I would be the first to admit that I do
not have a doctorate degree in any field of business or management
nor do I possess one of those precious degrees in any other field
either; therefore, this fact and this fact alone puts all my comments
and all my writings into a shadowy areas where anyone and everyone
who has one of “them doctorates” can pounce on me like a wild,
vicious predator of the wild, tearing apart the muscles and the
tendons of all my ideas not because they are especially hungry but
more along the lines of because they can...
And, with that said, I want you, the
reader, to know that I do have a few friends that are PhD's but I
would now suspect that will be changing to: a not for long
status.
This preface was necessary for what I
am about to say and no doubt, it too, will be taken a little
tongue-in-cheek, but bear in mind that there is a
serious foundation to all comedy.
As many of you recall, I am 67 years
old and have been working since I was a teenager and started
supporting a family in 1969 at the age of 21, or 3 years above the
legal age without parental consent to be eligible to enlist or be
drafted into the service of your country and have a high probability
that you will die in a foreign land trying to protect freedom.
I stopped working at the age of 66, so
simple math on a cell phone calculator gives us 45 which means I
worked “out there” in the business marketplace for
45 years. And, while that may seem impressive to some, let me also
add to that understand that 38 of those years were equally divided
between positions of middle or upper management, leaving me with only
7 years that I worked in a blue collar capacity.
All of my employment was southeast of
the Mason-Dixon line where wages are traditionally lower than what
can be acquired by working in other parts of the United States and
that was I decision that I willingly made on my own... but, I am not
exactly sure why, unless (looking back) it had something to do with
all the “idiot” drivers in all those big cities and
me wanting this “laid back” kinda “chillin
out” type of lifestyle...
Well... if you believe that one...
then, have I got this great deal for you... lol
Seriously... If I had ventured up
North or out West, who I was and what I knew would fall into the
category of: “A Dime A Dozen,” but, in the southeast
corridor of the US, who I was and my skills were considered “unique,”
and “special.”
The trade-off and believe me EVERYTHING has a trade-off, was a
lifetime of low wages which meant I just had to be relatively careful
with how much I spent and how deep I might get myself into debt in
order to live the “middle class” life to which I
had grown accustomed in my upbringing; but, soon realized that I
would never have the same level of “quality life”
that my parents had experienced with my mother never having to work.
People like me who are relatively smart but not book intelligent or
geniuses caught onto to this idea very early in our career, creating
our own “behavior modification” techniques on ourselves so that
we could accept our inevitable fate; however, that is not to say that
I, or those like me, ever saw the glass as being half empty because I
always saw it as half full and always have. And, I strongly believe
that I can just about or within reason have whatever it is that I
want or wanted... it is just that I never really wanted any of that
garbage; although, I must admit that I enjoyed it the few times it
was offered to me.
I did not get my training at the “school of hard knocks,”
like some have claimed but I have had my share (and maybe a little
more) of “bad times,” yet this is all part of life
and living and should not be seen as anything unusual.
But... what has “ruffled my feathers,” so to
speak is the way my SUPERIORS (in all situations) have treated me
while expecting that I was literally “too stupid”
to understand. And, this is what I call receiving the MUSHROOM
TREATMENT.
The Mushroom Treatment as I see it, is being kept in the dark
and constantly being fed bullshit.
Better Homes and Gardens offers this advice when growing mushrooms:
Because the spores don't contain chlorophyll to begin germinating (as seeds do), they rely on substances such as sawdust, grain, wooden plugs, straw, wood chips, or liquid for nourishment. A blend of the spores and these nutrients is called spawn. Spawn performs a bit like the starter needed to make sourdough bread.
The spawn supports the growth of mushrooms' tiny, white, threadlike roots, called mycelium. The mycelium grows first, before anything that resembles a mushroom pushes through the growing medium.
The spawn itself could grow mushrooms, but you'll get a lot better mushroom harvest when the spawn is applied to a substrate, or growing medium. Depending on the mushroom type, the substrate might be straw, cardboard, logs, wood chips, or compost with a blend of materials such as straw, corncobs, cotton and cocoa seed hulls, gypsum, and nitrogen supplements.
Each type has
specific growing needs, it is best to grow must mushrooms on
composted manure, shiitakes
on wood or hardwood sawdust, or straw, for example.
It don't git no better than Better Homes and Gardens (as they say)
for getting the truth regarding anything that has to do with the home
or garden. And, I am so fond of this magazine that it is the first
magazine that I reach for when finding myself in the waiting room of
any doctor's office.
Trust me on this one, but you will never see The Mushroom
Treatment being discussed in any College or University classroom
because students read about it in their textbooks. And, to tell you
the truth or to be quite honest with you (a phrase which has always
amazed me when used because it implies that the truth has not been
offered prior to this moment), I have no idea where this Mushroom
Treatment concept came from, I just know that is it used all the
time and within all levels at a companies, regardless of the product
or service.
In the military, the Mushroom Treatment was referred to as “on
a need to know basis,” or “for your eyes only,”
but, in business we simply do not tell the “rank and
file,” until they absolutely need to know and that is always at
a calculated point where if they retaliate, they will inflict the
least harm upon the company.
When the Mushroom Treatment is being used within a company's
management ranks, then it is done so with the idea of separating the
“men from the boys,” so to speak or letting you know that
you are not quite ready to become an exclusive member in our
exclusive club.
My last place of employment which as you all know was a Christian
University, used the Mushroom Treatment all the time in its
dealings with the faculty at required faculty meeting during the
semester. And, this practice I found especially interesting because
most of those faculty members are PhD's and not only should be
considered but are actually very intelligent... that is to say,
they knew exactly that they were being treated like a mushroom.
What I have never been able to figure out during my 45 years of
employment is which type of manure is the best to use.
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