Entry 2426, on 2026-01-20 at 09:50:36 (Rating 4, Comments)
As most of my readers know, I work in IT, and I recently took voluntary redundancy from a job I have had for almost 40 years. I am at retirement age anyway, but I would have continued working if I hadn't been hit with yet another restructuring: I guess about the 6th time that had happened since I started.
It is fine to change the structure of an institution, group, or company, but there has to be a good reason for it, and the changes need to be focussed towards making things better for the real people the organisation exists for. The restructurings I experienced though, seemed to be driven by the personal ideology of a senior "leader", or just a bunch of idle managers trying to justify their existence.
In my case, the changes always made things worse for the actual clients I was supposed to be supporting. I'm sure they made things better for some people - most likely the management - but that really just isn't good enough. Over the last 30 years the institution has grown the number for managers by massive amounts while technical, academic, and general staff have been "let go" in large numbers.
Morale has sunk to new lows, valuable people have left, and most people see the place as being a "sinking ship" after years of perceived gross incompetence in management.
Hey, I don't work there any more so I guess I can tell those of you who don't already know that the institution in this case is the University of Otago.
I used to discuss the state of the place with many people I worked with, and the opinion amongst the academics and general staff was almost universally negative towards the management. In fact there was only one staff remember I ever spoke to who thought the reorganisations we were forced into were a good thing, and that person is now in senior management. Apparently, if you support the power hierarchy and ignore the facts you can go far in an organisation like that.
Note that I am not saying the university is uniquely bad, because any large organistion infected with the curse of rampant managerialism will have similar problems. In fact, the only other really large employer in Dunedin, the hospital, is reputed to be even worse than the university. That might explain a lot about why our health system doesn't work. I suspect the main problem there is not so much lack of funding, but overbearing and incompetent management, and many people who work there support that view, although most of them would also like more money as well!
So I am now self-employed, doing casual IT support work for the Apple users around town. Of course, I do miss many parts of my previous job, because I genuinely enjoyed working with the vast majority of people at the university, except for the managers of course, which I avoided interacting with at all costs!
For example, I almost never went to their silly meetings, which really just degenerated into a talk-fest where a bunch of self-important bureaucrats talked for an hour while saying nothing. Honestly, if I didn't know better I would say they were trying to denigrate themsleves through satire. The mindless management jargon was so unbelievably awful that it was hard not to laugh at them some times.
And I know that IT tech people also sometimes use a lot of specialised language, but when I talk to people who aren't IT experts I adjust my vocabulary to use words they will be familiar with. I suspect that if managers also did that the true vacuousness of their thoughts would quickly be revealed, because without all the gibberish there is almost nothing left.
And superficially I followed the rules while bending them to breaking point when no one was watching. Of course, I occasionally got caught doing this sort of thing, and on one occasion I had to hire a lawyer to defend me against management attacks, but they were shown to be wrong and had to pay me out for the stress and loss of reputation to me. But that made no difference to them at all: the nice thing about being a manager I guess, is you can be totally wrong and still suffer no consequences.
Some people say I am wrong to criticise managers because they can see the "big picture" which I can't. But I say there is no *the* big picture: there are many big pictures and they vary depending on your philosophical and political beliefs. No one big picture is necessarily better than any other. The management's is just one of many, and not even close to being the best, in my opinion. Yes, it's just my opinion, but one which appears to be shared by many others.
People sometimes ask why I speak so critically of the university and why I continued to work there if I disliked it to that extent, but that is (maybe deliberately) misrepresenting my view. I criticise the management because I want the university to succeed. If I didn't care, why would I have bothered make myself a target like that?
In fact, a few years back I realised that there was no way anyone could make any real difference, so what is the point in even trying. After that I still tried to do the best for my clients, despite the rules making that difficult, but I accepted that I had to work in a bureaucratic environment. You've got to understand what can be changed and what can't. There's no point in making your life harder for no good reason!
Comment 1 (8522) by Anonymous on 2026-01-20 at 16:42:13:
What are you even complaining about, they paid you didn't they? Just do what you are told and you have no problems. Why is it so hard?
Comment 2 (8523) by OJB on 2026-01-20 at 16:54:35:
Well sure, I understand that perspective, but I look at it this way: Ultimately my pay came from the taxpayer. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of them would prefer to see more academics and technical staff rather than more managers. I am also fairly sure that most would want to see the basic operations of the university happening efficiently instead of being bogged down in excessive bureaucracy.
Comment 3 (8526) by Ralph on 2026-01-21 at 13:53:52:
So sad in this day and age that a person could have such a negative attitude. Life is about quality, each persons life should be positive. Take away the ability to think and ascertain values of situations is a worry are we becoming zombies to just follow orders. Creativity would disappear the wonderful inventions etc over many years would not happen as the suggestion just do what you are told would terminate that ability. Always remember that is not the Kiwi way, the wonderful projects undertaken by early New Zealanders is what has now formed a great country, all the sacrifices and hardship undertaken by many is now what we are enjoying.
Comment 4 (8527) by OJB on 2026-01-21 at 18:49:37:
Yeah, probably one of my ex-bosses making that comment! :)
Comment 5 (8533) by Jim Cable on 2026-02-04 at 17:24:24:
Well, quite at odds with the two negative views already expressed, I thought OJB's rendition was a balanced, well-reasoned and accurate depiction of the way the former aspirations of NZ in general have deteriorated - let alone, the performance standard to which NZ universities have sunk. Back in the '60's when I attended Victoria, the drive in lectures was to impart the ability of HOW to think - not WHAT to think - as has become the norm of the minimalist efforts so wishy-washily imparted today, that are here so patently echoed in the wokeness of the comments above.
Those comments portray several things:
OJB's points went above the grasp of Anonymous - who must be horribly at one with his own lot.
Ralph condemned points that weren't even implicit, let alone specifically addressed. Both he and Anonymous exuded lefti-leaning, touchy-feely-negative irrelevance - just like that major non-performer, Hipkins, whose vacuously attempts to criticise never gel, simply because negativism - unhelpful though it be - has always been the inferior Left's only weapon.
University morale HAS sunk and only real morons would attempt to deny it. Mind you, with a proven failure like Robertson as Otago's head, could anything else there be expected? I'm told Robertson's thesis for his degree didn't even remotely qualify for such a title - and that determination was made by a genuine academic professor at Waikato University.
So go for it, OJB - there's far more honest appreciation of actuality among those who are self-employed than will ever be found among the staffers of today's campii - campuses, for those who didn't take Latin.
The mistakes of the self-employed are mostly always costs to only them. Not as they are among the bib-feeders, almost always to the taxpayer.
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