When I was working at Borders (before it went bankrupt) the company had a novel contest for the employees, everyone working for the company could submit their work and the company would select the winner and publish their book. Now I’m not saying that my books were the best ones submitted for the contest (I had 3 completed novels at the time) but I’d had some good reviews from my readers (some of whom I think were being honest in their reviews plus the fact that one of my novels took third place in my agent’s novel writing contest), but the winner of the contest was a regional manager. After his book hit the shelf in the store I don’t remember the store selling a single copy of the novel.
@PATLABORVI in a similar vein, I remember being in a meeting at one of my former jobs where we had a lot of managers and execs in the room. I don’t remember the exact topic of discussion after all these years, but I remember having a brainstorm and describing what I thought was a brilliant plan. I was met with stony silence from the whole room, and I thought my idea was basically dead since the discussion continued on as if I hadn’t said a word. Fast forward about a half hour, and one of the VPs present in the meeting proceeds to lay out the exact same plan which I had described earlier, even borrowing some of my terminology. Of course, now the room is awash with praise: “what a great idea boss, how come i didn’t think of that”, etc. Needless to say, in an act of what I can only describe as mass doublethink, they had all seemingly forgotten that I had ever spoken in the first place. There was only one other guy (my direct supervisor) who would admit to hearing me come up with the idea first, and he warned me not to mention it in the future. I left not long after that, for obvious reasons.
Liverlips McCracken Premium Member almost 7 years ago
Art is all well and good, but politics rules the day.
patlaborvi almost 7 years ago
When I was working at Borders (before it went bankrupt) the company had a novel contest for the employees, everyone working for the company could submit their work and the company would select the winner and publish their book. Now I’m not saying that my books were the best ones submitted for the contest (I had 3 completed novels at the time) but I’d had some good reviews from my readers (some of whom I think were being honest in their reviews plus the fact that one of my novels took third place in my agent’s novel writing contest), but the winner of the contest was a regional manager. After his book hit the shelf in the store I don’t remember the store selling a single copy of the novel.
Number Three almost 7 years ago
“Oh, yeah” Indeed!
xxx
InquireWithin almost 7 years ago
@PATLABORVI in a similar vein, I remember being in a meeting at one of my former jobs where we had a lot of managers and execs in the room. I don’t remember the exact topic of discussion after all these years, but I remember having a brainstorm and describing what I thought was a brilliant plan. I was met with stony silence from the whole room, and I thought my idea was basically dead since the discussion continued on as if I hadn’t said a word. Fast forward about a half hour, and one of the VPs present in the meeting proceeds to lay out the exact same plan which I had described earlier, even borrowing some of my terminology. Of course, now the room is awash with praise: “what a great idea boss, how come i didn’t think of that”, etc. Needless to say, in an act of what I can only describe as mass doublethink, they had all seemingly forgotten that I had ever spoken in the first place. There was only one other guy (my direct supervisor) who would admit to hearing me come up with the idea first, and he warned me not to mention it in the future. I left not long after that, for obvious reasons.