Corporate America

First, a picture of a 8 week old Raven and her big brother from about 4 years ago...

And now, on to my topic:
Corporate America really needs a shake up. There are far too many management positions out there that don’t need to exist. I worked at 6 different companies now, and this is the first one where I have actually had respect for the management of the company.

You’d like to think that the managers, directors, VPs, and General Managers of the companies would actually have some skills that make them better at guiding companies than your average person, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Most people who want to manage seem to get a lucky break, be in the right place at the right time, or get a fancy piece of paper, like an MBA. It usually seems that those who are really good at their job are deemed too valuable to loose, so they get to keep doing their job, while those who do an average job but have a little drive get promoted up. Then, they make sure they kiss up to the right people, take credit for anything good that happens near them, and wear Teflon armor for anything bad that happens. Thus, they move up through the ranks of management.
Once they get to be something like a VP or CEO, they are pretty much going to hold that position or higher no matter how incompetent they are. Why? The reason that we are told is because of experience. Companies hire for experience. If you have 5 years experience as CEO of Widgetworks, you will be taken seriously you apply for a CEO position at another company. It doesn’t matter that Widgetworks almost went bankrupt under your steady guidance. Any half-whit can make it sound like all the good things were his initiatives, and all the bad things were from factors outside his control, and he ,now, has learned from those problems, and can prevent them in the future. Why if you are good enough at driving companies into the ground, you can even go as high as President of the United States.
What’s the real reason that once you get a manager position, you stay at that level or higher, no matter what? Management empathy. They recognize that they could be in the same boat as you someday, because there really are factors outside anyone’s control, and anyone could be looking for a new job someday. They figure that, “There, but for the grace of god, go I.” It’s basically a big good ole boys club.
This ends up locking down the class structure. Look at any very rich person’s kids. Chelsea Clinton, George W Bush, Aerin Lauder (the daughter of Estee Lauder, with whom I went to University). Chelsea is now working at a 6 figure job and will probably end up wherever she wants. George W Bush never proved himself, or earned his way up the career ladder, yet he ended up CEO of multiple companies, before he even got into politics. Aerin Lauder is being put in charge of a large division of Estee Lauder, Inc, and she never “worked her way up.” There are countless other examples.
America is called the land of opportunity, but it’s getting very hard for the standard rags to riches story to come true anymore. The rich get richer. The poor stay poor, and the middle class becomes poor.
Why are tax breaks and other incentives given to companies by the US government? Companies aren’t pro-US. They are pro-profit. If they ruin the US, but make huge profits, and end up just moving to another country, that’s fine with most corporations. The reason they get incentives, is because they give donations and jobs to the Senators and Congressmen , and have powerful lobbies.
It’s all inter-twined. How do we fix it? I don’t know, but something needs to change.