Thursday, October 16, 2008

Meritocracy

Sometimes the animation biz is a meritocracy. But often not ....

A couple of weeks ago I ran into an artist, an old, old acquaintance, who's worked steadily for close to forty years. He's always done his job wisely and well, but he said to me:

Last month they were going to lay me off in favor of three guys that I trained, that don't have a fraction of the chops I do. But the supervisor knows them and likes them, and I'm just the guy in the cube down the hall working his ass off. They reversed the layoff at the last minute, but I'm still ticked off about it. I'm okay with getting let go for a reason, but I like to have a reason.

Oh, there was a reason. The artist had been around too long, and fell into the delusion that doing your job quietly and well is enough.

Seldom is it enough. More often that not, competency is just the beginning. You must also be young, and gregarious, and network energetically. People lose jobs because of too much incompetence or laziness. Nobody ever lost a job because of too much brown-nosing.

There are people I've met over the years who have disagreed with the above sentiment. They either lead sheltered lives or enjoy being wrong.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

In a field that is in a state like this one is in right now, where the number of qualified job applicants far out-strip employment openings, being in the powerful position of being able to hire and fire can go to your head very quickly. When you have people's lives in your hand, it takes someone of rare character to resist the temptation to play God. If you are God, attributes like compassion, fairness and common sense are optional and often absent. We all have our human monster stories. It's a good incentive to try to succeed on your own.

Floyd Norman said...

I agree.

Being sort of retired, I'm free of the rat race. Yet, many still have a real need to work.

It ticks me off to see how far too many who need work are treated by those who "have power" over them.

Too bad.

Anonymous said...

Hey, at least he kept his job. I got laid off.

But I'm young, so I'll be fine, right?

Right?

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmmm:

http://aniranter.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-view-on-union.html

Anonymous said...

"brown noses" or "noser's", whatever the actual term is, make me sick to my stomack.

sure, they end up surviving during troubled times, but still, it sickens me!

Rufus.

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