(Not) Caught up in the Rapture…
It’s funny how a whiny post makes me feel so much better. 🙂
Anyway, I saw this article and it made me feel the need to share it on a greater platform than Facebook:
Creating Workplace Civility: Why Courtesy is Critical for Businesses
I’ve avoided many a boss in my day, not because I wasn’t doing the work or doing it WELL, but because every goddamned thing was met with a snarl or a hiss or a random comment that no one would have anticipated. (And nobody anticipates landmines quite like I do.)
I’ve also watched many a subordinate go out of their way to avoid a peer on the same or slightly higher level just because they were surly. Well, not “just because,” but that’s what it boiled down to.
Companies identify certain “star players” who take it to heart that the company simply CANNOT run without them. I know; I’ve been one. And I wasn’t above using my awesomeness to get out of, oh, all-staff meetings. 😉 But some stars are also socially inept; it’s not even that their pseudo-celebrity gets to their head — they just identify more with projects than with colleagues and don’t see when their attitude and comments are actually poisoning the environment.
And the problem with today’s companies is that they stick everyone in cube farms and/or in a “war room” with a dozen tables and chairs. You can’t avoid the people who drive you crazy. If they’re not assaulting you with unhinged e-mails at all hours, then they’re in your face, reminding you how much you disappoint them.
And you don’t get to say a word back. You have to be poised and gracious and remain beyond reproach. And every time you do that, you may earn your angel wings, but you get that much closer to death because a tiny bit of air comes out of your heart.
If you’re like me, you write it off as they may have problems at home or they are just having a bad day. Not that it excuses them giving YOU a bad day, but we’re all human here. It’s just when you excuse it for the 300th time and you’ve only worked there 299 days, that’s a problem. 🙂
If you’re like how I USED to be, I always found my revenge in little ways. Sending a large funeral arrangement to a beloved colleague whose wife died young when I was told my limit was $30. Planting a seed of paranoia just because I could. Doing “informational interviews” with other companies to stay sharp. Etcetera.
No harm, no foul — just validating my existence a little bit unconventionally, since everyone seems hellbent on making themselves feel better by making you feel worse.
This is why I can’t go back to work. It’s that whole doing the same thing again and again, and expecting a different outcome. And I have a couple new ideas how to occupy my time productively. I just wish I could come up with one that would bring in money. 🙂 But seeing as though it’s already tomorrow in New Zealand and no one has yet been raptured, I figure, I have time. …