A Swarm of Sinecures

Brown University Medical School…more specifically, the Department of Medicine within that school, whose divisions include cardiology, oncology, and primary care–now gives “diversity, equity, and inclusion” more weight than “excellent clinical skills” in its promotion criteria for faculty.

And, as has frequently been alluded to in recent days, the FAA in 2013 made some radical changes to its sourcing program for air traffic controllers…changes which surely had long-term impact, and not a positive one, on controller staffing  (A very good article at the link, well worth reading)

About a week ago, in a comment somewhere, I said:

It strikes me that jobs are increasingly viewed as sinecures…something that is given to someone to reward them with money and status. The idea that jobs actually involve work that actually needs to be done seems to play less and less of a part.

One might have thought that jobs like physician and air traffic controller would be reasonably exempt from this kind of thinking…but then one would have been wrong.

I suspect that the reason a lot of people view jobs as something where the incumbent receives value…but not where the incumbent necessarily adds value…is because their own jobs are like that.

John Konrad, who publishes the maritime site gGaptain, recently featured the S-word in a post:

The word is sinecure. NGO board seats, adjunct gigs, BS studies, book deals nobody is going to read… the list is endless Words have power. Start using this one.

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