Work is Funny

I am not talking about MY work specifically, although it certainly fits this description, but work in general. I find it amusing how companies seem to thrive on motivational speeches and meetings, attempting to get people fired up. I love how executives think that answering some questions and stepping down from the throne will motivate people to work harder, stay later, screw around less. And I find it a bit sad that there must be a precedent for these “meetings” – that they MUST work, which is why they keep doing it.

Personally, I am not motivated by the typical “motivational speech” or group sing-on that seems to permeate my workplace. I work because I want to be successful, I want my company to be successful and honestly, I gain quite a bit of my identity from my job. And, I find it extremely demeaning to be treated as if I am six and a little reverse-psychology or hokey rah-rah speech, hand holding, and kumbaya-singing is going to make anything better, stronger, or faster.

I sit in these meetings and find it difficult to find REAL content in all of the corporate-speak. I listen closely. I really do. I try to identify some morsel of NEW information, something that I can pluck out of the air, hold close to my heart – something meaningful and noteworthy…but I seldom find anything. I hear the same tired criticisms (we have to be a leaner organization), the same corporate posturing (we have to be better than the competition) and the same dictorial statements (we are going to do things MY way because that is what worked for me before).

Do you know what I would like? I would like it if one of our leaders sat down and said something along the lines of “I don’t really know how to get where we need to be. Our biggest issues / losses look like this…. Our competition looks like this…. The future of our industry looks like this…” and then they actually asked US what we think needs to be done – and then…listened.

I can say with all certainty that I would not suggest another motivational session, hoping that it would fix all of our corporate flaws.