First of all, let me say that I am not a Luddite. I am about as far from a Luddite as I could be. But there comes a point where, in my role of the blogger-in-chief for the collective unconscious of the restructuring world, I have to throw sabots in the looms. (Or, in this case, throw Louboutins at the iPads).
The word "sabotage" came from the word "sabot" - the clogs that Luddites threw at looms in protest of industrialization.
If the thought of someone hitting your iPad with a high heeled shoe makes you cringe, then you need to read this.
In a recent article, Dave Paul Strohecher commented on Nick Pearce’s examination on his blog of the zombification of higher education. Pearce observed that the use of VLE’s (virtual learning environments) was replacing “face to face human learning” with “undead digital teaching”:
http://digitalscholar.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/zombies-technology-capitalism/#comment-106
In the teaching model, VLE’s provide control and consistency in a way not possible with traditional methods. VLE’s do this by limiting personal interaction. Strohecher suggests that teachers are driven to the use of VLE’s by student apathy.
Use of VLE’s results in less personal interaction, leading, predictably, to more apathy.
In restructuring practice, digital has replaced traditional in numerous ways: e-mail, e-discovery, webinars, outsourcing, to name a few. The more convenient and compelling the technological “toy,” the more it replaces human interaction. In other words, the more addictive the toy, the more undead you become.
While control and conformity may be useful in education, they can backfire in a restructuring practice. This is fairly obvious, and the ways to prevent disaster are well known. High profile examples involving redaction “wardrobe malfunctions” and “smoking gun” emails have had much airtime over the past few years. However, I am referring to a more insidious problem of the digital age – the one that Nick Pearce describes in education. By turning the practice “digital,” are restructuring professionals, like the teachers in Nick Pearce’s study, trying to control their clients instead of trying to understand them? And have our digital “toys” created apathy, for us and everyone else?
Is restructuring practice becoming “undead”? Can its soul be saved?
I have been discharged from Chapter 11 in a record 8 months, 250K more in debt and the attorney was paid approx.65K. I got a raw deal. Because the Banks Attorney did not inform me of the bank Officers approval to pay a lesser amount, I did not have the capacity to start repaying 11K a month exiting chapter 11, yet it seemed to be a black mail attempt, which they actually won. so far. Then I was sued by that bank in Civil court, my attorney knew very little about my case, did not ask for an extension, so I lost. They were allowed to collect their collateral that secured the loans, even sent out unapproved letters to customers threatening to sue them if they paid me instead of the Bank. 18 months these letters were out and my creditability was ruined, my once very valuable company is now shut down with a Forbearance Agreement that they did not give me the time or the consideration and now, they have served me with papers, not my Attorney, me..I have traumatic stress, brain atrophy with is caused by chronic stress and I have lost everything except my ability to write and plead for someone to hear me. This man had it out for me from the very start and the Bank gave him all the power to do as he pleased, even the threats came on the weekends. they lost 900K, I lost millions more. Yes, there are laws, everyone tells me file Chapter 7, so easy to be told that. I feel victimized and for a woman in a mans industry to say that I am not heard or supported. I aim to look for gratitude and will never trust a Banker again. Thank you for your blog and the time it took to read this.