The Nuts & Bolts of Organizational Struction

It came to me today in yet another random flash of brilliance. Perhaps it isn't so brilliant but I impressed myself nonetheless. A bare-bones dissection of any organization reveals the 3 layers in organizational structure, the classes of employees if you will. It consists of low level workers, middle management & upper management.

Low level workers do all the grunt work. Their tasks can be menial, physical or extremely technical but their work produces the raison d'etre of the organization. Without the workers, there is no need for anything else. Upper management make important org-wide decisions that can have effects trickling down to every last employee mainly because their decisions affect the direction a company takes. Their decisions can make or break the organization.

As for middle management, we always hear about large organizations having too many mid-level managers. It has become a trend to consider middle management as completely unneccesary. Thus, the many layoffs in large companies in recent years create a harsh, competitive landscape for those in middle management positions and re-affirms this myth that we don't need them.

True, too much middle management creates unneccesarily inefficient bureaucracies but just the right amount of middle management will actually create a more cohesive organization. I love real and completely unrelated analogies so here is my brilliant new thought.

Take the nut, the bolt and the washer. The bolt does a half-assed job of holding two parts together but the nut keeps it in line. Without a washer though, that bolt is likely to slide from the nut over time and everything falls apart. I think the expression "cog in the machine" used to apply more to low level employees but now applies more to mid level management. It is actually a more fitting analogy anyway though it is often used incorrectly in the negative for cogs in a machine are absolutely neccesary. Cogs or gears are used for various reasons (from Jen Lewin):

1) They can reverse the direction of a motor or drive.
2) They can increase or decrease the turning of a motor.
3) They can increase or decrease the power of a motor's turning.

To sum up my point: the right cog and the right amount of cogs in the machine can make it a more powerful force to contend with therefore cogs & middle management should not be so easily dismissed.

Morning After Pill now REALLY freely available

I caught an article by Bill Taylor from the Toronto Star today about Plan B being freely available now, not just as an over the counter drug which it has been for at least a year. Much like a box of vitamins or Tylenol, it will be available on the shelf without having to ask the pharmacist for it.

While I have always straddled the fence on the issue between being pro-life and pro-choice, I think the move by the regulating authorities to allow morning after contraceptives to be THIS freely available is a terrible decision with many repercussions in society. Funnily enough, I was very happy when I heard last year that Plan B would be available as an OTC without prescription. How does this ruling change things? Here's just a taste of my rant on the subject:

We should always be aware of what any type of medicine does to our bodies, whether it is prescribed and explained by a doctor, over the counter with the advice of a pharmacist or off the shelf with directions from a label. I always figured that the reason that certain drugs are more regulated is because of the level of danger it poses to the individual taking it. However most of us take medicine off the shelf without thinking and that is just a fact. They are merely to eliminate symptoms of minor afflictions to avoid annoyances that get in the way of everyday life.

While as a society we wouldn't want too many unwanted or unplanned pregnancies, is this what life has become? This is absolutely disrespectful to life itself! While I believe a woman has the right to choose how and when to bring a child into the world, the unborn child or unformed potential for life that possibly resides in her body at that moment should warrant SOME respect and thought. It is not a symptom to be rid of at mere whim. If unplanned sexual encounters occur, the consequence of that should be pondered. Choices must be made with serious deliberation and any couple, no matter what age should have to do that.

In the cases of rape or young couples, a medical professional or pharmacist should at least consult them on the possible physical and psychological side effects of such an action no matter how non-evasive the drug proclaims itself to be. A truly pro-choice solution should mean that the person making the choice has been given all relevant information affecting their decision. Without that knowledge, we know that people in general would prefer to be ignorant (and just do it) but the choice becomes an irresponsible choice. Whether that is irresponsible is just personal opinion but since the outcome of such a decision affects society on a broader level because of possible child benefits & social welfare issues, we need to acknowledge the fact that when certain options are made so freely available, it definitely increases the chance of some behaviors.

While the internet is a wonderful source of information, it cannot replace a live person who can be relied upon as a source of support & information. Other resources should also be made available instead of just relying on drugs to get rid of the "problem". Having Plan B so freely available makes sex education & information directed towards young people a complete waste of time. It completely undoes the benefits of such education as a deterrent for unsafe sex.

I don't know how intense the pressure is as a young adult to be sexually active. For myself, the pressure was mostly from my own biological needs. I was worried about diseases but at that age, you mostly just want to have sex. However I can just imagine the pressure women will have across the entire age spectrum to have sex without protection because now their sexual partner can simply walk into a pharmacy and purchase Plan B for them. "Here honey, don't worry. I'll go get you some Plan B!" They don't even have to go through the embarrassing action of asking a pharmacist for it. Not that I think many of the partners did before but now they can. Where does the power lie now?

In fact, for the really unethical, they can just go buy Plan B and drug somebody with it while they manipulate their target to have unprotected, maybe unplanned, or even unwilling sex. If date rape was reported accurately, surely there will be a shift in the stats. How's that for pro-choice, huh?

I don't even know what else to say about this. I am incredibly upset by this decision!