Awards
Awards of any kind are a dignity-shredding affair, even when your auditors can count envelopes, but just what is going through the mind of an investment banker, recruitment consultant, lawyer or compliance professional who allows himself to hold, be nominated for, win, modestly disclose on LinkedIn, or congratulate anyone else who should so modestly disclose, an “industry award” is hard to fathom.
These awards have long been doled out at gala events convened by tedious industry magazines to reward persistent advertisers — credulous businesses who can’t get much else out of the spend (well — does anyone actually read Risk Magazine[1]? Why? When?).
At least in those days, sheepishly returning to your desk with a stonking hangover and an embarrassing plastic figurine was the price of a free night out on the razzle with your buddies — but latterly these austere publications have been joined by obscure “networking platforms” and hitherto unheard-of “trade associations” in declaring arbitrary, meaningless and frankly outrageous awards to individuals whom you would think the simple pleasure of excelling at their calling, or failing that, being richly paid for it, ought to be reward enough.
Gala dinners are few and far between these days: if you’re lucky, a congratulatory post on the online edition of a magazine no-one reads.
Yet still there are some insecurities that only a gong for “Person of the Year, IT Procurement, Government Sector”; “Business Development Professional of the Year: Information Services Sector” or “Contentious Litigator of the Year - Alternative Dispute and Mediation sector” can redress.
It must be nice to have existential doubts that can be so easily quashed. If an award, “judged” anonymously, without reference to published criteria, from amongst nominees whose main merit appears to be employment by a prolific advertiser of the sponsor’s product — if a personal tribute as feeble as that can assuage your deeper insecurities, your psychic wellbeing is in rude health indeed.
What is says about the those who publicly brown-nose such an honouree, on the other hand, is a different story.
References
- ↑ Careful: http://www.risk.net/risk-magazine is the derivatives risk magazine. https://www.risk-mag.com is a different kind of magazine altogether, although its reader appeal is a bit more obvious.