Corporate Culture Revelation

[Cypress]

After years of trying to figure out what's wrong with me, why I cannot advance or fit into office work. I realized over the weekend that my nature is not corporate. I prefer authentic, sincere relationships in every area of life. The office environment is not all, but the majority, especially management, have that corporate culture, corporate speak, etc....There's a definite control issue going on.

I read this column from time to time and see most are just trying to get along or find a way out. Traditionally, I sought work in non-profit organizations but the pay scales for regular office staff are typically too low to live on. I am a single woman and enjoy that life style. I have worked in higher education for years and find this culture creeping into corporate more and more. That, or the higher administrations are so politically complex, it is almost impossible to succeed unless you are willing to play the game.

Now, I understand that it is against my nature. I am not corporate and proud of it.

Thank you for giving me a place to declare what I've known for years and had no personal clarity on an important facet of my nature.

[ApatheticNoMore]

It's quite possible what's going on there may be worse than anything corporate. There's a certain directness about corporate at least, they know it's all about the bottom line. It may be alienating as all get go, but at least there's a lack of pretense of being about anything else.

[pinkytoe]

I have worked in higher education for years
I have always enjoyed working in higher ed as far as an office environment. Lots of unique personalites and things to learn; lots of bureacracy too but things just keep rolling as they always have. Unfortunately, large universities like mine are working furiously to "corporatize" all administrative and service functions. Hiring consulting firms to make us more "efficient". There will be many lower and mid level jobs outsourced to third parties now and the soul of the university will be darkened. But this is the way of the world now. I am the last generation that could start at the bottom and work up to a better than average salary. I too don't really belong in an office environment but it has paid the bills.

[bUU]

I suppose some people are "corporate" but many I suspect merely put up with it and work hard to work well within that system because it best serves their family's needs.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yea I had that thought: "it's not actually in ANYONE's nature!" (though I don't know, there may be degrees of that). I guess it helps if you have kids to support and can tell yourself that at the end of the day. Of course, I don't, I'm just supporting myself. And I can't imagine doing anything that really bugged my conscience for some job at some corporation, no way, no how. But just putting up with a certain amount of silly pointless BS - well yea.

[jrb3]

It really does depend on the organization you're in. There's plenty of small businesses out there which would likely suit you very well ... as well as many which suffer from the same sort of trouble regarding inappropriate control behaviors.

Glad to read you're clear on this point and can speak it!

[catherine]

It's quite possible what's going on there may be worse than anything corporate. There's a certain directness about corporate at least, they know it's all about the bottom line. It may be alienating as all get go, but at least there's a lack of pretense of being about anything else.

I so agree with you, ANM... I've said that many times to my DD who works mostly for NGOs/non-profits. There the office politics tends to be very messy. I've always said, at least the profit motive cuts through any ambiguity about what the mission is.

While I dislike the amount of time my corporate life ate up, and I HATED meetings, I did enjoy my colleagues. I do have some friends I've made through my corporate work life that are very authentic. I think there's always the Dilbert side of corporate life, but if you're lucky, you can work in an environment where your co-workers are genuine.

That being said, I did ditch my corporate job and I'm happy as a clam being on my own, so I do know what the OP means. I miss some of my corporate friends, however.

And to awakened: I've hung out with lots of theatre folk, too, back when I was involved in theatre in my 20s, and also through being a stage parent to two of my kids... and I think you have your absolutely wonderful, genuine, creative, authentic artists, and then you have... well, those who aren't. So I don't think either the artists or the corporate drones have cornered the market on authenticity. People are people no matter where they work.

[iris lilies]

...I've said that many times to my DD who works mostly for NGOs/non-profits. There the office politics tends to be very messy. I've always said, at least the profit motive cuts through any ambiguity about what the mission is.

...

That is very wise.

And related to it, someone here on this site once said something about academic environments that I remember to this day and it went something like this: There's very little to fight over in academia, that's why you'll find the internal politics of these places to be vicious and very important.

I suppose that the same thing could be said for non-profits.

[catherine]

I'm not interested in an argument.

Nor am I. I had no idea I was arguing. If I sounded that way, I'm truly sorry.

[rosarugosa]

Catherine: I cannot for the life of me see anything judgmental or argumentative in what you posted. "People are people" is hardly an inflammatory statement. I think you always do a great job of presenting your points in a respectful and compassionate manner.

[SteveinMN]

While I dislike the amount of time my corporate life ate up, and I HATED meetings, I did enjoy my colleagues. I do have some friends I've made through my corporate work life that are very authentic. I think there's always the Dilbert side of corporate life, but if you're lucky, you can work in an environment where your co-workers are genuine.

That being said, I did ditch my corporate job and I'm happy as a clam being on my own, so I do know what the OP means. I miss some of my corporate friends, however.
I could have written this. :)

I did enjoy the primary work of my job (testing software) and would have been happy to continue doing that. But that part of my job kept receding, replaced by server administration (which I wasn't supposed to be doing), dealing (pretty much by myself) with a bug-infested pile of garbage masquerading as enterprise software, and creating process documentation that apparently took much greater precedence over actually getting to software testing. At the end, the few hours I spent each week conducting tests and analyzing results were buried by tons of no activity at which I ever wanted to excel.

My own business has been quite slow, for multiple reasons. Fortunately, we still have income to pay bills and enjoy a simple life; I realize not everyone has that advantage. It's been a bit frustrating to continually refocus (no pun intended) my target market. But it's been fun to have the time to think about and address the challenges. I've never thought of going back. I do keep track of a few people from work; people I associated with outside of work even before I left. But I'm good with the way things are.