Management is supposed to manage, right?

Were this to have happened across the pond, British pundits would have called it “dumb arse stupid”: Jim Romenesko, in a blog post on his website jimromenesko.com, reports that “the Kansas City Star has told reporters Karen Dillon and Dawn Bormann that one of them has to leave the paper, and they — not management — have to decide who goes.”

The headline of the story reads, “Kansas City Star tells two reporters to decide which one gets laid off.”

Management telling employees to decide who stays and who goes? The root word of management, as most fifth-grade elementary school teachers tell their students, is “manage.” As in, “to coordinate, direct, lead.” It’s the opposite of passing the buck.