You just need to be more Positive – Just accept you suck and the Company is awesome!
It’s almost Christmas and I am enjoying a few days off. It’s funny, I miss connecting with people I love and care for – but I don’t miss getting up at 5AM everyday. Great sleeping in for a few days! It’s given me one great chance to think back and on my wins / losses and everything in between.
As you can tell by my sentiment lately – I have been thinking back to all the times I was nailed / abused in the workforce. When I started writing these stories, I thought I was some “fruitcake” on a limb – only to realize, I am speaking the voice of the masses!
One fantastic woman I am working with (I won’t mention your name publicly but I think you are cool and you know it’s you) had a very parallel life to my own. A great woman, worked very hard like me for years, but evidently “climbed the right ladder, against the wrong wall”. For many years she worked in the corporate space, only to have all her overtime and personal achievements negated by an evil employer who was trying to cut her out of her deserved entitlements.
I have plenty of other stories and this blog and really brought out a good discussion of this issue! Besides what I have been through, I remember in one of first jobs (when I was a in my early 20’s) I learnt the true nature of the corporation. I am all for the corporation, but the thing I have a big problem with is the “churn / burn” element of big companies. Yes, I understand that at times people have to go, but I think you know where I am going – the extreme, viciousness, the over-paid CEO’s / managers over slaving innocent workers.
Anyway back to my story, in one job there was this lovely man I worked with when I was in Research & Development. Worked at the job for 20 years, made the company tons of money but “overseas” it was decided some had to go. R&D usually suffers first (as it very rarely gives one profitability within the short-term) so he was fired along with a stack of other people. (Not my view – certainly devil’s advocate) – so what? Who cares? Just a few people losing their job? Money is more important right?
Well the funny bit was I was very naive then and us “surviving employees” were taken into a dark room and told why we are bad, we suck, the company is in trouble (yet the fat cat was getting his bonus) and then we were all handed “who moved my cheese” and told that we had to be “more positive”.
As I used to be one naive character and I was brainwashed into believing how “awesome being an employee is” I drank the cult juice only to waste another 2 years of my life with them (actually I got a great break from them and went onto a great job and employer). They just churned and burned people and didn’t give a rats.
One thing I have fallen in love with lately is small businesses. To me, the ethics, growth and opportunities is in Australian small businesses and the big companies have just screwed us workers for years. The irony of writing this post is that it’s getting worse and I thought I was some “hippie on a limb”, where I think I am speaking the voice of the people ironically enough.
I’d love to hear your stories – feel free to visit me at my website and drop me a line. So there you go, I almost sound like a communist – better put a Soviet Flag on my car right now!
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