I actually felt for Dutton losing his job in such a public and brutal way
I cannot believe I'm writing this, but on Saturday night, I must admit, I felt for former Dickson MP and opposition leader Peter Dutton.
As a careers counsellor, that is. I genuinely felt for him.
I don't care who you are, it's a kick in the teeth to be told that you just aren't wanted anymore.
That you aren't what they are looking for. But this usually happens in a quiet one-on-one meeting, just you and your boss, where they look at least a little abashed.
After all, it's not easy letting someone go either.
Usually.
I cannot imagine what it must feel like to be fired on national telly.
To have to receive the news that you aren't what your constituents want anymore; that the people who have been clinging on to your fingers as you dangle over the cliff of unemployment have finally let go, and as you plummet to the depths of life beyond politics, your voters are shuffling back from the edge to safety.
Then, on your way down, you must pause and address the nation about being fired, with your family standing behind you, while your replacement and their team cheers your demise.
I mean, it's got to sting.
I'd be a babbling mess, I think. Certainly unable to string a sentence together coherently between great heaving sobs.
Imagine if our workplaces worked like this - hell, maybe they should?!
As it turns out, some companies actually do have employee-elected managers/CEOs.
In the 1980s, Semco was a light manufacturing firm owned by Ricadro Semler. He implemented a system where managers were interviewed and then elected by the workers.
SumAll, a data analytics firm lets employees vote on who should lead their teams each quarter.
Deloitte even run a vote for their CEOs, and Katharine Viner, the current editor-in-chief of The Guardian was appointed with influence from an indicative ballot of Guardian and Observer staff.
There are obvious benefits to such a move. It increases employee engagement and personal investment in the company, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility among employees because they have a say.
It ensures that the boss is aligned with employee needs and perspectives, and of course, the nature of an elected leader means possibly greater communication and collaboration between leadership and the staff as the leader earns the team's vote.
Ultimately, it can contribute to a more democratic and inclusive company culture, with values of honesty and transparency being the front runners for company branding.
But, it's not all unicorns and rainbows. There is, of course, the potential for bias and favouritism because employee voting can be influenced by factors other than merit: essentially, it can become a popularity contest, resulting in unfair outcomes.
It also requires careful planning and co-ordination, and it assumes that employees have the knowledge and expertise to make informed decisions about company leadership.
It may also run the risk of turning the workplace into a real-world version of Survivor.
While this may sound unforgettably entertaining and I guarantee sick leave applications would go down because no one would want to miss what challenge was going to go down in the workplace each day, it may pose a few HR issues that were heretofore unproblematic (no eating spiders and snakes in the lunch room please!).
However, the interesting part may very well be the opportunity for the staff to make a vote of no confidence in their manager i.e. maybe if they all got together and shared their concerns about a leader, they could oust them by popular vote.
Perhaps The Guardian has the right way of it - run a ballot and let that influence the decision, but let the ultimate choice rest with the appropriate person.
It's certainly an interesting proposition.
While I know that politicians realise what they are getting themselves into when they run for parliament, the career counsellor in me cringed inwardly at what Dutton had to do on Saturday night.
But rest assured, my empathy didn't last long. Afterall, he consistently voted for decreasing the availability of welfare payments, drug testing welfare recipients, and he vowed to re-introduce the cashless debit card for welfare recipients in Indigenous communities. Let's hope he doesn't find himself on the end of a dole queue.
Even my compassion can only go so far.
This blog post was originally published by The Canberra Times on 7 May 2025.
