Office Politics:

By Reverend X.S. Kinesys

-anon

There is a reason why the technocracy hasn't smashed us all. And it isn't because were the good guys. It isn't because they are incompetent. It isn't because they are being eaten from the inside by Nephandi rot.(odds are fairly good that they don't have any more barrabi than the traditions do.)

It's because they are people. Just like us.

Tradition Mages tend to see the Technocracy as a large monolithic entity that comes down on them like the hammer of god.

Marauders see them as a big case of Constipation begging for an enema.

Nephandi see them as a bear maddened by rabies. Dangerous,but eventually going to fall.

They are none of these things. In order to understand the enemy, you must stop demonizing him and see him for what he really is.

Inter-convention rivalries:

This is the type of struggle that is the most common and thus is one that all technocrats expect and deal with best. Everybody knows that everybody spies for everybody else. and this creates a very real "Trust no one." kind of atmosphere. N.W.O. spies on people to make sure that union orthodoxy is observed, Iterators spy on others to increase their efficiency and to determine whether or not they should be liquidated when the time comes. Progenitors and Syndicate spy on other mainly to protect their own interest. and the Void Engineers spy on others just to makes sure that they aren't being effectively spied on. In multi-convention amalgams it is usually taken as an article of faith that everything that happens is reported back to ones superiors. This can occasionally hamper operational effectiveness when each member of said cabal has their own agenda. (please note that I have just made an understatement on par with "Hitler dabbled in real estate." You want an idea of how a multi-convention amalgam is going to operate?

Go buy a copy of Paranoia. Those of you who have know what I'm talking about.)

The Peter Principle:

Formulated by Lawrence J. Peter basically breaks down into this one simple axiom.

" A manager will inevitably be promoted past the level of his own competence."

( I hope I'm not misquoting this.)

What this means is that there is a very good chance that the person who is issuing orders to you has no real idea of what he's doing or what it's like out in the field. What do you do when the captain of the vessel freaks out in the face of danger? What do you do when the Time-motion managers give you an impossible task that has to be completed in an impossible amount of time? What do you do when the boss orders you to market unsellable merchandise? What do you do when the head of the lab is so consumed by his own research that nobody can get a chance to talk to him about funding for their own projects? What do you do when the Men in White order you to infiltrate Doissetep?

I'll tell you what you do. You act against orders or without them and pray god that you succeed. Hell ,even if you do succeed you may get chewed out and marked as a troublemaker by your incompetent boss. And you can be sure of this. No matter how messed up or oblivious an incompetent manager is, they always have an unerring sense of people who could take their job away from them.

Who's Really in charge?

It would appear that the N.W.O. are. Simply by virtue of them being the ones that create assignments. While the various conventions have no difficulty assigning things to their underlings it is usually the N.W.O. that is able to say "We need an amalgam to do this... and these are our requirements." N.W.O. matches amalgams up by psych profiles and work experience and the browbeats the other conventions when necessary for personnel.

Whether they get those particular personnel or not is a different matter.Anything even remotely interesting will require someone to spy on it. But sometimes it's hard for the N.W.O. Mages to fill slots with the right people if it is perceived as some kind of shit detail or suicide job. Other conventions have no intention of sacrificing their best and brightest on the altar of Order Mage arrogance.(" Shephard? Oh no. I'm afraid not he's absolutely vital to this constructs research team....But you can have Jenkins. he's not worth fighting over...JENKINS!")

Decision power:

The levels of bureaucracy in the Union often paralyze their effectiveness especially in cases where an unusual situation occurs.( please not that I have just made an understatement on par with "Traffic Court is unfair.") Many times,when someone in the field reports on a situation, that report is sent to an officer ,who sends it to an analyst, who puts it together with all the known information on that subject. This report is often sent to a committee to be summarized and to suggest courses of action,(read: distort the Intel for personal gain and further own agenda) whereupon the information finally reaches someone who can actually make a decision about it. This person is usually someone who rarely leaves the office and is so far removed from the action that they really have no referent in making the decision. Usually, by this time, the situation has blossomed into a full grown catastrophe and the on-site people get yelled at because they couldn't move for all the buck passing.("why in the hell didn't you DO something?")

Sound unlikely? It is the way the every intelligence gathering arm of the united states government operates. Why should the Void engineers,N.W.O. or the Syndicate operate any different. The only exceptions to this rule are the Progenitors(who operate under a different model) and the Iteration X (who contact the Computer directly.)

Laziness,Petty squabbling and micromanagement:

Doing a job,any job,can be a real pain in the ass. Some react to it in different ways. Some do the absolute minimum required to stay on top of the job.(a common malady among mid-level bureaucrats and people who do a lot of the scut work.) Some engage in pointless political games.( a common problem in the Order,Syndicate,and Progenitors) and some over manage every single detail of a particular task or mission to the point of causing it to fail.( Iteration X has a serious problem with this at times. (" Yes I realize that the body armor is bulkier than you are used to but it provides the same level of protection as the old armor and costs less." )

Power blocs and Power struggles.

This is not to say that the Technocracy is entirely ineffectual. Often, internal powerblocs form around charismatic individuals who have good records and high success rate. These thing tend to rise and fall like mini empires and sometimes result in situations where a group is left alone to pursue its own agenda because the leader is either politically or personally powerful enough to make sure that enemies leave him alone. Inevitably these groups clash with one another over ideology, limited resources,or simple aggression. Unfortunately, Tradition Mages tend to caught in the middle of these things too. Sometimes these groups fracture because the Union steps in as a whole and puts a stop to their activities, sometimes they fracture from within because of a schism in the ranks.(the second in command starts to think that the leader has turned away from his original vision or worse, sold out.) and sometimes these groups are simply destroyed in bureaucratic combat. While they live though they are a very real danger to Tradition Mages because they tend to mesh very well and they thrive on success. Which means they are ambitious.

Sexual politics:

This is becoming an increasingly touchy problem in recent years. its always been around but nobody ever talked about it. Iteration X swears that it doesn't exist in their ranks. but it does. it exists in any place where you have people dealing with one another. What do you do if you have a boss who is sexually harassing you and he/she also happens to have the ability to warp reality? What do you do when some young incompetent is promoted over you just because he/she is sleeping with the boss. What do you do if you have an active libido and belong to Iteration X(Sex drive is considered an undesirable aberration. unnecessary.) What do you do if you are gay or bisexual and belong the N.W.O.? What do you do when you are a high ranking Syndicate Mage and you caught on tape being tied up and spanked by the "Mistress."? What do you do when you are a Void Engineer and you are stuck out in space for long periods of time without any sexual release? Or Worse....

What if you fall in love? Suppose you fall for someone in your own amalgam and your operational efficiency goes down because you are always trying to protect them. Suppose they hurt you, or betray you, or get killed on you. What in the hell are you going to do when you fall in love with a member of the opposite camp, or even fall for one of the Nephandi? Love and Sex are not expressly forbidden by the technocracy. but they might as well be.

Iniquitous practices:

Like say featherbedding, Where the Syndicate Mage who is funding the project manages to pry a chunk of cash loose from Disbursements and then pockets a good bit of it before turning it over to the team.

Like say nepotism, favoritism,or even discrimination, any practice of management that puts incompetent people over others with the same or more merit.

Like maybe favor brokering, a practice that is severely frowned on by the Union at large but still persists.(important tip, never attempt this with Iterators. you can't tell whether they'll pay up or not when you really need it. Honor is a null concept for them.)

Like credit stealing, which happens in every branch of the technocracy and often leads to aggression in the workplace and even sabotage.

Pressure:

Keeping reality safe is full time job and requires eternal vigilance and attention to duty.

There is only one problem with this. Humans aren't built for eternal vigilance and attention to duty. The Technocracy as a whole is a pressure cooker and worse, refuses to admit that it's own ethic is what is killing it. Alcoholism and Sadomasochism runs rampant in all strata of the N.W.O. and the Syndicate. Sexual harassment is becoming an increasing problem(as noted above) Void engineer sometimes turn to suicide as a way out the boredom, Progenitors seem to have less problems with this but even they are not immune. And while Iterators seem to be untouched by these rigors, it has been noted that the incidence of job related psychoses is slowly but steadily trending upward.

This lack of release is the factor that leads more Technocrats to Renunciation than any other. These weaknesses that we all possess are easiest to exploit when repressed to the point of creating a crises. Technocrats with these problems either sublimate their problem into increased dedication or they feel trapped and want to gnaw their own leg off to escape.

So what does it all mean,Reverend?

It means that a Technocratic Construct is as rife for intrigue as Doissetep keep or a city full of Vampires. This should be reflected at the Amalgam level. The only groups that aren't going to have any difficulty with internecine strife are groups of MIB constructs and Hit-marks. And this is because they are people with problems...

Just like us.