17th April 2010, 12:32 AM
"Not everybody who is a good archaeologist is a git" - no, but good people are pushed to the limit and snap - some of their 'nicer' colleagues just haven't realised what's going on yet....people who really care PASSIONATELY about the archaeology can be driven to frustrated angry tears by the obstinate, unimaginative and poorly informed attitudes of their Managers...and its not like the pay or the 'portfolio' make up for it...
legitimate complaint and dissent from Imposed Ways of Doing Things is thus recast as simply as emotional outburst and troublemaking behaviour...over time these people become marginalised or leave. ..truly, there are some right miserable bastards and small minded gits well secured within the profession...
There are truly also a number of - shall we say 'socialy maladjusted' persons...? ...schizerpherics, alcoholics, autistics, clinically depressed, and plain worn out...the times people with these kinds of 'social problems' have been treated as Real Human Beings stand out from the small minded behaviour that (naively) I had once assumed would less common amongst an educated and eclectic profession.
'Teams' of overworked, under-respected, underpaid young (and not so young) people turn viciously on each other and savage their own...again 'character' becomes a proxy for 'competence', and the possibility of a diverse community (team/workplace) becomes limited by the prevalence of Managerial and Hysterical concepts of what a Proper Commercial Archaeologist should be.
Effective ways of working together with different abilities and backgrounds is shattered by half-arsed and half-hearted implementation of CPD and Development Plans - at present the implementation of staff assessment and CPD is an abject failure in many cases...making a mockery of the original intent, and presenting (IMO) major problems to True attempts at Effective and Acceptable means of providing universal accreditation in the future.
Worse, the systems implemented are so poor they are very visibly open to subjective and 'personal' manipulation...the presence of a large pile of appropriately labelled paperwork does indeed give the impression that a company is being progressive, employee friendly etc - but it can easily be smoke and mirrors...becuase it is at the back of many minds that personel processes are not excatly objective teh system is tacilty accpeted as flawed - this then fuels Fatalistic outlooks, which suits Authority very well, as the energy for Progress fades - it also increases base level nastiness and anti-community sentiments, as individuals realise that they can not simply rely on their archaeological results for promotion (unless they have towed the methodological/interpretational line), and must look to other forms of social wheedling to promote themselves... (footnote: academia can also suffer from social wheedler syndrome)
legitimate complaint and dissent from Imposed Ways of Doing Things is thus recast as simply as emotional outburst and troublemaking behaviour...over time these people become marginalised or leave. ..truly, there are some right miserable bastards and small minded gits well secured within the profession...
There are truly also a number of - shall we say 'socialy maladjusted' persons...? ...schizerpherics, alcoholics, autistics, clinically depressed, and plain worn out...the times people with these kinds of 'social problems' have been treated as Real Human Beings stand out from the small minded behaviour that (naively) I had once assumed would less common amongst an educated and eclectic profession.
'Teams' of overworked, under-respected, underpaid young (and not so young) people turn viciously on each other and savage their own...again 'character' becomes a proxy for 'competence', and the possibility of a diverse community (team/workplace) becomes limited by the prevalence of Managerial and Hysterical concepts of what a Proper Commercial Archaeologist should be.
Effective ways of working together with different abilities and backgrounds is shattered by half-arsed and half-hearted implementation of CPD and Development Plans - at present the implementation of staff assessment and CPD is an abject failure in many cases...making a mockery of the original intent, and presenting (IMO) major problems to True attempts at Effective and Acceptable means of providing universal accreditation in the future.
Worse, the systems implemented are so poor they are very visibly open to subjective and 'personal' manipulation...the presence of a large pile of appropriately labelled paperwork does indeed give the impression that a company is being progressive, employee friendly etc - but it can easily be smoke and mirrors...becuase it is at the back of many minds that personel processes are not excatly objective teh system is tacilty accpeted as flawed - this then fuels Fatalistic outlooks, which suits Authority very well, as the energy for Progress fades - it also increases base level nastiness and anti-community sentiments, as individuals realise that they can not simply rely on their archaeological results for promotion (unless they have towed the methodological/interpretational line), and must look to other forms of social wheedling to promote themselves... (footnote: academia can also suffer from social wheedler syndrome)