the talent. That's how Uber got away with what it got away with until it became clear that its employees were not going to become insta-rich after the IPO.

These examples are everywhere.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#146

Post by heleninboodler »

Oddly enough, there are lots of people who truly believe in this "10 core values" pap. I once was going through my annual review cycle at Microsoft, grumbling about having to go through the useless exercise of documenting how I live up to completely generic "core values" like "integrity" and I bitched to my wife about it. She works in social services and was appalled that I could be so cynical and didn't find this sort of guidance helpful. We finally had to agree to disagree on whether the whole concept was mindless garbage. I mean, come on, when "excellence" is one of your core values, you might as well just say "we like things that are good." Big thumbs up, Mickey.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#147

Post by notyourday »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #98
notyourday wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the pay is lousy feelings become important.

I have found the opposite for me. I'm not the feelings guy, but these days I seek more of the kinds of compensation that generally are not tracked and taxed by the state. So I care more about flexible schedules, vacation time, etc. I need to make a certain amount of $ to maintain my lifestyle, but otherwise I'm trying to maximize those other things. I can imagine for many people, their feelings is another kind of com…

> So I care more about flexible schedules, vacation time, etc.

Would you still care about it if you were paid 3x or would you work for a couple of years and peace out?

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#148

Post by rogual »

tdons wrote: post #6

Well written piece. I've been subjected to these kinds of 'workshops', and, like the author I too resent them. What's interesting is that many people (a majority?) in my organisation hated it too. Why do sessions like this keep getting organised? Why don't employees unite and speak up? What's in it for management? Deep down they must know that for most people attending, it doesn't add any value (it detracts).

Maybe that is the team-building. You know, give everyone something to roll their eyes at together.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#149

Post by nabla9 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #65

The most common reason people leave companies is not compensation. It's usually about relationships, primarily with the boss but also coworkers. I'm on the spectrum, so I function a bit like an automaton which places little value on the social aspects of work, but most people aren't like that. This is how "on the spectrum" I am. One time I was on a team that did a team building exercise where we went to a local chari…

> Most people were more interested in how it made them feel to do something nice for sick kids. I didn't understand that, I thought the goal was to perform the maximum amount of good for the kids.

I recommend two books:

1. Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062339355/against-empathy/ Summary: people should be more compassionate, not more empathetic.

2. The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life http://elephantinthebrain.com/ Summary: 80% of what people do is signalling for others and themselves.

You were not wrong. It's just that these company exercises are all about social signalling. Instead of sitting in a circle and everyone telling everyone else about their values and empathy and personal development they did some task that achieved the same.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#150

Post by JackFr »

riyadparvez wrote: post #48

As someone who is not from North America, this positive/good vibe culture really baffles me. You are a human being. Negative emotions are part of life. World is full of pain and sufferings. You are supposed to feel empathy for other people and feel bad for their misfortune even if you have the good luck of not going through suffering. I just don't understand this obsession of feeling good all the time. I don't know h…

A saying I learned from a Russian coworker: "The only people who smile all the time are idiots and Americans."

As an American, I find that quite amusing. I'd say it brings a smile to my face, but there's likely one there already.

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