Being Stupid
by Miki Saxon
People who find stupid actions a source of amusement usually focus on celebrities, real or faux, and politicians.
Not me; I focus on the business world.
The first of two standouts this week is AOL, which decided to change the 401K matching plan to save money.
Moreover, CEO Tim Armstrong moved his foot from his mouth to deep in his throat by blaming the needed cost savings on Obamacare and supporting unusual cases like two women with complicated pregnancies.
When the employees screamed and the poop hit the media fan Armstrong and AOL swiftly backpedaled and reinstated the old policy.
A few years ago occasional contributor Matt Weeks wrote about the “startup social contract” and the repercussions when it’s broken.
If the workers and/or the exec team come to disrespect, disbelieve or ignore this social contract, the company is lost.
Although Matt wrote about the contract in terms of startups, it applies to enterprises of all sizes and ages.
While AOL’s actions were ill-advised, Goldman Sachs was just plain stupid, although they were encouraged by the sponsoring student group.
The conference, Women Engineers Code, or WECode, which was organized by an undergraduate student group at Harvard, featured stacks of cosmetic mirrors with the Goldman Sachs logo, a photograph posted to Instagram shows. The Instagram user also said that the bank brought nail files to the event.
One of the attendees wondered if the swag represented “sexyfeminism or gender stereotyping”
I can assure her it didn’t.
To quote a senior manager I’ve known for years, “given the choice between stupidity and malice aforethought the cause is almost always stupidity.”
Flickr image credit: The Columbian
