Years ago, Mr. Jam and I were invited to a holiday party for the construction company he worked for at the time. The reins of the company had recently been handed over to the founder’s grandchildren. There were 5 or 6 grandchildren, who had all enjoyed very privileged upbringings and then as adults, been gently escorted into lucrative roles in the c-suite of this multi-million dollar construction company.
Needless to say, their backgrounds meant they tended to have trouble relating to the blue-collar construction workers who worked for them building all the office towers and highrises.
On the night in question, Mr. Jam and I had chewed our way through the rubber chicken and congealed pasta before the lights dimmed in the reception hall, and the most painful year-in-review speech I have ever witnessed began.
It started with a slide show featuring pictures of the grandchildren’s various luxury cars, homes, and travel to Italy, sparsely interspersed with pictures of them graciously visiting different job sites throughout the year. No pictures of the crews themselves, of course, except for a few hapless employees shoehorned in around the visiting grandees for a little local color.
Then it devolved into a half-hour tirade, with the speakers ripping apart all of the companies who hadn’t selected their bids for upcoming projects. They detailed how much money they were going to lose before promising that they were going to f*ck those cheap *ssh*les over for betraying them (and yes, that is a direct quote!).
Then to add the finishing flourish to the out-of-touch treat that they were serving that night, they proceeded to chastise the 400 or so “lucky” employees who had received invites to the party for a litany of mistakes and expensive shortcomings that had cut into the grandchildren’s bonuses! Not only did they complain about how much the party was costing them, but they even called people out BY NAME for especially costly mishaps. That was an extra lovely touch since that meant the guests those poor souls had invited to the party got to hear their loved ones being raked over the coals publically and at length.
We left as soon as we could. To this day, I am genuinely surprised a brawl didn’t break out – the anger among the audience who were a captive audience to this speech was palpable and inescapable.