The Metamorphosis of the Zurich bunker E-Book

Andrea Bühlmann

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 139

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Everything is swept on a daily basis; everything is swept under the rug... The white doctors’ smock that an "office zombie" no longer needs is dusted daily. Working means getting rid of things. Do everything possible to keep a clean slate. Frustrations are passed on to other employees and the resulting consequences, such as stress-related illnesses (cancer, burnout, depression, compulsions, suicides, etc.), are covered up and swept under the rug with a broom. There are power struggles; strategic alliances are established. The goal is to protect one's own advantage in order to gobble up perks. Everything is supposedly sacred, and the facade hides dark abysses. The abyss of the "bunker"! Pressure, stress, hyperactivity due to boredom, existential fears due to threats of losing your job if you do not play along... Team spirit is based on lies and deceit. People complain and gossip, but only behind other people's backs. Rumour mongering at its finest. Proof and alibis are invented. Employees are constantly monitored so that their pressure points are exposed when they start questioning the perk club's presence in the bunker. Still, even the best "perk profiteers" are not happy because they are under constant pressure to make sure that nothing is exposed... Maybe they'd like some marijuana instead! Perhaps there are even better options?

Leseprobe

The Metamorphosis of the Zurich bunker

Copyright © 2016 Gesundheitsimpulse GmbH

Author: Andrea Bühlmann

Editing: Karl Kelschebach

Translation: Textcase, Utrecht

Cover: Textcase, Utrecht

Publisher: Gesundheitsimpulse GmbH, Zurich

Print and distribution: tredition GmbH, Hambourg

ISBN

Paperback: 978-3-906845-03-6

Hardcover: 978-3-906845-04-3

E-book: 978-3-906845-05-0

Printed in Germany

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission the publisher or a license of the Copyright Licensing Agency Gesundheitsimpulse GmbH.

Adresse électronique:[email protected]

Site Internet international:www.gesundheitsimpulse.org

Andrea Bühlmann

The Metamorphosis of the Zurich bunker

The “bunker” Phenomenon: Power, Prestige, Carrot, and the Stick

A Play for the Promotion of Occupational Health

Dedication

For the employees of the Zurich bunker,

particularly for those on the first floor.

Foreword

This play is a production by Gesundheitsimpulse GmbH to promote the occupational health of a hierarchically structured “bunker” organization in Zurich. It is the first project for the improvement of the “bunker phenomenon” as it’s described in the next section, which is the preface to the play. By mimicking the processes and the characters in the play, the employees of an organization can see a reflection of themselves and their roles and can better assess the effects of their behaviour through self-reflection. The juxtapositions of interactions within the team lead to self-knowledge. This is the first step on the path to the sustainable and successful restructuring of processes and change in the working environment.

The fear of confronting facts and changes will be handled by the team using humour and dramatic techniques. Because this issue affects many people in the working world, the play is helpful and interesting not only for the bunker in Zurich, but also for many other employees.

For people who have never been employed in a bunker, this play is a form of humorous entertainment, like any other play. Gesundheitsimpulse GmbH hopes that the bunker in Zurich will face up to the facts as a result of this play and deal with the consequences of this knowledge. Finally, nothing will be swept under the rug and the staff can concentrate on constructive cooperation without tension or blackmail.

Leaders in a bunker with sadomasochistic tendencies want to promote the idea that employees have to bear their manipulation but, in fact and law, employees do not have to put up with this! It is up to each person to decide whether to live out such inclinations in their private life. However, these tendencies have no place in the professional environment. These are insults and instances of sexual harassment, and should be punished as such.

Preface to the Play

The “bunker” Phenomenon: Power, Prestige, Carrot and the Stick

You have to be alert when working in a bunker and on duty for eight hours and twenty-four minutes a day. Some people manage to do something useful in this time while others don’t think about the consequences of the work at all. The tendency towards excessively controlling behaviour due to boredom definitely exists and results in a loss of creativity, of innovation, and of motivation. Motivation is further suppressed by the hierarchical processes. It’s difficult to enforce or change something. You go from person to person, get brushed off, get an unsatisfactory response, or don’t get an opportunity to clarify concerns directly with those responsible. Nevertheless, you are obliged to exchange information. The employee seems to be somewhat incompetent because he or she is unable to provide feedback. The issues will only be addressed after several written attempts at communication and then processed rather arbitrarily. A request has to be revised at least five times in writing before you are allowed to send the content, yet another time, by way of a form. Meanwhile, nothing in the statement has changed from the original document.

It’s just a bunch of red tape. Now the waiting begins, if you haven’t already given up. Meetings pass where you would have been able to discuss the issues. Of course, the meetings will be held without the employee in question. There is no response forthcoming when asking someone higher up, and the request is forgotten. You jump over someone’s head in the hierarchy, and you’re shot down with the line of reasoning that this breaks the rules. Finally, after an enormous amount of effort, you find out that the issue has not been handled. When the issue is eventually handled, the employee involved is not informed of the decisions made. The employee herself is responsible for monitoring the processes. She must virtually clairvoyantly predict that her agenda item could be handled at just that moment. If she makes inquiries and proposes an official response for other issues, she is called arrogant or otherwise. The employee should not interfere, only serve. The employee who is responsible encounters only an utter lack of respect. This isn’t even confronted directly so that she has the opportunity to defend herself, but through different channels so that she cannot speak in her own defence. If she justifies her actions, the justification can’t reach her supervisor because the information does not go up through the management chain. The direct route is closed. Therefore, the head of a bunker remains silent and undisturbed regarding issues that aren’t important for him anyway. He doesn’t need to worry about anything. On the other hand, it’s also possible that a bunker leader who is not quite familiar with the processes within the team would appreciate more information, which he could use to make processes more useful. However, the staff on the intermediate levels doesn’t want the leader to know about any of this. If the processes were changed, the intermediate employees would have less power. At that point, they wouldn’t be able to block any more issues. Therefore, most employees have resigned themselves to not questioning the processes and to blocking requests and changes. Still, they tell everyone that they’re extremely busy. There are those who are busy for practically the entire day.

Naturally, they therefore lack the time to do something constructive. Others bust their asses working and have no time for gossiping around the water cooler. These folks aren’t noticed because they’re hidden behind their computer screens. Unfortunately, often it’s only the extremes of the spectrum that exist in a bunker, and those in the middle are a rarity.

The “bunker phenomenon” is defended by any means possible; the phenomenon is reported as having a clean record, so the bunker is never questioned from the outside. It’s a fact that the people in such “Bunker situations” are not managed. A great amount of pressure builds on employees due to shifting of responsibility and the futility of attempting to make changes. Most of the staff adapts to this built-up pressure because they fear losing both prestige and financial security. The pressure has to be released, sooner or later. Some vent their frustration on the other employees, gain any advantage at the expense of others, become depressed, resign themselves to their situation, suffer from stress-related illnesses, or develop compulsions or addictions. If such phenomena are already apparent, it becomes an even greater challenge to leave the position. Then you need your energy to cope with illness, rather than to reorient yourself.

A negative spiral of futility and hopelessness sets in. It’s a big challenge to choose the right time to leave. This lasts as long as you are sufficiently independent and things are going well. Many settle in and look for advantages. They are definitely the ones who are happy in a bunker like this. However, those perks come at the expense of other employees and are illegal. One such illegal perk may be the senseless accumulation of overtime in order to enable someone to take more vacations. You come in an hour earlier every day, take care of private matters during this time and are thus able to take months of vacation a little bit at a time. You can do a lot in this time, for example, design a new house, choose a new car, schedule day nurseries and organize parties, etc.

Managers go to the gym without punching in and out on the time clock. As long as employees are working, the managers have fulfilled their mission. Therefore, the situation doesn’t deteriorate because the employees are controlled and thus do not mimic the behaviour of their superiors. Engaging in sports while on the clock is a “manager perk”. Employees still have plenty of work do to in order to offset managers’ overtime vacations. Otherwise, the team doesn’t function. At that point, everything becomes exposed. In such an arrangement, there are alliances that mutually defend these perks. If you are treated unfairly through the official channels, you have to see where you can get compensation for this injustice. Still, you also need a scapegoat at whom you can cathartically point your finger. You can draw attention to the scapegoat. You can constantly monitor him, check him, blame him for any errors, and humiliate him. All of this is done just so that these perks aren’t exposed, a kind of “organized perk protection mafia” whose traces are brushed under the rug in order to protect its own reputation for having a clean slate. Those employees who do not lay claim to any perks, but rather fight for legal advantages and justice, are harassed because they are dangerous. Everyone has to join the “perks club”, but your role is always given to you, otherwise the system doesn’t work. For some, it’s a life full of perks, but for others, it’s a pain because they have to perform like circus monkeys at the beck and call of those with the perks. You can tell if someone doesn’t want to play by the rules of the perks club because that employee will be kept on an even shorter leash. All sorts of privileges are taken away from him or her. All the general conditions are set in such a way that he or she is no longer motivated.

Employees suffer from burnout due to humiliation, but the employees themselves are to blame for the situation. Then you can really have a breakdown! In order to exert pressure on them, these employees are pursued in their leisure time; fear chases them, they look for a way to stop the pressure, so they keep their mouths shut and nothing is exposed. The bunker must preserve its reputation at all costs. When an employee decides to turn in his notice because of awkward working situation, something is said about that employee, about why he isn’t a good fit for the team; something idiotic that the employees can use for gossip among themselves. This takes places even though it’s very clear that the situation at the workplace is catastrophic and that the employee has been treated unfairly. This bunker behaviour functions as a kind of protection. On the one hand, it keeps the process from being questioned and one avoids taking the blame, and on the other hand, it’s a warning for the other employees. If employees don’t play by their rules, they’ll be next. Fear and pressure build up. The pressure is intensified by the hopelessness of the labour market. If you leave, you have virtually no chance of finding a new, comparable position. In addition, more and more qualifications and titles are required for a job, even if you only have to take down meeting minutes. In this way, competition among candidates is increased. Similarly, a person can’t leave because it is ensured that employees aren’t able to accumulate too much money, and so they remain vulnerable to blackmail. Highly qualified employees are placed in temporary positions so that they earn exactly what they need to make a living. This is so that they can’t afford to resign; they would go into debt after only two months because the unemployment contributions haven’t been paid. Employees are forced to cover up these offenses; otherwise they’re threatened with dismissal and loss of social standing.

The Play

Act I - The Zurich Bunker

The Zurich bunker. An ultra-modern, high-rise building with large glass panes set in bare, grey walls. Employees have just moved into the building. Inside the building, office spaces are arranged in a horseshoe-shaped corridor. All of them are transparent; there is privacy and they are very impersonal. There are no plants and no pictures to be seen, only the grey walls. You can see the monitors from everywhere. A transparent office can be seen on the right side of the room. It is the office of Dr. Subjugation. There is a similar office to the left. It is the office of Dr. Bundtcake. He is the first-floor manager. Even though he just sits at his desk, makes a few phone calls, and will be invited from time to time to a meeting, his white doctor’s smock hangs on the wall like a photo, suspended from a hanger. The smock hasn’t been used for years. Still, it’s not dusty. It is personally dusted on a daily basis by Dr. Bundtcake himself. In the middle of the stage there is a transparent coffee break room. The space is also used as a meeting room. In the corridor are the desks of: the Singing Bowl Princess, Dr. Struwwelpeter and Dr. Bric-a-brac. In the background of the corridor there are additional offices for the secretariat and for the lawyers. Mr. Jesus, the head lawyer and legal team manager, also has his own office in the background into which he may enter.

All of the offices are transparent and are visible to the audience. In the centre of the space, there is a door to the bunker stairwell through which people come and go. The whole bunker is very trendy, but not functional. The mood is very depressed. Employees can no longer breathe; they carry a weight on their shoulders. They must not talk about it. A secretary races through the premises and constantly says that she has a lot to do and that she has to sweep everything under the rug. The chief secretary has almost fallen asleep on her chair. She repaints her nails from time to time.

Each employee has a dedicated glass bottle with an engraved “bunker logo”. The bottle can be filled with water for free at a water cooler. The employees take this bottle everywhere and drink out of the bottle occasionally. Sometimes there is a mess. Dr. Struwwelpeter uses her bottle in all cases, but she also experiences messes. Each employee has also been given a broom with the “bunker logo”. This is used in all cases where something has to be swept under the rug.

There is a massive electrical archive in the background. Everything is archived in the bunker! Everything is controlled (and perhaps even manipulated?) before being archived. Only secretaries can operate this archive. They must also have a task. Pink dossiers are stacked on the desks. Every text and every phone call must be archived electronically and in the pink dossier. Actually, all the staff – even Dr. Bundtcake – are archivists. Even if they have at least two university titles, the doctors are still holders of the ridiculous title “Dr. MD”. Of course, the title owners are trying to push as much of the archiving work as possible off onto the secretaries. You do not want to be an archivist. Finally, you are designated as an expert or even as a field boss. This hierarchy level must of course be respected by the secretaries. One must be correct in terms of language and social interaction. The hierarchy gap must be visible. Last, but not least, the secretaries do not even have a university degree. The frustrated doctors don’t even remember when they fling around condescending comments.

(Dr. Subjugation) says to himself: