12Jul/100
The dreaded vote of confidence
From the world of sports comes a cogent reminder: if your superiors in a hierarchical organization find it necessary to give you a vote of confidence, you're 1000% toast. Bosses don't find it necessary to talk about how they're not about to fire you if they're not at least thinking about firing you. As this poor schmuck's almost certainly about to find out.
So why do organizations tend to lie so predictably with their "votes of confidence"? I suspect it's because truth is so toxic to hierarchies - specifically, to survival within the hierarchical power structure (which of course occasionally intersects with actual, you know, survival) that those with the skills to grab and hold power lie by reflex.