1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,360
Speaker 1: If you work in a white collar workplace, the chances

2
00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:03,840
Speaker 1: are that you have put up with more than your

3
00:00:03,880 --> 00:00:06,040
Speaker 1: fair share of corporate bs. You know what I mean,

4
00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:09,280
Speaker 1: The meetings that could have been emails, the stupid acronyms,

5
00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,160
Speaker 1: the mission statements, the LinkedIn. A couple of ossie comedians

6
00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,200
Speaker 1: have put together a highly tongue in cheek guide on

7
00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:18,200
Speaker 1: how to navigate modern office culture. Kids warning, it's called

8
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:24,520
Speaker 1: Wankonomics the book. One of the authors is James Schleffel. Hi, James, Hi,

9
00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:26,800
Speaker 1: how are you well? Thank you very much? So is

10
00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:28,920
Speaker 1: the idea here that you can basically rise through the

11
00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:31,680
Speaker 1: corporate will just by using stupid acronyms and jargon and

12
00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:32,880
Speaker 1: looking like you know what you're doing.

13
00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:35,800
Speaker 2: Well, it's actually the only way that you can rise

14
00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:38,680
Speaker 2: through the corporate ranks, because look, it doesn't matter how

15
00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:40,760
Speaker 2: smart you are, Like you could have a PhD in

16
00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:43,560
Speaker 2: theoretical chemistry, but you're just not going to be matched

17
00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:46,600
Speaker 2: to the person in middle management who has an omni

18
00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:50,160
Speaker 2: channel thought leadership idiation solution that is going to cascade

19
00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:54,760
Speaker 2: to SLT for feedback. So this kind of language is

20
00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:59,400
Speaker 2: the key to surviving, if not thriving, in the corporate environment.

21
00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:01,120
Speaker 1: I mean you sound you know what you're talking about.

22
00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:03,320
Speaker 1: Is this based on some real world experience or just

23
00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:04,480
Speaker 1: you've been observing this?

24
00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,000
Speaker 2: It is based in real world experience. I did work

25
00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:10,679
Speaker 2: in the corporate world for a long long time, and look,

26
00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,360
Speaker 2: in many ways, Wankonomics is a bit of a therapy

27
00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:16,520
Speaker 2: session for me. It's a way for me to work

28
00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:19,920
Speaker 2: through the issues that I've built up over the years.

29
00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:21,840
Speaker 2: But I think also too, it's a way for other

30
00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,479
Speaker 2: people to have that therapy session too. It is quite cathartic.

31
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,600
Speaker 2: I think reading this book, what is the evil.

32
00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:29,920
Speaker 1: Role that LinkedIn plays here?

33
00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,199
Speaker 2: Well? Look, LinkedIn is a funny place, isn't. It's actually

34
00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:39,559
Speaker 2: my favorite social media platform because it's this weird place

35
00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:43,840
Speaker 2: where everyone is inexplicably excited about everything, like you know

36
00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:46,880
Speaker 2: what I mean. Like, it doesn't matter how mundane someone's

37
00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:50,880
Speaker 2: day has been, they will talk about their little achievements

38
00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:54,440
Speaker 2: at work, as with the excitement levels that they would

39
00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:58,120
Speaker 2: usually only muster when they're on class A drugs. So

40
00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,360
Speaker 2: you know, even if you've just you've just finished a report,

41
00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:04,120
Speaker 2: you've sent out a document, you need to be thrilled

42
00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:08,840
Speaker 2: or excited or ecstatic about it. That's what LinkedIn is.

43
00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:09,959
Speaker 2: It's a funny place.

44
00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:12,840
Speaker 1: It feels to me like it's a very exclusive club

45
00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:15,360
Speaker 1: of people. Mean, even though it's very accessible, it's a

46
00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:17,600
Speaker 1: very exclusive club of people. Or at least they like

47
00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:20,320
Speaker 1: to think they're exclusive and special for using LinkedIn, don't they.

48
00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:23,600
Speaker 2: Well, you've got to make yourself sounds special. But that's

49
00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:25,640
Speaker 2: the key to it. So look, you would never say

50
00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,920
Speaker 2: something like on LinkedIn that you maybe worked in a

51
00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:31,640
Speaker 2: bar when you were at university. You would say that

52
00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:35,600
Speaker 2: you managed a portfolio of liquid assets. You know, that's

53
00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:37,760
Speaker 2: the kind of that's the kind of wankery you need

54
00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:42,720
Speaker 2: on LinkedIn to give those kind of minor accomplishments. Give

55
00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:44,520
Speaker 2: them a bit of a bit of a push, make

56
00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:46,120
Speaker 2: them sound like they's something special.

57
00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:48,760
Speaker 1: So what's the proportion do you reckon of, as you

58
00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:53,600
Speaker 1: call it, whankory? What proportion of whankory versus actual ability

59
00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:55,200
Speaker 1: do you need in order to succeed?

60
00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:01,480
Speaker 2: Well, here's the funny thing, right, So we've done some search, Sorry,

61
00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,440
Speaker 2: we've made up some research that has shown that there's

62
00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:07,000
Speaker 2: about twenty percent of people in any given workplace that

63
00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,440
Speaker 2: have absolutely no idea what they're doing, totally out of

64
00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:13,000
Speaker 2: their depth. And we've all seen these people. They're usually

65
00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:18,679
Speaker 2: in senior management positions, and so they will use these

66
00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:22,720
Speaker 2: long winded words, overly complex sentences to give the impression

67
00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,760
Speaker 2: that they know what they're doing, because like instead of

68
00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,400
Speaker 2: saying I'm incompetent, you would say something like there are

69
00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:30,880
Speaker 2: a lot of moving parts, and then all of a sudden,

70
00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,720
Speaker 2: everyone thinks that you're very, very clever. The problem is, though,

71
00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:39,520
Speaker 2: the language of that twenty percent then very quickly spreads

72
00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:42,120
Speaker 2: to the other eighty percent, a bit like how a

73
00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:45,960
Speaker 2: virus spreads. I mean, it's incredibly infectious because you could

74
00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,080
Speaker 2: have someone saying a phrase like circle back at the

75
00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:52,040
Speaker 2: start of a meeting, and by the end of the

76
00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:54,119
Speaker 2: meeting that three or four people are saying circle back,

77
00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:55,800
Speaker 2: and then by the end of the week the entire

78
00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:59,160
Speaker 2: office is speaking like that. So it spreads incredibly quickly,

79
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:01,760
Speaker 2: and unfortunately there's no vaccine for it.

80
00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,440
Speaker 1: James, thank you very much. Appreciate your time, very very much,

81
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:09,280
Speaker 1: and your mutual hatred. Of our mutual hatred, I suppose

82
00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:11,760
Speaker 1: of Lincoln James Schliffel, who was one of the authors

83
00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:13,960
Speaker 1: of Wangkonomics. If you want to get it, you could

84
00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:16,360
Speaker 1: just go to the website wanconomics dot com and it'll

85
00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:16,520
Speaker 1: tell

86
00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:20,240
Speaker 2: You where for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen

87
00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,360
Speaker 2: live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

88
00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:25,640
Speaker 2: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio