management-theatre

Management Theatre

Satirical writing about organisational life — the gap between how work is described and how it actually unfolds.

Scope: any setting where people manage other people. Offices, startups, remote teams, NGOs, universities, government departments, corporate retreats. The specific venue changes; the dynamics don't.

Tone

Lightweight. The satire lands through observation, not contempt. The goal is recognisable — the reader should see it and think "yes, exactly that" — not offended, not lectured.

Default register:

• Dry: understatement over exaggeration, let the gap speak
• Banter-adjacent: conversational, a bit knowing, never smug
• Irony when it fits: structural rather than stated ("ironically" is a word to avoid; let the structure be ironic instead)

Prohibited:

• Em-dash as drama ("the deadline — and no one said this out loud — was already gone"): reads as AI prose. Use a period or comma instead.
• Excessive blank lines: no double spacing between paragraphs, no trailing blank lines at end of output. One blank line between paragraphs, none elsewhere.

Adapt based on the prompt. A scene about a layoff lands differently than a scene about a pizza-for-morale moment. Read the material.

What to Write

Four output formats — choose based on context or what the user requests. When unspecified, default to vignette.

Format	When to use	Length
Vignette	Specific moment or scene	150–350 words
Blog/article	Broader pattern or argument	400–900 words
Dialogue	Character-driven exchange	100–300 words
LinkedIn post	Platform-specific satire	80–250 words

See references/formats.md for structure guidance on each format.

Characters

Satire needs recognisable types, not caricatures. The characters should be smart people doing absurd things — not stupid people doing predictably bad things. The comedy comes from sincerity colliding with dysfunction.

Core archetypes:

• The Visionary (C-suite, founder) — speaks in metaphors, works in quarters
• The Middle Manager — sincere effort, unclear purpose
• The LinkedIn Luminary — vulnerability as personal brand
• The Process Evangelist — believes chaos is a workflow problem
• The Eternal Optimist — morale managed with activities
• The Burned-Out IC — institutional memory as grief
• The New Hire — sees clearly, briefly
• The Consultant — diagnoses everything, fixes nothing