And here my wife is in Michigan deathly afraid of all our snakes. Most are harmless and even the most venomous bites result in mild discomfort.
Next time have them get a pic so we can see if the elbows are pointy or not.
So assuming they got the anti-venom in quickly, pretty smart work by the husband to bring the carcass with for ID. Hopefully she has no long term effects.
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pretty smart work by the husband to bring the carcass with for ID
I assume thatās one of the first things you learn in Australia as a child.
Also
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After working at one of these firms for 4+ years and now moving to a much happier job in industry, I think my wife has a pretty clear perspective on the actual value the consulting firms provide.
The two main reasons to hire them are:
-
You need to deflect blame for a decision like layoffs and Management would rather bring in an outside service they can point blame at
-
You have a special one-time project like an acquisition or merger or something like that where there is a time crunch component to it. You bring in the consultants so that you arenāt forcing your employees to work 100 hour weeks.
Reason 2 is acceptable.
Reason 1 is grounds for an ass beating.
Does reason 1 fool anyone? Like if someone got laid off and was mad enough to start a workplace mass shooting over it, are they targeting the consultants or management?
I feel like as itās become more commonplace it fools less and less people, but management still feels like itās worth the cost to try and preserve their relationships with the remaining employees.
I thought the way that management preserves relationships is to offer fair/generous severance so that the remaining employees donāt consider simply jumping ship.
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Prison phone company offers kickbacks to sheriffs all over the country if they get rid of in person visits.
Many take them up on their offer.
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I worked for two consulting firms earlier in my career.
#1: PwC right out of college. It was during the dot-com boom and it was crazy easy to get a job in IT consulting. Looking back, the job wasnāt bad, though I didnāt particularly enjoy it at the time. It really is amazing that they have people in their early 20ās doing shit they are entirely unqualified to do.
That said, I was rarely in a position to fuck up someoneās business because of my inexperience. Generally did things that were suited to younger people who were happy to learn on the job. Also felt I contributed well and was a net-positive to the client in my different roles.
One time, when I was between projects, I got a call asking me to fly to NYC to supervise the delivery and installation of big rackmount servers in a clientās new server room. I had no clue what I was doing, especially when I had to determine if the setup was ok. The shipment was fucked, too, as the delivery instructions didnāt specify inside delivery, so the delivery guy was going to just leave this huge thing of computer equipment on the sidewalk in NYC. I tipped him $20 to bring it into the freight elevator.
#2: Shit garbage company that lied to me. First job after my MBA, small consulting firm. They told me that had 40 consultants. They had 7: CEO, EVP, VP, some guy who was always out of town at clients, me, a girl right out of college, and a freelance consultant. I was put it in impossible positions trying to save clients millions through āstrategic sourcing,ā having no idea what I was doing. I did ok for a while, mainly shadowing the VP and doing Excel stuff, but then I was given two projects to manage.
Two projects, ZERO staff. Just me. I probably needed ten staff. Flew to a client to interview various managers and just bullshitted them the entire time. Did my best, but eventually realized I was lying to both clients on how the project was going, when Iād have deliverables for them, etc. I would panic and try to figure out excuses to not go into work. I quit after four months.
Shortly thereafter, the VP quit and told me a bunch of the shit involving the CEO that he had shielded me from. He said one of my clients fired the company and I donāt blame them. I didnāt have any expertise (was told to fake it) and didnāt have anyone helping me. Not a single person.
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Cillian Murphy is WAY, WAY overrated as an actor!
There, I said it.
I watched all of Peaky Blinders. Almost totally has a deadpan gormless look. Fine!
Oppenheimer, Almost totally has a deadpan gormless look.
Reminds me of William Hurt. Lauded as a āgreatā actor, but ā¦ eh, whatā¦?
So heās Kristen Stewart?
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I will not listen to any Peaky Blinders slander.
But yeah I kind of agree
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#1 definitely, but human capital is a pretty small part of the overall management consulting market. #2 is way way more common than it sounds here, and applies to a variety of āone-timeā projects. IT implementations are a huge part of business. Thereās also a lot of cyber security, strategy, program management, process reengineering, data analytics, audit and assurance advisoryā¦
Iām not going to pretend itās the bees knees, but those claiming a multi-billion dollar business actually provides no value are completely ignorant.
Media articles about consulting, like the one previously posted that sparked this conversation, are the same as media articles about a variety of topics. Created for clicks and/or outrage, selectively quoting sources to bolster their narrative, and usually easy to pick apart by anyone with actual knowledge of the topic at hand. That doesnāt cease to be the case just because the topic happens to be consultants.
As to junior people giving advice on topics they know nothing about, Iāve been involved in a few dozen projects and have never seen an instance of junior staff having the ability to report straight to the client without several levels of review. Iām not saying it never happens, but it is absolutely not the norm, at least in any firm that cares about their own quality management and contractual risks. The junior people do the grunt workārunning the numbers, taking notes, making slides, etcābut nothing they produce is going to the clients unvetted unless the project is run by clowns.
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Lots of firms are run by lazy idiots who know a fair bit about their industry.
Bringing in a bunch of ultra smart kids who work 60 hour weeks, while not knowing a lot about the industry can absolutely add value.
The issue is that many of these folks are severely under paid and overworked for their capabilities, all on the MLM scheme idea of making partner before they burn out and destroy their lives/mental health.
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Fully agree with that. And thereās a bit of a microcosm of society at play, where thereās a lot of luck involved that people pretend is actually hard work and skill, etc etc, and that is never discussed because we have to pretend itās actually a meritocracy
Casey Affleck. Broods and mumbles. Thatās it. Manchester by the sea was horrible on all levels.
I loved Peaky Blinders. Bunch of great characters. But CM wasnāt a star.
Emily Blunt smashed it in Oppenheimer. One brief snarky glance she did in one scene was more acting than Cillian did in the entire movie.
Edit: Rob D jr was also immense.