8/20/2006
The Corporate Bloodsuckers Moved Your Cheese
Who Moved My Cheese is a book that’s supposed to be an endearing metaphor about mice that learn how to think “outside the box” and broaden their horizons in response to the changing times in their little world. I want to squash those mice. I’ve been a vegetarian for almost sixteen years and that’s how I feel about those little guys. Cute, nothing.They set the stage for disaster. Let me explain.
The point they make is obvious; in order to move forward in business you need to move with the times and be adaptable. This is the best way to be successful. Those who don’t change and remain rigid in their ways and practices are stepped on, “starved out”, or simply left behind.
In theory, this is good advice. I mean, how many of you have been told “No” to trying something new because, “It’s always been done this way”? Well, to me the book came to mean something else.
When my boss handed this book to me a few years ago, I should have seen the writing on the wall. Boy, was I naïve. I interpreted the book to be what it was: a metaphor.
What my boss was really saying: “We’re going to knock you on your ass with constant ‘restructuring’ and tell you how it’s good for you. Meanwhile, we’ll increase your workload, berate you, belittle you, and walk all over you. Basically, we’re going to do everything we can to either push you out or just make you cry like a little girl with a skinned knee… because we feel like it.”
This book was merely a sign of events to come. How I wish I’d had the foresight to know.
