National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) administrator Jared Isaacman praised the United States space agency’s workforce for the success of the Artemis II mission which brought four (4) astronauts to orbit around the moon and back for the first time since the Apollo missions in the 1970s.
Mr. Isaacman’s praises were noteworthy given all the media attention and accolades to the four (4) astronauts, who many called heroes.
How many times have I and a few operations professionals attended annual sales conventions of corporations and saw chief executive officers (CEOs) heap praises and give rewards to sales & marketing people for successful business results of brands & products. Apart from all the credits, the salespeople also receive hefty commissions for meeting monthly revenue quotas.
Meanwhile, other departments like operations, accounting, R&D, and human resources receive little or no recognition and get nothing extra. It’s already significant that I and those few operations professionals even get invited to those conventions (some years I’m not even asked).
Before and after every such convention, executives would scold operations for any failure to deliver pending sales orders. There also would be hardly any acknowledgment to accountants who submit reports before deadlines. I’ve seen executives even fire company agents who were unable to collect from customers who intentionally delayed payments.
Despite whatever large savings in expenses other departments were able to attain, executives would just say that it was part of their jobs to reduce costs. The same executives would add that the people who did any hard work for lower costs probably made up for it via overtime.
Meanwhile, the executives praise the sales & marketing people when revenue targets are met, and they provide the support structure of bonuses & commissions. In fairness, executives do pounce on sales & marketing people to build business and reap higher revenues. Unfortunately, they do the same for every other department but without a similar support structure.
Is it any wonder then that employee turnovers in such corporate organisations are high? The turnover might not be apparent or even is concealed when executives opt to outsource operations, accounting, and human resources administration to third parties. The morales of people whether in-house or outsourced suffer, nonetheless.
I congratulate NASA’s Isaacman for not forgetting the contributions of hundreds of the space agency’s staff for the success of the Artemis II mission. Hopefully, executives would not only emulate Isaacman in their own organisations but also go a little further by setting up structures & systems of support for the departments that aren’t as visible as astronauts who go to the moon.
Ellery's Essays 