August 13, 2007
Guru feels a little dirty today – and this is unusual for a Monday morning, as it comes just hours after his weekly bath.
But there is no escaping the creeping feeling of cheapness and violation that has enveloped Yours Truly since he kicked off his working week by reading a particular press release. This was not so much a case of piggy-backing on a topical event as it was of shamelessly lassoing the event, hauling itself up onto its creaking back and stabbing it 85 times in a bloody fury.
As the globe’s soul mourns the 30th anniversary of the death of The King this Thursday, employment consultancy Croner chose to remind us that Elvis Presley had a lot to say about workplace issues. It conducted a survey of employees and found that almost one in four felt – please brace yourselves – ‘caught in a trap’.
Yep, 24% said Suspicious Minds was the Elvis song that best described their workplace. Office politics and unsupportive colleagues blight working lives, apparently, which Guru is sure is what the King invented Rock’n’Roll to highlight.
But it gets worse. In a quote so cringe-worthy that David Brent would struggle with it, Richard Smith, employment services director at Croner, said: “The results serve as a timely reminder that 30 years on from Elvis’s death there are still issues in the workplace that employers need to be aware of and deal with.
“Stress and feelings of loneliness, isolation and being trapped are as pertinent today as they were in 1977 - perhaps even more so in modern Britain where the pressure to succeed and long hours worked mean that career-minded individuals push themselves to the limit.”
For the record, 13% of respondents felt – wait for it – ‘All Shook Up’ by work because they were stressed by not being able to keep to deadlines.
And it gets more tenuous. One in 10 workers likened their boss to 1970 Number One The Wonder Of You, as they apparently favoured some employees over others. Guru could go on but is going to have to go and run another bath...
