Most Business Awards are BS
In the past years, we have witnessed a steady rise in the business awards industry and many people actually wonder what's the purpose of this and what's really going on. Others simply believe that the company or the employees that are awarded are the best and so on.
The sad reality though is that everything is completely different than most people think. First of all, the are thousands of different type of awards out there but let's talk a bit more about the Business awards as well as the individual awards per sector. Note, that behind these awards are actual companies whose expertise let's say is to organize events.
In other words, these companies set up let's say the whole procedure around the awards, like the judgment panel and the criteria and then organize an event where representatives of the companies will get the award, eat, drink and tell a bit more about the company and themselves. If other people want to take part as simple guests, or in other words for networking they will most likely have to pay.
Now the issue starts right from the beginning. I won't mention the criteria and requirements as this is something completely different and therefore anyone can set their own standards let's say but i will go directly to the judging panel. In most cases, the judges, or most of them are actually friends with the organizers and basically do this for the publicity and their resume and ofc boost their ego, as they judge :p
Also, there is a huge lack of transparency. When for example let's say the top 10 companies to work for are announced nobody really gets to know why these companies are better than the rest that applied. The commentary regarding that decision is quite generic and also far from reality and i will give you a specific example.
That particular list and awards ceremony talks about the best workplaces both in the world, per continent and per country, (imagine the amount of money they earn). Mostly every company wants to acquire that award as it's great for PR reasons, as who doesn't want to work in the best possible workplace, am i right?
The sad reality though, is that for instance, i get to see mostly every year some of the big 4 to get on that list. At the same time these companies not only are top considering the amount of people that resign, but also are top in the lists with lengthy hours, no overtime paid, toxic environment and so on. Not only i have close friends that have worked or working in the said companies but literally if yo Google it, i think either this year or last year, some of the got fined by some governments due to what i said above. The same companies that are "in the best workplaces list".
Individual Awards
Again the same applies in this category as well. Judges with connections lack transparency but the funniest thing is that it can get worse. By the way, don't get me wrong some of the awards have actual value as people acquire the said award by creating something interesting, changing the world and so on. Back to the sad reality though. Sometimes these awards were given to individuals by voting and the voting procedure has only one requirement, to use an email.
Now there was one of these let's say Award lists that was about the top 20 people in a specific sector in Greece under a certain again. Anyone could apply if he had 2+ years of working experience and then the voting period which lasted a week started. First of all, i voted as well so i know the procedures and secondly, i had friends and people i know that managed to get that distinction.
The sad reality was 1) i could literally vote as many times as i wanted by simply using a different email, and we all know how easy that is. 2) The people that won, had to write a paragraph about them and answer some get-to-know questions, sharing also their views on the future of the sector. Literally from these 20 people which let's say according to the list are considered the top, at least 5 used ChatGPT. 3) All of them, made a LinkedIn post, talking about how with true effort managed to earn that distinction and that their hard work paid off. 4) Do you see the hypocrisy?
Conclusion
We live in the era of social media and in the era that everyone is trying to show off. Most of the Business Awards are exactly that, a true publicity act to attract more people working for them, buy their products, and using their services and if we are talking about the individuals it's something to boost their ego and their CV and earn more money. As with crypto i would advice everyone do to their own research on either any company or individual they see with many awards and then decide.
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