An amusing spoof article on workforce trends at The Spoof:

A six-year study by industrial psychologists, the first of its kind, reveals that inspirational posters in company cafeterias and employee lounges cause depression among workers and may trigger homicidal rages.

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Inspirational posters in the workplace became popular in the 80’s as globalization first began to exert downward pressure on U.S. wages and benefits. “You don’t need them if you’re having a layoff because then people are motivated by fear,” says Flynn. “It’s when you’re grinding people down with nothing but a cost-of-living increase that you need to buck their spirits up.”

The posters lost some of their effectiveness as they became a common fixture in plants and offices across the country, forcing designers to refine their message. “’Hang in there, baby!’ was a classic in its time,” says Carole Connolly of Workplace Solutions, a Cleveland benefits consulting firm, referring to a widely-used posting depicting a kitten clinging desperately to a tree limb. “We refocus that image for particular situations, such as loss of health insurance, so people are thankful they still have a job at all.”

The U.S. Postal Service, which has experienced some of the worst workplace violence in American history, has gone so far as to ban inspirational posters altogether. ...

Copyright 2007, Con Chapman

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