In 22 years of work, I have been permanent and contractor in: Retail, Local Govt, Banking, Pharmaceutical, Plastics, Agri-busines, Sea Container frieght, Air frieght, Energy and some others.
The bad news is that they, almost without exception, treat the customers they same as described here. They ALL p*** money down the drain on pet projects and downright stupid projects. THEN tell staff they cannot pay better wages.
I work in technology and increasingly find myself hired to clean up the mess of someone's project that went wrong. I have watched a company give a handsome retirement party for someone and then told me that they will not spend any more money to fix the problems he made. That, after all, would be admitting that it was not the Great Success, that they told the MD it was!
As with any field, when one has seen it from the inside, it is pretty shoddy. I find this when I talk to one friend who is a barrister and another that is a doctor and one who is a funeral director!
So, I do not doubt what was said by Steve Lopez and have experienced many of those things myself in 35 years as PAX. The bitter truth is that this is normal human behaviour. Which is to say:
1) Do the minimum for as long as possible
2) When found out, find someone -ANYONE- to blame
3) Use jargon and bull at all times
4) Always say that it would be difficult to change
anything ...
I am sure that you can all continue the list!