Corporate Quandry
I remember the excitement I felt, out of high school and out of college, getting a ‘job’ and making ‘real’ money. remember that feeling?
I felt accomplished, capable and proud. I was earning a living and doing my ‘part’. I felt somehow like a piece of a whole. I was ‘helping’ to achieve company goals and objectives; I was contributing.
Now, it’s today. It is some several years later. I’ve done a few different things, worked in a few different places with different people. I’m becoming more aware of the human dynamic and how it dances with the corporate culture.
While this short little thought could never paint the whole picture or fill the whole pitcher, it is a part I’d like to explore.
There is that part of me that loves and and celebrates the job that I have. I feel whole, and as though I’m contributing and it’s very satisfying. Along with all that juicy fulfillment, there is also a part of me that feels ’sold out’ by the corporate culture.
There seems to be a ‘tell me the story I want to hear’-type of culture that still has trouble finding a place to settle within my being. I feel I offer integrity to my work and to the contributions I give to the company that employs me.
However, those moments when I am asked by the ‘politically-correct’ or ‘career-enhancing’ culture to paint a picture that is defined as a ’story that must be told this way’ instead of ‘how it really is’, frankly, I struggle.
I’m not trying to solve this problem, but rather put a voice to the dichotomy that dances around in my spirit from time to time. I suppose one could get into trouble very quickly if a black and white picture required drawing at this point. I’m sate with allowing this picture to have shades and colors right now, but I do still wonder about it.
Jane –
You bring up such a good point — “you don’t have to give yourself completely to your job your work is broader than that!”
I believe this to be so true! I guess the art is continuing to find the balance in that right now — remembering that my work is not all about ’saying the words THEY want me to say’. It is also about the process I use to go about getting people working together on a team to complete a thing. It’s about exercising my spirit and remembering my tre self when I respond to challenges that come my way. (The tricky part is remembering those things in the heat of the moment!)
Well — alas — we are all human and we all go about our journies in just amazing creatively different ways — part of what makes life so amazingly rich!
Thank you for bringing the idea that my work is so much broader than my job. There is great peace in that invitation.
FanciPat –
You so understand what I’m expressing here.
I feel sometimes, too, that I’m not being true to myself and I find that tumultuous as well.
In trying to keep things in perspective — I like to think that the majority of my efforts in the corporate environment are not in vane. I do get feedback from customers from time to time — and hearing that person rave about better eye sight — well, it’s pretty motivating. I know I’m doing something that contributes and there is much satisfaction in that.
So I do what I can to keep things balanced — remembering there is more to life than my ‘job’ — to keep interactions with others outside of work alive and well. I know in the larger scheme of things, there will be that day that I retire, and all the corporate life stuff will wash away in a matter of moments. — another topic to write about, eh?
There’s another topic in there somewhere, too, about life provisions. There is an abundance of life and an abundance of topics about which to write. Hmmmmmm.
Thank you for sharing your 2 cents — they are golden sense (pun intended).
the corporate culture is losing if it doesn’t want the real you… but you don’t have to give yourself completely to your job your work is broader than that!
Oh my word ~ do I ever know about this! I’m not sure that any company other than where I was had this “politically correct” thing down ~ ingrained and almost written in stone. I felt that once I walked through the doors, it was almost like giving up “me” and that was extremely difficult…and I’m extremely rebellious!
A lot of stress, a lot of shaking one’s head and a lot of not being true to oneself.
My 2 cents!