This is a curious missive. In one way it feels about 30 years too late – it was back in the 90s when managementese and corporate doublespeak really started to take off, so why now?
The reason why is twofold; the self important and idioms of the way we speak in the modern workplace are always easy targets, and we need constant reminding that we risk (as Schloeffel and Firth assert) sounding like wankers.
It’s also constantly evolving. Just like in politics, the bulls*t remains, it’s just the terms that shift – and this book contains countless examples, from ‘reach out’ rather than ‘ring’ to ‘get alignment’ rather than ‘get everyone to agree’.
It’s structured like a cross between self help book and management coursework, which not only makes it easier to digest and a bit more visually interesting to read, it’s something of a meta-comment on exactly the culture it’s taking aim at.
Some of the humour is obtuse and won’t raise more than a wry smile – even though it’s not terribly sophisticated, you’ll occasionally laugh out loud (in satirising the phrase ‘moving forward’ it advises you to tell someone standing in your way of getting out the elevator ‘I need to get out of the lift, can you please move forward, moving forward?’).
But some is as insightful as it is cutting. Rule 27 tells you how to use terminology from more rugged and practical professions (‘drill down’, ‘deep dive’, etc) to desperately shut out the thought that your entire existence amounts to nothing more than creating PowerPoint slides and sitting in meetings talking about PowerPoint slides.
Schloeffel is behind satirical media outlet The Shovel, and Firth is a founding member of The Chaser, and they’ve perhaps unwittingly made W*nkernomics a call to arms to remind us about our national character.
When the world is increasingly digitally connected and we’re constantly exposed to the way the dominant cultures in the world (especially the US) behave in day to day life, it’s easy to forget how as a country we’re more about getting things done without pomp, pageantry or the need to invent cool new terms that just make you sound like a wanker.