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Something we don’t always acknowledge is that there are integrity problems with people who successfully climb the greasy pole. Even those who reach the top of their profession still have further to go if they have the necessary ambition. Unfortunately, that necessary ambition is likely to take them well beyond their professional integrity. It is this last stretch of the greasy pole which sucks away the hard-earned integrity.
This final leg up the greasy pole is the celebrity stretch where ambitious climbers finally become media pundits. Thespians with opinions, celebrity academics, celebrity scientists, celebrity sport stars, celebrity clerics, celebrity politicians. All have made the choice and are now good for a quote, a soundbite or a self-serving media piece.
The thing they all have in common is their ambition and the curse of the greasy pole which took away their integrity. It isn’t only politicians either. In spite of their miserable reputation, politicians are far from being the lowest of the low when it comes to a willingness to trade professional integrity for a leg up the greasy pole.
3 comments:
Thespians, eh?
Yes, I think it's the last stretch which shows climbers for what they are.
The principal of the last college I worked at was fairly useless at his job. He was ex-navy and had retired from sailing a desk in the Admiralty and for some reason he was given command of a big Further Education college. He was always unpopular, ill at ease, and seemed preoccupied. He spent all his time in London, trying to ferret himself into as many quangos and important-sounding committees as he could. Zero interest in education, but always dreaming of Whitehall, the Great and the Good, honours, and having a reputation.
I'm pleased to say that less than a year after he made me redundant, they sacked him for leading a successful college into failure and penury.
James - I like to write posh every now and then :)
Sam - maybe he landed the job via the tap on the shoulder approach. Quangos seem to recruit this way from class of people with limited ability but the right attitude and social connections.
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