Office Politics
by Reverend X.S. Kinesys
"Why are Office Politics so vicious and vindictive? Because the stakes are so
small."
-anon
There is a reason why the technocracy hasn't smashed us all. And it isn't
because were the good guys. It isn't because they are incompetent. It isn't
because they are being eaten from the inside by Nephandi rot.(odds are fairly
good that they don't have
any more barrabi than the traditions do.)
It's because they are people. Just like us.
Tradition mages tend to see the Technocracy as a large monolithic entity that
comes down on them like the hammer of god.
Marauders see them as a big case of Constipation begging for an enema.
Nephandi see them as a bear maddened by rabies. Dangerous,but eventually going
to fall.
They are none of these things. In order to understand the enemy, you must stop
demonizing him and see him for what he really is. People...
Interconvention rivalries
This is the type of struggle that is the most common and thus is one that all
technocrats expect and deal with best. Everybody knows that everybody spies for
everybody else. and this creates a very real "Trust no one." kind of
atmosphere. N.W.O spies on people to make sure that union orthodoxy is
observed, Iterators spy on others to increase their efficiency and to determine
whether or not they should be liquidated when the time comes. Progenitors and
Syndicate spy on other mainly to protect their own interest. and the Void
Engineers spy on others just to makes sure that they aren't being effectively
spied on.
In multi-convention amalgams it is usually taken as an article of faith that
everything that happens is reported back to ones superiors. This can
occasionally hamper operational effectiveness when each member of said cabal
has their own agenda. (please note that i have just made an understatement on
par with "hitler dabbled in real estate". You want an idea of how a
multi-convention amalgam is going to operate? Go buy a copy of Paranoia. those
of you who have know what i'm talking about.)
The Peter Principle
Formulated by Lawrence J. Peter basicly breaks down into this one simple axiom.
" A manager will inevitably be promoted past the level of his own competence."
( i hope i'm not mis-quoting this.)
What this means is that there is a very good chance that the person who is
issuing orders to you has no real idea of what he's doing or what it's like out
in the field.
What do you do when the captian of the vessel freaks out in the face of
danger? What do you do when the Time-motion managers give you an impossible
task that has to be completed in an impossible amount of time? What do you do
when the boss orders you to market unsellable merchandise? What do you do when
the head of the lab is so consumed by his own research that nobody can get a
chance to talk to him about funding for their own projects? What do you do when
the Men in white order you to infiltrate doissetep?
I'll tell you what you do. You act against orders or without them and pray
god that you succeed. Hell ,even if you do succeed you may get chewed out and
marked as a troublemaker by your incompetent boss. And you can be sure of this.
No matter how
messed up or oblivious an incompetent manager is, they allways have an unerring
sense of people who could take their job away from them.
"why am I doing this? I got real tired of coming up with last minute
solutions to impossible fucking problems create by other fucking people!"
-Tommy lee jones,"Under Seige"
Who's Really in charge?
It would appear that the N.W.O are. Simply by virtue of them being the ones
that create assignments. While the various conventions have no difficulty
assigning things to their underlings it is usually the N.W.O. that is able to
say "We need an amalgam to do this... and these are our requirements." N.W.O.
matches amalgams up by psych profiles and work expirience and the browbeats the
other conventions when necessary for personnel.
Whether they get those particular personnel or not is a different
matter.Anything even remotely interesting will require someone to spy on it.
But sometimes it's hard for the N.W.O. mages to fill slots with the right
people if it is perceived as some kind of shit detail or suicide job. Other
conventions have no intention of sacrificing their best and brightest on the
altar of Order mage arrogance.
" Shephard? Oh no. i'm afraid not he's
absolutely vital to this constructs research team....But you can have Jenkins.
he's not worth fighting over...JENKINS!"
Decision power
The levels of bureacracy in the Union often paralyze their effectiveness
especially in cases where an unusual situation occurs.( please not that I have
just made an understatement on par with "Traffic Court is unfair.") Many
times,when someone in the field reports on a situation, that report is sent to
an officer ,who sends it to an analyst, who puts it together with all the known
information on that subject. This report is often sent to a committee to be
summarized and to suggest courses of action,(read: distort the intel for
personal gain and further own agenda) whereupon the information finally reaches
someone who can actually make a decision about it. This person is usually
someone who rarely leaves the office and is so far removed from the action that
they really have no referent in making the decision. Usually, by this time,
the situation has blossomed into a full grown catastrophe and the on-site
people get yelled at because they couldn't move for all the buck passing.("why
in the hell didn't you DO something?")
Sound unlikely? It is the way the every intelligence gathering arm of the
united states government operates. Why should the Void engineers,N.W.O or the
Syndicate operate any different. The only exceptions to this rule are the
progenitors(who operate under a different model) and the Iteration X (who
contact the Computer directly.)
Laziness,Petty squabling and micromanagement
Doing a job,any job,can be a real pain in the ass. Some react to it in
different ways. Some do the absolute minimum required to stay on top of the
job.(a common malady among mid-level bureacrats and people who do a lot of the
scut work.) Some engage
in pointless political games.( a common problem in the Order,Syndicate,and
Progenitors) and some overmanage every single detail of a particular task or
mission to the point of causing it to fail.( Iteration X has a serious problem
with this at times.
" Yes I realize that the body armor is bulkier than you are used to but it
provides the same level of protection as the old armor and costs less." )
Powerblocs and Power struggles
This is not to say that the Technocracy is entirely ineffectual. Often,
internal powerblocs form around charismatic individuals who have good records
and high success rate. These thing tend to rise and fall like mini empires and
sometimes result in situations where a group is left alone to pursue its own
agenda because the leader is either politically or personally powerfull enough
to make sure that enemies leave him alone. Inevitably these groups clash with
one another over ideology,
limited resources,or simple aggression. Unfortunately, Tradition mages tend to
caught in the middle of these things too. Sometimes these groups fracture
because the Union
steps in as a whole and puts a stop to their activities, sometimes they
fracture from within because of a schism in the ranks.(the second in command
starts to think that the leader has turned away from his original vision or
worse, sold out.)
and sometimes these groups are simply destroyed in bureacratic combat. While
they live though they are a very real danger to Tradition mages because they
tend to mesh very well and they thrive on success. Which means they are
ambitious.
Sexual politics
This is becoming an increasingly touchy problem in recent years. its allways
been around but nobody ever talked about it. Iteration X swears that it doesn't
exist in their
ranks. but it does. it exists in any place where you have people dealing with
one another. What do you do if you have a boss who is sexually harassing you
and he/she also happens to have the ability to warp reality? What do you do
when some young incompetent is promoted over you just because he/she is
sleeping with the boss. What do you do if you have an active libido and belong
to Iteration X (Sex drive is considered an undesirable aberation. uneccessary.)
What do you do if you are gay or bisexual and belong the N.W.O? What do you do
when you are a high ranking Syndicate mage and you caught on tape being tied up
and spanked by the "Mistress."? What do you do when you are a Void Engineer
and you are stuck out in space for long periods of time without any sexual
release? Or Worse....
What if you fall in love? Suppose you fall for someone in your own amalgam
and your operational efficiency goes down because you are allways trying to
protect them. Suppose they hurt you, or betray you, or get killed on you.
What in the hell are you going to do when you fall in love with a member of
the opposite camp, or even fall for one of the nephandi?
Love and Sex are not expressly forbidden by the technocracy. but they might
as well be.
Iniquitous practices
Like say featherbedding, Where the Syndicate mage who is funding the project
manages to pry a chunk of cash loose from Disbursements and then pockets a good
bit of it before turning it over to the team.
Like say Nepotism, favoritism,or even discrimination, any practice of
management that puts incompetent people over others with the same or more
merit.
Like maybe Favor brokering, a practice that is severly frowned on by the
Union at large but still persists.(important tip, never attempt this with
Iterators. you can't tell whether they'll pay up or not when you really need
it.)
Like Credit stealing, which happens in every branch of the technocracy and
often leads to aggression in workplace and even sabotage.
Pressure
Keeping reality safe is full time job and requires eternal vigilance and
attention to duty.
There is only one problem with this. Humans aren't built for eternal
vigilance and attention to duty. The Technocracy as a whole is a pressure
cooker and worse, refuses to admit that it's own ethic is what is killing it.
Alcoholism and Sadomasochism runs
rampant in all strata of the N.W.O and the Syndicate. Sexual harassment is
becoming an increasing problem (as noted above). Void engineers sometimes turn to
suicide as a way out the boredom, Progenitors seem to have less problems with
this but even they are not immune. And while Iterators seem to be untouched by
these rigors, it has been noted that the incidence of job related psychoses is
slowly but steadily trending upward.
This lack of release is the factor that leads more Technocrats to
Renunciation than any other. These weaknesses that we all possess are easiest
to exploit when repressed to the point of creating a crises. Technocrats with
these problems
either sublimate their problem into increased dedication or they feel trapped
and want
to gnaw their own leg off to escape.
So what does it all mean, Reverend?
It means that a Technocratic Construct is as rife for intrigue as doissetep
keep or a city full of Vampires.This should be reflected at the Amalgam level.
The only groups that aren't going to have any difficulty with internecine
strife are groups of MIB constructs and Hit-marks. And this is because they are
people with problems... just like us.
Up to the Technocracy Page
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Anders Sandberg / nv91-asa@nada.kth.se