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''The office has, long since, lost its appeal''. Like frogs in a warming pot, we have tolerated the piecemeal withdrawal of emoluments: thousands of cuts in a long-term doctrinaire erosion of paltry joys. But the professions changed over that period: they were transformed into fungible, replaceable items of capital. In this way are ''personnel'' becoming ''plant''. | ''The office has, long since, lost its appeal''. Like frogs in a warming pot, we have tolerated the piecemeal withdrawal of emoluments: thousands of cuts in a long-term doctrinaire erosion of paltry joys. But the professions changed over that period: they were transformed into fungible, replaceable items of capital. In this way are ''personnel'' becoming ''plant''. | ||
Now all this would be fine for work that really could be [[operationalise]]d: the history of technology, since the plough, has been the separation of work into simple mechanical tasks better done by a machine from complex ones that can only be done by the [[meatware]]. But, as we know, for professional work, that separation is far easier said than done. As long as it has not been done — [[Operationalisation|and it hasn’t]]<ref>The clue is that you still need people to do it. Work generally suitable for machines should be done by, well, machines, not | Now all this would be fine for work that really could be [[operationalise]]d: the history of technology, since the plough, has been the separation of work into simple mechanical tasks better done by a machine from complex ones that can only be done by the [[meatware]]. But, as we know, for professional work, that separation is far easier said than done. As long as it has not been done — [[Operationalisation|and it hasn’t]]<ref>The clue is that you still need people to do it. Work generally suitable for machines should be done by, well, machines, not [[school-leaver from Bucharest|itinerant school-leavers from Bucharest]].</ref> — you run significant [[tail risk]] pulling your punches with staff whose expertise you might really need without warning one day in the yanwning, unknowable future. | ||
For the [[employment contract]] is a two-sided affair, and the [[consideration]] the employee asks for her “work product” is ''more than mere [[money]]'' — a subtlety that eludes those whose abiding focus is in the cost, and not the value, of the firm’s resources. Besides money, professional employment bestows status, facility, and eminence — what {{author|Daniel Pink}} would summarise as “[[Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - Book Review|autonomy, mastery, and purpose]]”. It is hard to see any of these in a disinfected formica desk and a keyboard, or a permanent diet of [[Skype]]-conducted [[opco]]s, [[steerco]]s, stakeholder check-ins and semi-annual [[compliance]] attestations. | For the [[employment contract]] is a two-sided affair, and the [[consideration]] the employee asks for her “work product” is ''more than mere [[money]]'' — a subtlety that eludes those whose abiding focus is in the cost, and not the value, of the firm’s resources. Besides money, professional employment bestows status, facility, and eminence — what {{author|Daniel Pink}} would summarise as “[[Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - Book Review|autonomy, mastery, and purpose]]”. It is hard to see any of these in a disinfected formica desk and a keyboard, or a permanent diet of [[Skype]]-conducted [[opco]]s, [[steerco]]s, stakeholder check-ins and semi-annual [[compliance]] attestations. | ||