Sleazy is as Sleazy Does

My mind is really racing today for a variety of reasons that I want to touch on in later posts. It is too much to put down in one post, and it is all a jumble in my brain. Still, I’m too excited to keep it internalized, so I want to touch on my thoughts now, before they fade. Then, I can focus on each one and fully develop them later.

I came up with the title for this post on the bus home today, and I’m not entirely sure it fits. I guess what I am trying to convey is that it doesn’t matter what you say or how many shiny pamphlets of The Company’s fabulous values you produce – as the leaders of a company (or any kind of leader – a parent, a sports coach, a member of the neighborhood association) it is what you DO that people notice and remember. If what you DO doesn’t match that shiny pamphlet or your teary-eyed heart felt speech, then you will be viewed as a person who lacks integrity. People may continue to follow you – to a point – for money or whatever agenda they have. However, they won’t take any risks for you, they certainly will not trust you, and they will never be loyal to you. To put it in the words of the movie “Office Space” they will only do enough to not get fired, and most of them are probably polishing their resumes, surfing the help wanted ads in their spare time, or gunning for your job behind your back.

Recently, a few things have brought up a lot of feelings about my firing. Namely, some recent articles on Guy Kawasaki’s blog and the Slow Leadership blog started gnawing at me: Guy Kawasaki’s (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/management/index.html) July 26 post on The Art of Firing and a related post on The Art of the Layoff as well as the July 31 Slow Leadership (http://www.slowleadership.com) post, Leaving a Wake Behind, keep popping into my thoughts. In addition to resurrecting my personal feelings that I was treated very poorly by The Company and the human beings who manage it, I think these articles also surfaced some tangled thoughts and emotions on integrity and greed in the American workplace. I even wonder if the U.S. is becoming less of a democracy and more of a corporation every day. People I used to think of as intelligent and innovative, I now see as greedy and gutless. Am I just ‘growing up’ or is America changing before my eyes?

My new job has me thinking about work-life balance, leadership, organization, and communication. What do these things mean in the software business? Do I fit into this business anymore? What are my personal beliefs now about these concepts which are very important to me? Am I any good at any of these things?

Finally, The Company had an apalling and poorly handled employee ‘situation’ today. Several skilled long-term employees who were personally dedicated and invested in The Company and its leaders (and whose ideas and hard work made The Company a lot of money in the past) were given an ultimatum to leave now or ‘fall in line’ (more on this later). This latest showing of corporate arrogance, greed, abuse of power, and lack of humanity in business underscores all the thoughts that have been rolling around in my head. Additionally this incident sparked these questions: Why don’t people stick up for each other anymore? What carrots can companies dangle that turn ‘activist’ people with high integrity into tow the line for “the man” (even if it is a sleazy thing to do) managers? How far can you push your employees before the fear of losing their jobs no longer outweighs the frustration of their job or that dangling carrot? After 10 years of “bursting bubbles,” layoffs, outsourcing, underemployment, automation, and management through fear (of losing one’s job), why would any American worker in the software industry give an extra hour of unpaid time, invest themselves whole-heardedly, take a risk and introduce an innovative idea, or even be able to get remotely excited about another job in the software industry? With the global economy, does corporate America even care about retaining its American employees? Have they forgotten that the workers of the U.S.A. are also the consumers of the U.S.A.?

This is everything that is on my mind today. I want it to change. Better yet, I want to hear that I am wrong. I want people to respect each other. I want the people who do the best work to be the most valued. I want passion for your work to be seen as a positive thing. I want intelligence and thoughtful questioning to be seen as traits of an excellent employee. I want people to stick up for each other. I don’t want people to be afraid to tell the truth. I want the underdog to win! I want Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Norma Rae, and a “chicken in every pot.” I want the human dedication that we, as a people, had for each other for those few months after Sept. 11 – before we went back to our rushed world of greed, politics, and hate-mongering. There, for just a little while, it didn’t matter if you were gay, Jewish, poor, black, brown, yellow, male, female, vegan, canine, feline, young, old, Democrat, Republican, or politically agnostic. It didn’t matter where you were on the corporate ladder. People were willing to risk their lives for each other. They gave their money and their blood for each other and each other’s families. We sat as a nation and cried for total strangers and their losses and their families. It went away so fast, and it is so sad that an apalling, cruel, national catastrophe is what it takes for us to turn away from our money and our rightousness to just treat each other with a passionate kind of caring… Only to abandon our short-lived compassion and intelligent discourse and turn our attention to mean opportunists (and, thus, make them rich) like Ann Coulter or to have Mel Gibson spewing hate on the national news and to forget that all of this is about people, flesh and blood, spiritual, intelligent, and important people, all of them. None of them are truly good and none are truly evil — they are just people. We need to help each other make it through this increasingly difficult and morally complex life – hopefully with some personal satisfaction, happiness, health, love, (and a chicken (or tofurkey) in every pot, dammit!) for each of us. It isn’t just business. What The Company did today. What The Company did when they fired me WAS personal, and it left a wake affecting not just me, but my husband, my parents, and even my new job. Everything I did, personally, before and after The Company left a wake. I am now realizing this, and I want to change myself too. I want to leave a wake that is positive, shockingly humanitarian, and brilliantly supportive. I’m still going to be annoying, passionate, rosie-eyed, CHICKEN (or tofurkey) IN EVERY POT me!! I can’t be the impassionate, unquestioning, unrecognized, low-paid, yet productive zombie that corporate America wants and still leave a positive wake. I can’t help but feel that what I want from my life is not a popular thing to want in America right now, and that this attitude will only get me fired again and again!

OK…I’ve gone all Drama Queen…but this is how I feel tonight…and it is a feeling that has been brewing in my gut for awhile now. Please, prove me wrong. Tell me I’ve just had bad luck. Send me your stories, ideas, and opinions.

I want these feelings to change.

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