The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

More than that, I was struck by how many people attended meetings and did/said nothing.

Now I am all for exposing young talent to stuff like this – it’s interesting and valuable and I realise how helpful and beneficial it was to me when I experienced it – however the longer I lived there, the more I realised it had nothing to do with ‘education’ and everything to do with ego and pandering.

Ego in the sense of ‘look how many people I’ve got working for me’.

Pandering in the sense of ‘look how important you are to us’.

And while you may think clients would look at this and question why they are paying for that many people – albeit at that time, talent was very cheap in comparison to other markets – the reality is they were also playing the game, so the inflation rate of ‘meeting attendance’ was worse than Russian currency circa 1984.

Over my time there, I managed to kill this attitude – at least with the meetings I had – reducing the numbers present to just the essential people and maybe one ‘observer’ for exposure and education … which is why you can imagine my surprise when I left Asia and found the West had now also adopted the ‘loads of people in attendance’ protocol for every internal/client meeting.

And for exactly the same reasons.

ARGHHHHHH.

While I appreciate every bit of work takes a village and clarity, communication and collaboration play a vital role in making great things happen … you don’t need everyone to be in every meeting. And yet some people find a way to always be there. To inject themselves into processes without ever actually doing anything … just seemingly looking like they are.

Which is why this piece by George Tannenbaum so good.

Tragic in it’s truth, but so good in its observation.

And while it is on companies for allowing this behaviour – which is madness, given how challenging times are for business right now, and how they could be better supporting/paying those people who are actively contributing to the work rather than hiding behind it – it is also indicative of how some organisations value complicity more than different opinions.

Now I appreciate there will be some people out there who will think the idea of being a piece of parsley sounds great.

You get paid.
You pretend to be important.
You attend the big meetings.

But the reality is – as George points out – everyone knows you’re pointless.

A bit of garnish always left to the side.

Nothing distinctive.
Completely replaceable.
Lacking any taste or value.

Or said another way, a life of complicity, not respectability.

And while George writes it as if parsley is still a necessity, I feel differently which is why I would say if you want a career … one of the best pieces of advice I could give is always look for ways to be the steak.

Doesn’t matter what job you do.

What level you’re at.

Add value, not just garnish.

It may be simply doing what is needed when it’s needed. It may be bringing new ideas to old problems. It may simply be being interested in what others are interested in.

Because while that might sound harder work than being parsley, it’s not as hard as the effort it takes to look busy while producing nothing. Let alone the strength of character it requires to ignore the fact you know your colleagues know exactly what you’re doing and they’re showing you the exact amount of respect that your attitude deserves.

And if you want proof, read Matt Beaumont’s brilliant book, E.

Specifically the actions, behaviour and response of the ‘head of account management’.

It’s supposed to be a comedy, but it’s really a documentary … and a reminder that people may absolutely detest assholes, but they detest imposter assholes most of all.