PRONUNCIATION: (mak-ee-uh-VEL-ee-uhn)
It’s an adjective and means: characterized by cunning, deception, and expediency.
Is it any wonder that I’ve always been curious about this word? It epitomizes the tech world as I know it. In my salad days, I took the working world at its word. I believed what my management told me. There was the time the CEO of my company told us all in a company meeting that there would be “no layoffs.” I put that in quotes because that’s what the dude said…no layoffs. How long before the layoffs, the jaded among you ask? Why, the very next day about 25% of the company met their employment maker.
But that’s not really cunning, deception, and expediency, is it? Cunning, deception, and expediency would be more like telling the 200K odd people who work for you that everyone was going to have to pull together as a team, take one for the gipper, cut their pay so others could work and then pocketing your $48 million dollar bonus and laying people off anyway. But we’ve talked about this before…or I should say, I’ve yammered on at you before about this one.
So back to our word: it originates from Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Florentine statesman and author of The Prince, a political treatise describing use of craft and deceit to achieve political power. I’m pretty sure I’ve worked for his great-great-great-grandson.
Usage that my friend-whom-I’ve-never-met-but-admire-just-the-same Anu Garg quotes is thusly:
"Rumours of Machiavellian plots and conspiracy theories have permeated the period of mourning."
Darryl Broadfoot; Mitchell: End the Revisionism; The Herald (Glasgow, Scotland); Nov 23, 2007.
Mary, are you me? I am worried. The same scenario was enacted at my working place. A manager or vice president (I have forgotten) assured us that there would be no layoffs and ...voila!... layoffs. Now whenever that is announced some of us start to feel queasy. I never thought of said manager/vp as machiavellian. It is not a brilliant subversive move after all. It is just an outright elementary school lie.
ReplyDeleteHer Machiavellian tactics assured her a seat on the executive team despite her youth and gender. But she was no princess.
ReplyDelete~Janette
P.S. Could you tell that I was the one who left you the anonymous comment yesterday? ;-)
Machiavellian.... isn't that summed up by 'the ends justify the means'? It's been a long time since 10th grade European History.
ReplyDeleteOnce Mary determined the end goal of her company's CEO, she understood the Machiavellian means by which he ran the company. Ultimately, he only cared about 1) himself and 2) the stockholders.
I'm sorry - it always seems to come down to money with the working world. Even in healthcare which is really not "expedient". Universal Health Care - yes.
ReplyDeleteKids, what's this? I go away for one week and come back to a veritable CONVERSATION that I haven't been paying attention to? Bravo.
ReplyDeleteRuth, yes I'm you...you thought you were sleeping at night? No, you're keeping a blog that's entertaining thousands of working slugs...or at least tens, well okay, a handful. :)
-mttw