Re: Boston Phoenix Article About WBUR

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 11:16 PM 12/2/01 -0500, A. Joseph Ross wrote:
>On 1 Dec 2001 at 21:47, Aaron Read wrote:
>
> > Or what about the useless consultants that are continually employed by
> > WBUR? Quite frankly, what has Mage done for you lately? (and
> > congratulations all around if WBUR actually has already jettisoned those
> > useless blowhards)
>
>Hmmm.  I wonder whether Donna will come on and tell us how useful
>consultants can be.

If Donna's employed by WBUR it'd be the first smart consultancy move I'd 
ever heard them make.  I wasn't trying to slam all consultants, although I 
can see in retrospect how my post could look like I was.....I *was* trying 
to slam WBUR's poor choices in consultants, either for bad advice or for 
mediocre advice with a overly-high fee.

I remember when upper management felt it was so important to have a mission 
statement.  This was back in 1998 or so...morale was at its usual low and I 
distinctly remember that one of the reasons for the mission statement was 
to give guidance and meaning to the staff.  Puh-leeze.  Anyways, rumor had 
it that some consultant (I don't think it was Mage that time) was brought 
in and worked on it for two months, charged some $5,000,and produced the 
most asinine Dilbert-esque load of horseshit any of us had ever 
seen.  Well, that last part wasn't a rumor, at least...because they made a 
poster-sized printout of it, framed it, and hung it up in the 
cafeteria.   (Dave F could probably tell us if it's still there or not)

Well, one of the two "pages" was a list of 10 things that are "what WBUR 
does".  Very soon after it went up, someone used a Sharpie to write in 
"#11: And we fuck everybody".   Yours truly got a good laugh out of that 
one since I was haggling with management about getting hired full time 
around then.   The sign went down for a little while: afterwards it was 
re-framed with a marker-resistant pane.   I was told they knew who did it 
and supposedly they were going to nail the naughty boy or girl....but I 
never heard of anyone getting fired for it, nor did I hear of any actual 
disciplinary action.

BTW Dave, was that Maryanne Nichols I heard on WBUR the other day?  If you 
see her tell her I said "hi"...haven't talked to her in ages...

_____________________________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read     / aread@speakeasy.net
Fried Bagels Consulting / www.friedbagels.com
12 Walnut St. / Waltham, MA / 02453