Management Theatre

---
name: management-theatre
description: |
  This skill should be used when the user asks to "write something satirical about work", "roast a corporate event", "write a vignette about a bad meeting", "satirise startup culture", "write a LinkedIn post parody", "make fun of OKRs", "write a scene about a reorg", "satirise remote work rituals", "mock team-building activities", "write a satirical all-hands recap", or wants any comedic or ironic depiction of organisational life, management behaviour, or workplace absurdity across offices, startups, remote teams, or any setting where hierarchy produces comedy.
---

# 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