Almost like clockwork, whenever the most people in the project are the most unhappy (that evil "morale" word), the distant first line managers and the invisible upper management types crawl out of the woodwork each year to perform the obligatory morale-boosting festival. That would be either pizza raining down from heaven onto the break area, or flaccid picnics with parlor games. Never decent raises and promotions across the board for all who deserve them and not just for the favorites (who usually don't, for many unsavory reasons). Oh no. Just magical, all-healing, pizza pies, picnics, games and intellectual orgies. Damn those Romans for setting the standard!And if you don't appreciate the effort on your knees, you will never see that promotion that you've been busting your butt to achieve for the past 10 years. Oh hell no. If you don't pound down the potato salad salted with the tears of love in your eyes, and mix your sweat with your bosses' on the ball field, fuggettaboutitt. Don't even bother to show up. Stay back at the lab and keep working hard. You're invisible either way. If that is not satisfactory to you, you'd better play ball and drink the "kool-aid", brothuh. And when the party is over, don't deem yourself important enough to bother your Friendly Neighborhood Management for another year, thank you very much.
