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The trappings of success

I was discussing with a friend tonight, as we usually wind up discussing, the general comedy of errors that is the American economy. We wound up talking about how things like fancy desk lamps have become an ingrained part of many corporate cultures, especially during boom times, only to look supremely silly and wasteful come the bad times.

It seemed ridiculous to us, kind of, that people in these sorts of positions still feel such things as fancy printer tables are necessary to project an image of success when they’ve already (presumably) achieved it. Where I work, I commonly see invoices for fine chairs, elaborate desks, and the like from the muckety-mucks who run the place. During boom times, you’d easily say they deserve it as a perk of success. But when things go bad or horribly wrong, they just sit there as expensive, unnecessary manifestations of hubris. (Luckily, things are still okay where I work.)

Despite the fact that there are many CEO’s and higher-ups who do no such thing, the vast majority do. It’s almost ingrained in many corporate cultures from the get-go. As soon as you’re a made man or woman, that desk you used while you were proving yourself suddenly isn’t good enough, a monstrosity made from the finest wood of the forest handcrafted lovingly must be had. And it costs about as much as a previously owned compact car.

What’s the purpose, really? I’m not saying that eliminating gold-plated inkwells from the corporate stationery catalog is the key to turning around the American economy. But it seems like people in these positions, at a time when they need to work harder than ever and keep their ears closer to the ground, these type of items seem to symbolize their ossification into a state of unenlightened entitlement. Not to mention provide false incentive for those who move up the ranks that the real reward is the comfy chair, not the additional responsibility of building something lasting, sustainable, and powerful as a steward of industry.

Then again, perhaps we too much stock in these symbols of corporate excess as well. After all, they’re just desks, lamps, and blotters. And no one would blink twice (and didn’t) when things were going great.

Then again, would basic desks, regular pens, and cheap lighting take away from any success these people might have? I think not.