You Don’t Get Tenure In The Real World
Thursday, January 21st, 2010 by Mark | Posted in Unconventional Thinking | CommentsTenure is a euphemism. A wonderfully intellectual way of saying that you can stay on the job, protected by the rules, even if your performance is as captivating as frozen pizza.
And yet we put so much of our lives into the hands of tenured slackers who use the power of their protective armor to shield them against the natural forces of life that would toss them aside in an instant.
When my sons were kids and under the thumb of dreadful teachers, I would press a case at the school, only to find that right and wrong has no place in the lexicon of tenure.
In recent months, I have tried to alert national security officials of terror threats that one of my firm’s clients – Safe Banking Systems -is uniquely capable of detecting. But as a New York Times reporter working the case with me has pointed out, “bureaucrats don’t want to know that others may know more than them.”
The truth has no place in the lexicon of tenure.
In the legislative branch of our federal government, a congressman in a “safe” district – extemely right or left – gains a form of tenure, runs committees, take bribes from leaders and lobbyists and does virtually whatever he wants to do whether the people like it or not.
Liberty has no place in the lexicon of tenure.
Companies large and small are saddled with parasite employees who spend much of their time smoking, lunching, coffee breaking and bitching about everything under the sun. They keep their place because of unions who don’t know how to spell the word “performance.”
Meritocracy has no place in the lexicon of tenure.
Every time a I meet a company for the first time, and management brags to me that no one has ever been fired for 30 years or so, I know TENURE is written on the walls and that third-rate hangers on soak up the payroll and sap the company of its vitality.
The truth is, except for the US Supreme Court, there is no place for tenure. People, ideas, products, services, romances, grudges, feuds and strategies all must earn their
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January 21st, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Too true Mr. Stevens. I fear many public and private institutions and many folk’s private lives are in danger of collapse from tenured ideas and practices. Far more prudent to hold only to timeless ideas and beliefs that have stood in the full light of sun without fading and weathered the winds of change for generations. These “secrets” could fill volumes, and I have in my books.
January 21st, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Too true Mr. Stevens. I fear many public and private institutions and many folk
May 13th, 2010 at 3:18 am
Sounds harsh to most people, but your words are absolutely true.