"The beatings will continue until morale improves"
If you’ve ever shopped for T-shirts at a beach or resort,
- you have probably seen one that proclaims:
- “THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES”
--- It may or may not include a drawing of a pirate.
--- Or a skull and crossbones.
- It’s funny the first couple of times you see it.
- But when it becomes a way of life, not so much.
‘The beatings will continue until morale improves’
- is a famous quotation of unknown origin.
- It literally denotes how morale, such as within a military unit or other hierarchical environment, will be improved through the use of punishment
- More importantly, the phrase is used sarcastically to indicate:
1. the counter-productive nature of such punishment or
2. excessive control over subordinates such as
--- staff in the workplace or
--- children living at home.
Short-time feds (people with fewer than 5 years service)
- have been living in the beating-morale mode it for the past couple of years.
Long-time feds, who have been around for decades
- can testify that this isn’t the first time feds have become the whipping boy of politicians and the media.
- As one now retired, longtime civil servant said: “It goes with the territory”
- The “it” in this case is regularly being accused of being:
--- underworked, overpaid and out of touch with the “real” America.
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https://federalnewsnetwork.com/federal-report/2012/09/the-beatings-will-continue-until-morale-improves
