It's a land of bullshit out there
Apr. 17th, 2006 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksAh well, Easter Monday. Unfortunately, for reasons I have as yet been unable to establish, much of Asia and, curiously, all of the United States, fails to think that we should have a public holiday to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The USA has a day off to celebrate his crucifixion, but clearly the guy handing out the public holidays thought that it was a bit over the top to have a day off just because the guy came back from the dead. Perhaps if he had come back from the dead six months later, that would have been worthy of a holiday. But, well, three days? Maybe Christ was just having a rest.
So, it's a kind of a work day for me, checking up on events out there in the ridiculously non-British world where they have weeks off to celebrate their elders (Shinto) and stuff like that, but don't take the day off to get over an overdose of Chocolates. And when did the rabbits start coming into it? I mean, do Easter bunnies lay eggs? Shouldn't it be the Easter chicken? All very confusing to the man from Mars, I would imagine.
Here's a blinding advert from yesterday's Sunday Times
Now, I'm sorry, but anyone in the land of insurance, who is either "near Cardiff" or in Bournemouth, places to which elephants go to die, has no right to talk about "six Sigma" and/or "Lean specialists" who are "master black belts".
What was going through the minds of the dicks who put this advertisement together? Is it meant to be subtly ironic? No, I don't think so. This advert has genuinely been put together by idiots. Were they idiots in human resources or in marketing? Probably both.
"Six Sigma" is the biggest load of gibberish put out by these people, mainly because the number itself is laughable. Most people who put it into adverts have no idea what it even means, but we in the poker world are closely attuned to standard deviation, so we do know what it means. One sigma is the top 30%, two sigma is the top 5%, and three sigma is the top 1%. In other words, three sigma is just about the best you could hope for (and you would really need to be offering one hell of a wage package and to be located somewhere other than "near Cardiff" to have a hope of attracting that kind of person). But three sigma isn't alliterative, whereas six sigma is. That six sigma is 0.1% (he said, off the top of his head) of the available job pool is irrelevant. It sounds good, so we will use it.
And what's with the black belts? And isn't black belt good enough any more? Has grade inflation hit the eastern arts? Now it has to be "Master black belt". What a pile of cack.
My own view is that anyone who responds to this might well be six sigma, but not at the end of the scale that Lloyds TSB imagines.
So, it's a kind of a work day for me, checking up on events out there in the ridiculously non-British world where they have weeks off to celebrate their elders (Shinto) and stuff like that, but don't take the day off to get over an overdose of Chocolates. And when did the rabbits start coming into it? I mean, do Easter bunnies lay eggs? Shouldn't it be the Easter chicken? All very confusing to the man from Mars, I would imagine.
Here's a blinding advert from yesterday's Sunday Times
Now, I'm sorry, but anyone in the land of insurance, who is either "near Cardiff" or in Bournemouth, places to which elephants go to die, has no right to talk about "six Sigma" and/or "Lean specialists" who are "master black belts".
What was going through the minds of the dicks who put this advertisement together? Is it meant to be subtly ironic? No, I don't think so. This advert has genuinely been put together by idiots. Were they idiots in human resources or in marketing? Probably both.
"Six Sigma" is the biggest load of gibberish put out by these people, mainly because the number itself is laughable. Most people who put it into adverts have no idea what it even means, but we in the poker world are closely attuned to standard deviation, so we do know what it means. One sigma is the top 30%, two sigma is the top 5%, and three sigma is the top 1%. In other words, three sigma is just about the best you could hope for (and you would really need to be offering one hell of a wage package and to be located somewhere other than "near Cardiff" to have a hope of attracting that kind of person). But three sigma isn't alliterative, whereas six sigma is. That six sigma is 0.1% (he said, off the top of his head) of the available job pool is irrelevant. It sounds good, so we will use it.
And what's with the black belts? And isn't black belt good enough any more? Has grade inflation hit the eastern arts? Now it has to be "Master black belt". What a pile of cack.
My own view is that anyone who responds to this might well be six sigma, but not at the end of the scale that Lloyds TSB imagines.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 09:35 am (UTC)PJ
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 10:02 am (UTC)Andy.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 12:58 pm (UTC)I'm a certified "Green" belt. Twice. You can guess which company I work for by the fact that I've been involved with Six Sigma for over 10 years now.
Like I said, don't even get me started.