Professionalism - still a term of abuse

I was pondering how professionalism should rightly become a term of abuse. Professionalism was always something associated with the Banks in the UK. If anyone used the word professional instead of the word competent they were typically in financial services and regarded it as a virtue. Also, the major banks in the UK and around the world which have suffered and even gone bust under the Global Financial Crisis were run professionally. That statement is a fact. They may not have been run successfully or effectively but they were run professionally.
Now professions are looking for people they can blame for things which have gone wrong. Any professions which talks about managing risk need to hold their heads in shame and take some responsibility for the mess. It will not happen of course.

The persecution of those in charge of the Banks at time of bailout has been silly, nasty and not based on the examination of facts. However if you are angry why should rational thought matter anyway. As mentioned previoulsy, you can blame everyone from the Government, the UK & EU Regulators, Sir James, etc Personally, I would put Andy Hornby near the bottom of the list although he overdid the work/life balance behaviours. I can’t bide people who say things like work/life balance when they read big documents relevant to their business on their holidays. Nevertheless Boots shareholders will confirm the man’s a Havard business genius