Remove the banana. That’ll be fifty thousand pounds, please.
Mar 10th, 2007 by francis
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”
(William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Act I, scene ii).
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs brought in some consultants (at the cost of seven million pounds of taxpayers’ money) to help introduce ‘lean thinking’ (a concept used to improve car manufacturing) to HMRC.
Part of their very expensive advice was to promote “efficient business processing” by freeing the work place from clutter. This ‘clutter’ included things like family photos and lunch. In one suggestion, which unsurprisingly captured the media’s attention, consultants asked HMRC staff if a banana on a desk was ‘active or inactive’. If inactive, then it had to be removed from the desk immediately. To keep essentials exactly where they should be, desks were marked out with black tape. There, that is where the stapler goes. That is where the ruler lives. Unsurprisingly, workers have described this as ‘demeaning and demoralising.’
A HMRC spokesman is quoted as explaining that ‘it was “only right” that staff sharing desk space be given advice and support on how to make the most efficient use of the space.’ Perhaps it is only right that HRMC management, and their management consultants, should be given advice and support on how to be human beings, and how to treat other people as if they are human beings too. Because they seem to have forgotten.
Mind, this kind of exercise does have a productive side. It reminds the world that the stupidity of some employers, and their propensity for dehumanising their employees can never be underestimated, and that the pointless vacuousness of some consultants can never be over-estimated.