ABSTRACT
Imagine some mercenary empire-builder, some new corporate re-engineering, retrenchment-minded money flunkey, hired to make his hospital profitable and indispensible, named Mr Mercenary1. Mr Mercenary decides to impress himself and others with his ability to manipulate those who work for him in the hospital, and there is one certain way. For the times are hard. Jobs are hard to come by, and eagerly enacted. The workforce is getting poorer year on year as salaries reduce in real terms while overall profits grow, yet the politicians who employ Mr Mercenary insist that the people have never had it better. Those who grumble are publicly denounced as not caring about their patients, and as being greedy, so the public becomes less sympathetic towards them. Soon, many people work harder to protect what they have. In this setting, Mr Mercenary gets to work. He decides to design a job specifically with the purpose of making it stressful.
