Prime Minister And The Twelve Torn Chairs

About the Streisand effect at Grodno Azot.

On February 17, 2022, Prime Minister Raman Halouchanka, during a working trip to the Grodno region, visited JSC Grodno Azot, where the management of the enterprise developed the long-suffering topic of modernizing the existing production and construction of the nitrogen complex. As usual, the appointees praised their "paper plans", stated that they were doing outstanding work and even more: they were going to harness the power. And this is despite the fact that even official forecasts suggest that net profit will decline. But today we are not talking about typical promises.

That's how it works, the route of such guests at the enterprise is planned in advance exclusively for those workshops where everything is a showpiece, from the walls to the equipment. Never in their lives will leaders take journalists with photographers to places where plaster crumbles, where museum exhibits are instead of equipment. Everything is aimed to hide a real picture, where the wilting of the giant is obvious.

All the photos show that the operators of the production work were in full anti-Covid uniforms. Protected by both a mask and a shield that covers the entire face. It is surprising that they were not forced to wear gas-helmets, while Lyashenka, the director of JSC Grodno Azot, and Prime Minister Halouchanka did not see the coronavirus.

One thing that accidentally got into the photo reports of journalists came as a surprise to the director, who was the immediate guide and became the stumbling block of the laudatory show. In one of the workshops, photographers were filming a normal working process and the old chairs for operators' work got into the frame. No one would probably have paid attention to this frame if it had not been for the panic that had begun in the plant management. The Streisand effect occurred: when your attempts to remove certain information from public access have the consequence of increasing awareness of that information.

The director began a real hysteria, which was then transferred to the heads of all the workshops. Almost everyone stopped caring about the workflow. The official media of Grodno Azot received an order to immediately remove the photo from everywhere. The command was given to check the chairs in all offices and urgently replace them. There was just panic at the enterprise and queues for new chairs for two whole days. Workers and engineers secretly laugh at underperforming bosses, saying that "stability ended in a torn chair".

The heads of some workshops were so unconcerned about the technological process that even during protracted start-up operations when the process cannot give a conditioned product, lower-level engineers were stressed and brainwashed only by replacing old chairs.

Yes, indeed, few people like to work on old chairs. But it is even worse to work on outdated equipment, with bosses who have antediluvian management principles and endless planning that we are about to live. I would not be surprised if the purchase of new chairs is attributed to the item of expenses for modernization, and pumps, compressors and other equipment will still be listed in the queue for repairs.

Artyom Chernikau, especially for the Basta! Telegram channel