Best employee at Swiss Patent Office in 1905? 1

[mrelet]

Does anyone know how to find who won awards at the SPO in 1905? That has to go down as some of the most dispiriting awards ever given.

In the year that Albert Einstein published his seminal work, he worked at the Swiss Patent Office. There with him were some bright people, searching patents along with him. Most all offices have performance award programs. I wonder what is was like to earn a superlative award as a patent examiner over every one else, including Mr. Einstein, in the year that Albert Einstein forever changed the world.

 

[IRstuff]

You're assuming that there was such a thing. 100 yrs ago, employee satisfaction was not high on management lists.

TTFN

 

[Blackcountryman]

Quote
"100 yrs ago, employee satisfaction was not high on management lists."

Is it realy very high on managment lists these days or am I just an old cynic?

John

 

[rb1957]

cynics to the left, loonies to the right,
here i am, stuck in the middle ...

 

[jmw]

I'm firmly on the cynical side. Its part of the very necessary survival kit.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[epoisses]

Why would it be a management mission to keep you satisfied? Management's mission is to reduce personnel turnover to a reasonable level. Your happiness is your own responsibility.

You signed a contract because you were happy with it. You can terminate it as soon as that situation changes.

 

[zeitghost]

<You signed a contract because you were happy with it. >

I've signed a lot more I wasn't happy with, but had to put up with it.

 

[mrelet]

Any scholars out there who might want to respond to my original post? You know, about Albert Einstein showing up everyone at the office in 1905.

I realize you either know this or you don't. So, to change it a bit, anybody had experience working besides coworkers who became the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, George Bush?

 

[plasgears]

Does this qualify?

When I was in college, the Sr Staff ROTC officer in my battalion was Colin Powell. He was two years ahead of me. As the story goes in his biography, he was mediocre in everything except military studies. He was a member of the elite Pershing Rifles. Several of his PR fellows were KIA in Vietnam.

As the expression goes, he found a home in the Army.
(I found a home in the dog-eat-dog world of engineering.)

 

[jmw]

Coincidentally, a TV show on UK's ITV channel, "Einstein for Goldfish" suggests he was lucky not to get fired and was certainly passed over for promotion.
He was not employed by the Patent office to be an innovative physics genius but as a simple clerk and spent a good deal of his time on his own ideas.

Actually the program was rether more imaginatively entitled "E=mc2". At two hours long it was mostly overlong costumed re-enactments of banal party chatter in 18th century France, with very little really to actually say about Einstein or his achievement. You didn't miss anything but the producers missed out pretty much all of his achievements summed up in a 10-15 second soundbite about his five major papers in 1905. Before and after that, pretty much zilch.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[dpc]

http://www.norvig.com/performance-review.html