So I’ve been thinking and this is surely the right place to ask.
The call centre in my former employers, their managers used to literally brag how they ran their department and expected their employee behaviour according to the duck anecdote.
It’s a famous one in employment circles, there’s probably many memes about it but I’m too tired to search….. it’s briefly how they expect workers to be like ducks… serenely gliding on the surface but hidden are the legs working like hell.
Well this has been on my mind for a long time (ok 2 years since I escaped but hey, we all like to embellish our stories huh). Surely at least to me, this is rampant staff abuse. So they expect their staff to be absolutely stressed and overworked to hell, running themselves into the floor…….. oh but they must bury this, must disguise how badly stressed they are, they must bottle it all up and behave serenely. Show how happy workers they are, effortlessly achieving.
Nuts to that. This is exactly the sort of thing we’ve been taught in mental health awareness causes deep anxiety and depression.
Am I mad or missing the point for thinking any teamleaders who come out with this guff need a slap?