In this nonfiction documentary movie about modern corporate life the boss brings in two men, both named Bob, who are only referred to as consultants. They’re supposed to identify sources of inefficiency & waste, including forcing each character to individually justify their jobs and roles.
In real life … does this job actually exist as depicted, and if so, what KIND of consultants are they? Is there a certification of some kind, or can anyone (who’s high enough on the corporate ladder) bring in their old college roommate or brother-in-law, and stick on the label to justify them snooping around?
How would one become a Bob if one wanted to do this sort of work?
They would probably be classified as a “Management Consultant” or “Human Resources Consultant”. Companies like CGE&Y, Accenture, &c tend to supply such people to businesses.
Entry-level consultants usually have at least an MBA, but with the more prestigious consulting companies (e.g., Boston Consulting Group) the applicants typically have prior finance experience.
As far as how you get the job, I suppose it depends heavily on the firm you work for and the clients they serve, but having an MBA is probably a fairly typical requirement for these kinds of jobs.
I’ve never met the Bob’s at work. However, very often, in research, development and QC laboratories I’ve worked at, a new directive was handed down from some hired group that was making us, in effect, justify our jobs. Let me explain how it went, so maybe someone can tell me the exact terms for the process.
You may or may not be required to clock in, or sign in, at your workplace, but that is not part of the exercise. Of course, if the only way into a building or its labs or other work areas, is to use your badge, then that login is captured. That’s not part of this job tracking either – and with good reason, people hold doors for people, use each other’s badges, etc.
The task given to each employee is to log into an online form what you do each minute of each day, usually by entering start and end time and defining the task. So you would enter 9:00 AM - 9:30 AM – Data processing if you review system generated data, 10:00 AM-11:30 AM – Process lot SDMB07F if you’re working on it, etc. And you’d enter 11:30 AM-12:30PM --Personal time, and that’s how you define your lunch, your breaks, and here’s the kicker, time spent entering data into this form, and any meeting to learn how to enter this into the form is also Personal time. Only actual training to do your job can be logged in as Training, for both trainer and trainee.
I never knew what they, whoever they are, did with this data. For example, say I can process a lot in between 2 or 2 and a half hrs, and I do that 5 times. Then the next time, its takes me 4 hrs, do “they” want to know why? Do “they” want to ask me, why it took so long, because then I can tell them than an HPLC, under constant use, needs some maintenance and setup. But nobody seems to need that much granularity when they setup this system.
See, Office Space resonates with me, because I really feel for Tom Smykowski. If only he weren’t so high strung, he could have easily explained to the Bob’s that he takes the customer call, asks them a series of questions to get a complete picture of the problem, formulates a plan for the programmers, runs through his plan with the programmers, reviews the programmers work for completeness, and transfers the software, and new instructions to the customer. But the Bob’s don’t let him say that. But IRL, the Bob’s would never ask him to explain why he does his job, and explain why he shouldn’t be cut out of the loop. They’re usually completely silent about their thought process.
Oh hey, wanna know the result of the programs I described? First of all, some old people take early retirement, 'cause they’re too old to put up with that shiat. And some young, sharp people look elsewhere for work, and may find something that suits them. I this way, the company gets to lose some headcount, without even really evaluating people, just, essentially threatening to evaluate them. And they do downsize some people, or even close the group and outsource the tasks. Why, because, so far as these questionnaires go, everyone is working full tilt on their tasks all the time. Either they lie about their standing around goofing off time, or they don’t stand around goofing off. In any case, its just too expensive to keep working in a group the way it is.
I once worked for a company that inflicted this crap. I remember sitting in a spare office with two “Bob’s”; one in a smart suit and the other in a rather loud shirt. They asked me to detail how I had spent that day so far and I gave them chapter and verse. A good deal of it was fiction as I realised that they had no way to verify anything and I did survive the following wave of redundancies.
My assumption was that the board had already decided who they wanted to get rid of, and the two “Bobs” were just window dressing.
I’ve not seen exactly that kind of consultant (people like the Bobs) but companies I’ve worked for have contracted companies like McKinsey to go through things like product lineup and such vs. the competition.
yes, some people joke about consultants but in some cases it’s useful to have a “detached” third party tell you what you need to hear.
I had to do this at a job once. I played along for a day or two (we were supposed to do it for two weeks or something like that), then just filled out:
8a-4p Did my job
4p-4:30p Filled out this stupid form
Surprisingly (or not, given the management at that company), I never got called out on this.
even worse are people who assume if they don’t see any meeting notices on your Outlook calendar, you must not be doing anything and have plenty of time to join their last-minute WebEx.
At a previous job I had the company went through one of these. In addition to having to explain/justify each role, certain functions (where physical activities were involved, like lab work or facilities maintenance) would have someone shadow them for a week or so, presumably to tell them how they could do their job more efficiently.
Most of the employees of the consultancy were relatively young, with MBAs but no real experience outside this role. The certainly didn’t understand the first thing about pharmaceuticals.
I was lucky because I was in R&D and senior enough to tell them to shove it (the VP of R&D was not impressed by this exercise and told his people not to waste their time with it; he apparently had enough juice to keep the CEO at bay; other functions were not so lucky).
In the end it was a colossal waste. The suggestions were obviously un-implementable and senior management ultimately admitted it had been a wasted effort.
To be fair, I am sure that there were lots of inefficiencies that could have been rooted out, but I reject the idea that someone with an MBA and a couple years in accounting can walk into a pharma company, a steel mill, or much anyplace else and understand it well enough to provide any value. Maybe if that same person had experience in the role.
And I agree with upthread regarding Tom in Office Space. I’ve worked with enough engineers and research scientists to know that a great many of them are very good at what they do- which is NOT interfacing with customers. Having a liaison that speaks both science AND human can be invaluable.
Just do what everyone else does: make sure those “informational meetings” on your calendar are marked as busy. You know: those meetings people invite you to that you never plan on attending. Now you have 50 hours of meetings in your 40 hour work week, and don’t have to do any real work!
More seriously, I make it a rule to do my email first thing in the morning, and last thing in the afternoon. If someone has a last-minute WebEx and doesn’t call me or IM me, I’m simply not attending. Any real crisis will involve personal contact.
Heck yeah it exists. I even dabbled in it a bit years ago. There are a zillion different names for it.
Just recently the municipality I work for had some “methods and standards” type clowns do a “compensation study” on every employee right down to the janitors at city hall. It was almost identical to the 2 Bobs asking everyone about details of their job, etc…
Government entities do this nonsense every now and again when they are looking to cut costs, never admitting that a huge unnecessary expense was the consultants.
Last year some consultants sold the city on a program called “Sum Total”. It’s a crock but every employee from the Chief of Police down to part-time crossing guards have to participate in it.
And as you have engaged me, I will now integrate myself into this thread to share my learnings and best practices (that’s how we talk).
There are many kinds of “consultants”, which really means you are hired for a short time at an hourly rate to accomplish some specific goal. Consultants who provide professional services (as opposed to technology) are often lumped under the generic term “management consultants”, although there is a lot of overlap.
The industry is broken out in levels. The top level being the “MBB” firms - McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group. They are largely regarded as the most prestigious white-shoe strategy consulting firms. Typically they only hire top students from top colleges and business schools.
Next are the “Big-4”, which are really the consulting and advisory arms of the Big-4 accounting firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC). Not necessarily “best” consulting firms, but some of the largest and most ubiquitous. Most accounting firms have advisory and consulting practices.
You also have firms like Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, Cognizant and others which are have large technology practices.
There are also smaller specialized “boutique” firms like Navigant, AlixPartners, so on and so forth.
The Showtime series House of Lies staring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell was about management consultants at a top tier McKinsey-esq firm. Although most consultants aren’t as big of jerks as they portray, the show does ring true in many ways.
To answer some specific questions:
I would characterize the consulting work the “Bobs” perform as “change management”, “HR consulting” or “performance improvement”. I don’t do the HR part, but I’ve worked with companies on defining the business processes.
I believe there may be “management consultant” certifications, but generally they aren’t required. It’s generally much better to get certified in a particular discipline like project management or cyber security. It’s not like being a lawyer or CPA where there is a governing body. So yes, technically you can just bring in anyone you choose, call them a “consultant” and pay them. In fact, this is a common form of corruption.
Consulting is a relatively competitive field to get into. The traditional entry is to go to a college or business school the large firms recruit from, get good grades, be generally impressive and get hired by a large firm like Accenture or one of the others I listed. Large firms tend to hire in “start classes” who all go through a sort of training “bootcamp” together.
Consulting is all about “teamwork”, so firms look for the sort of people they can throw together on a project at some remote client site and have them not only get along, but succeed in an environment where they may not be particularly welcome.
Entry level consultants are typically undergrads and given a title like “analyst”. Consultants with MBAs or more experience are typically called “associates”, “consultants” or equivalent. There are a number of management levels, with the ultimate goal being to become a “partner” or some equity sharing equivalent.
MBB consultants don’t necessarily have “finance experience”. They may be highly educated with some esoteric bullshit degree, but it will usually be from an Ivy League school.
I block of “busy” time on my calendar when I plan to do work, so people don’t schedule meetings at that time. Although at this point in my career, I’m more often than not the scheduler, not the schedule-ee.
A couple of “consultingism”.
Consultants typically undergo a “case interview”. An abstract test of their intellectual and problem solving ability. i.e. “how many manhole covers in New York”.
Consultants often travel. A lot. Monday through Thursdays is typical.
Consulting firms often have high turnover. I frequently see people changing firms every 1-4 years.
I’ve spent my post-degree career in engineering firms and have been through quite a few layoffs. I’ve never seen “Bobs” participate in any of them. They tend to follow two patterns.
Upper/middle management hash out a percentage or number that must be let go, and front-line supervisors are forced to choose who on their team will get the axe. The final list is modified by HR to appease the EOE gods and the unlucky receive their pink slips. These usually come with some warning.
–or–
A large contract is lost/cancelled, and those working that particular line are let go en masse. This happens astonishingly fast - I’ve seen 3000 hit the door within one day of a major cancellation.
Thanks to msmith537 for an interesting look at how it happens in other fields.
the boss brings in two men, both named Bob, who are only referred to as consultants. They’re supposed to identify sources of inefficiency & waste, including forcing each character to individually justify their jobs and roles.