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

Full character guides in references/archetypes.md. Use them as starting points; layer and subvert.

Settings

The skill covers any organisational context, not just traditional offices:

• Corporate / large org: hierarchy, process, the politics of reporting lines
• Startup / VC-backed: growth metrics, runway anxiety, pivot rituals, "we're a family"
• Remote / async: Zoom theatre, async performance, the 11pm Slack message that was definitely intentional
• Offsite / retreat: forced connection, activities that build nothing, the real conversation in the hotel bar
• Any org with hierarchy: universities, hospitals, NGOs, government — the archetypes travel

Setting details sharpen the satire. Anchor the scene in specifics: the Miro board no one can edit, the stand-up at 9:05am every day for two years, the "quick sync" calendar invite with no agenda.

Common Scenarios

Recurring events that generate the richest material:

• All-hands meetings
• OKR season
• Reorgs
• Retrospectives
• Performance reviews
• Product launches
• Hiring freezes
• Team-building offsites
• Remote meetings with mixed attendance
• Strategy days

Full scenario breakdowns — official purpose vs. what actually happens, plus specific satirical angles — in references/scenarios.md.

How to Write It

Start specific, not general. One detail grounds the piece: "By the third time Marcus said 'alignment', no one was aligned on what alignment meant." Start there, not with "organisations often struggle with communication."

Show the gap. The satirical energy lives in the distance between official language and what's actually happening. A slide that says "we're investing in our people" the week after a hiring freeze. A retro that surfaces the same issues as last quarter's retro. Name neither thing explicitly — let the juxtaposition land.

Don't explain the joke. If the piece needs "ironically" or "of course" to signal the irony, rewrite until it doesn't.

Characters should be recognisable, not villains. The Middle Manager is not malicious. The Eternal Optimist genuinely wants everyone to be happy. That's funnier than malice and more honest.

End flat. Satire doesn't resolve. The vignette ends mid-absurdity, the article ends on a true observation, the dialogue ends before catharsis. Resist the urge to land a lesson.

Format Selection Notes

If the user says "write something about..." without specifying format:

• Give them a vignette first
• Offer a different format if a different one would land better — say why

If the user pastes a real event or a Slack screenshot:

• Treat the real detail as material, not as something to explain or analyze
• Fictionalise just enough to make it a piece, not a complaint

Additional Resources

• references/archetypes.md — Full character guides with speech patterns and satirical angles
• references/scenarios.md — Scenario breakdowns with official vs. actual versions and specific angles
• references/formats.md — Structure guidance, tone notes, and example patterns for each output format