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 thinks it wise to hold, be nominated for, win, humblebrag on LinkedIn about, or congratulate anyone else for winning, an “industry award” is hard to fathom.
These awards used to be doled out only at gala events convened by tedious free industry magazines as a means of rewarding their patient and persistent advertisers, who don’t seem to get much else out of the transaction (does anyone actually read Risk Magazine[1]? Why? When?).
At least in those days, sheepishly returning to your desk with an embarrassing plastic figurine was the price of a free night out on the tiles with your buddies — but latterly those austere publications have been joined by obscure “industry networking platforms” and hitherto unheard-of “industry trade associations” in declaring arbitrary, meaningless and frankly outrageous awards to individuals whom you would think the simple pleasure of excelling at their professional 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.
But nonetheless, some are afflicted by a neurosis courtesy of which they seek public recognition for their endeavours. 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 doubts that can be so easily quashed. These awards are “judged” anonymously, without reference to published criteria and awarded to persons who usually don’t have obvious merit in their nominated field — beyond representing a prolific advertiser — at all, let alone to such a degree to warrant being lionised so aggravatingly.
These awards foster unconscionable behavior too: The humble-bragging by the recipient on LinkedIn or the Corporate Intranet; ostentatious brown-nosing from inferiors and those keen to build their networks
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.