On Saturday, the first issue of the newly redesigned Bloomberg Businessweek hit the mailbox here at Pink, Inc, world headquarters. The magazine looks great — smart, simple, and forward-looking.

Alas, according to today’s Times, the design of some of the magazine’s work practices are almost the mirror opposite — rigid, retrograde, and bizarrely controlling. Here’s one example:

“Employees swipe ID cards to enter and leave the building, and when an employee sends an internal e-mail message, the last time he clocked in or out appears next to his name. If he forgets his ID, ‘Forgotten Badge’ appears next to every e-mail message he sends to co-workers that day.

Is the journalism job market so bad that grownups are willing to tolerate the digital equivalent of hall passes, attendance records, and dunce caps? Regardless of your profession, would you want to work at a place like that?

17 Responses to “Hall passes and dunce caps for adults”

  1. Hans Mundahl says:

    Ha – I would start leaving my hall pass at home on purpose to earn the badge of “forgot badge”

  2. Tom Welch says:

    Reminds me of the scoring for your Autonomy quiz. 0 is the equivalent of a North Korean prison camp.

    I agree with Hans, I’d be leading the movement for everyone to refuse to use their “hall pass” and earn the email badge. Sort of like a scouting badge for refuseniks.

  3. Avatar photo Dan Pink says:

    @hans & @tom — That was my reaction, too. I’d stop using my ID and make “forgotten badge” a bad of honor. Can’t imagine that’s *not* going on.

  4. I immediately thought of the Seinfeld episode in which Jerry’s bounced check with circus clowns on it is displayed at the bodega cash register.

  5. Unbelievable! No way would I want to work in such a place.

  6. Julie says:

    Wow, and I thought my last job was going downhill when they implemented a computerized time-punch system. I’d probably join you on the “forgotten badge” bandwagon.

    It boggles my mind that a writer got enough money to buy a Hummer because his article appeared *seconds* before a Reuters one did. I don’t think I’d be able to cope with that kind of pressure.

  7. Seth says:

    The writer didn’t get enough money. The trader who read the article got enough money.

  8. Mindy says:

    It sounds to me like they aren’t reading the articles they publish. Why would I trust suggestions they publish on ways to make our employees happier?

    There will be a party the day one of the bosses forgets his badge! Think about how much an eight year old gloats when he catches an adult making a mistake – now multiply it by the number of days the employees have had to operate under this big brother attitude.

  9. Tony Woody says:

    What a way to motivate your employees. So much for worker-centered businesses.

  10. Dan says:

    And the comeback from manangement and co-workers when you comment about how this is unmotivating and counterproductive is “You’re lucky to have a job.” It seems like everyone is racing to the bottom.

  11. Jan says:

    Then it’s up to us as [potential] customers to take a stand and say, “We won’t buy your paper, if you treat people like this!”

  12. Jean Baker says:

    Is it possible the badge swipe is a security procedure, i.e., don’t want people entering the building who don’t belong there? This can help reduce workplace violence, including domestic violence that comes into the workplace. Haven’t read the article, so I don’t know for sure what the reasoning is, but I don’t want to jump to a false conclusion.

  13. Sarah says:

    I agree. I would “forget” my badge every day and encourage my co-workers to do the same. Ridiculous!

  14. Ethereal says:

    The tattle-telling email is extreme.

    Otherwise, this sounds like an govt. job experience.

  15. Saif says:

    What many employees do not understand is that there is a cost to everything. Yes, people forget their badge. But when they do, you have to waste valuable security desk time on this non-value added task rather than focusing on real security. So I think this system is fine. However, I’d make the system such that there are three allowances per year before it happens. There are simple systems to resolving this, so there shouldn’t be an excuse for forgetting badges repeatedly — e.g., keep the badge with your car keys/metro-card thus you cant forget your badge, unless you somehow walk to work or fly!

  16. Valary says:

    I just kept thinking that maybe if they checked into Foursquare while in the office they could earn a location badge to replace the “Forgotten Badge.” 😛

  17. Jim Little says:

    Amazing, when will we realize that we need to move away from the 19th century where we HAVE to measure effort in order to validate the production of results?
    This might be heresy but it may be time now that the Catholic Church just reburied Copernicus recognizing that he was right that the world wasn’t flat after all.