Corporate life

[Factotum]

is there anything worse in this world than corporate life? should all corporate employees kill themselves by the age of 35, if they cant get out of that life? better to kill yourself than die of fibromyalgiia?

spending your whole life with people whom you are forced to like.

how many of you work in a company? do you like your colleagues? discuss.

 

[Bread]

There are days when I wish I could go all Milton on this place and burn it down.

I'm an office rat. Frankly, my current job is pretty...awful, to put it mildly. Ain't getting anything out of it, really. Portfolio is still pretty empty, I'm not getting enough pay and I'm constantly under a lot of work stress, and having a lot of stuff delegated to me each day isn't helping any. I like some of the co-workers, here, yes, but I have no love for the 'you gotta be more like machines and increase output' mentality bosses.

I'm thinking of bailing out and starting fresh next year, come what may.

 

[Factotum]

seriously, bread. the stress is unbearable. i get headaches and shoulder aches. and i do feel like beating the honeysuckle out of some of my colleagues.

 

[iris]

During college, I've been working for a while as a receptionist in a Big Four company. Lots of work, enough stress, many incompetent employees, but looking back, it was pretty awesome! I can't go back though, unfortunately.

 

[Bread]

seriously, bread. the stress is unbearable. i get headaches and shoulder aches. and i do feel like beating the honeysuckle out of some of my colleagues.

I've actually went and bought myself a stress-reminder program that keeps me notified each hour when I should stop and stretch. That, coupled with weekly massages at least alleviate the worst pains. Still, ain't cheap.

As for beating people up. I don't really have that sort of violent impulses towards people. I just hate the corporation, and the things it stands for. Constantly ripping everybody off, workers, customers and outsourced companies alike. And claiming to be 'professionals at marketing', making fully automated crap off templates and stock photos. Time is money, so no time for creativity- which they still demand, wanting 'oomph' from ads. Giving me 'free hands on the project' only to pull out a list of constantly changing demands. Oooh, the contradictions! They want unique, dazzling ads with 'oomph', while still copying the competition. And complaining that these carbon copies was not the thing they were looking for but that 'I'm on the right track, anyway'. Madness.

Makes me sick...

Oatmeal really nailed it with this comic:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

 

[Polar]

It all depends on where you end up working. Some environments have a great atmosphere, some don't. The "you have to be a machine" mentality is just..awful, I've had such work as well, I never last long.

But a lot of managers luckily realize that employees feeling well is vital to their productivity. If you take some extreme examples like progressive companies such as Google or Facebook, they literally treat their employees as frigging sultans in their battle for talent. Not every company has the revenue to pull that off, but it's indicating a certain movement in corporate ethics.

We've come a long way since the industrial ages when it comes to employee rights. And it'll continue to shift. Especially for higher educated jobs I think the line between professional life and personal life will continue to blur. The bar for enjoyable work environments will keep on rising. So to end with typical grandparents advice, there are some really good, enjoyable jobs out there, but you need to have the right qualifications for getting them, and acquiring a proper degree is an important stepping stone.

 

[IgnoredOne]

I like my job. Although a Japanese megacorp is much like a feudalism complete with genuinely threatening emails from the head of security(I once wondered if I was in a cyberpunk universe when the security plainly told people with 'you will pay if you violate our security'), there is a sense that they wish you to develop so that you can continue to contribute to the overall goals; for all of its infighting and stress, there's also a genuine sense of wanting to provide something that really is better. In my opinion, its because they actually intend to continue existing as Fujitsu rather than scam, change their name, and try again...which unfortunately, what seems to be Bread's EvilCo's main goal.

Also, the receptionists are cute, which helps a lot ^_^

 

[Bread]

I once wondered if I was in a cyberpunk universe when the security plainly told people with 'you will pay if you violate our security'

Sounds a lot like Lone Star to me, too. Although, they probably wouldn't bother with warnings and just come calling, blasters hot.

In my opinion, its because they actually intend to continue existing as Fujitsu rather than scam, change their name, and try again...which unfortunately, what seems to be Bread's EvilCo's main goal.

Also, the receptionists are cute, which helps a lot ^_^

True- Place must've changed names more than an black ops front. The moment I realized the company's ad policy is staying in the sidelines with our brand and riding on the names of others, I started to realize this place was fishy. That, of course, and the fact that the boss seems to be talking about upcoming potential lawsuits a whole lot.

No cute japanese receptionists here, sadly.

 

[IgnoredOne]

True- Place must've changed names more than an black ops front. The moment I realized the company's ad policy is staying in the sidelines with our brand and riding on the names of others, I started to realize this place was fishy. That, of course, and the fact that the boss seems to be talking about upcoming potential lawsuits a whole lot.

No cute japanese receptionists here, sadly.

See, I don't see that as a successful business model. I see that as a train wreck in slow motion, and you're just along for the ride. I genuinely believe that a good process with high quality is often if not usually the most profitable model; the money spent on dealing with excessive lawsuits could have instead just been put into actual innovation.

All of that requires actual initiative, intelligence and dedication from the leadership, and that is sadly often wanting.

Haha, the purchasing secretary's name is Sheryl Pink. She's twenty one and replaced all her mouse cursors with little dinosaurs - the typical mouse cursor is a dino such that roughly the head is the mouse tip, and the 'wait' is a pink dino with a bonnet. Its adorable.