Optimisim, You Say?

"Optimism? It's a mania for insisting everything is great when, really, we're all wretched." - Candide

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Confession #2: I'd Really REALLY Love to Blog About My Job

Let’s be honest – who hasn’t had one of those days where work makes them want to pull their hair out? There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t wish I could have an anonymous forum for screaming, venting, bitching, etc. I mean, virtually no one reads my blogs, anyway – so it’s not like I could do a lot of harm.

But let’s also be realistic. These days, employers troll the internet. And they don’t do it because they’re bored – they do it because they want to see what you’re doing. Not just at work, when you’re supposed to be working, but before and after work, in your personal time. Electronic communication and accessibility have virtually erased the line between personal and professional life. It used to be the case that only high-profile employees, like Vice Presidents and CEO’s, would be scrutinized for their personal activities – and, if they were, it was only because they made the local news with their hijinks. But now you can be a sub-middle-class, paper-pushing schlub and be unknowingly “followed” on the internet for virtually anything from not wearing panties to voting Democrat. I personally have been Facebook-stalked by a company’s wannabe P.I.’s for everything from my drinking habits to the scoop on who I’m dating, which prompted me to adopt my current internet policies: private profile, semi-anonymous blog, no current coworkers or bosses on Facebook, no Tweeting, and keep work business on LinkedIn.

And even anonymous blogging isn’t safe. On a national level, more than one employee has been fired for airing the company laundry in the blogosphere, and those employees didn’t even use their real names, locations, or company names. The problem is, no matter how well-disguised it is, if you share enough detail – and, to really expose a situation’s humor/ridculousness/sordiness/etc., you usually have to – someone can put two and two together, combined with the length and time of your post, and expose you. Then your funny/cute/cathartic rant becomes slander.

So, I will NOT blog about my job, even though I’d love to do it, because the details would surely entertain and horrify.

Instead, I will leave you with the following thought, largely lifted from McGregor and Maslow’s research in Organizational Psychology. According to McGregor’s X/Y theory about managers, what you can expect out of employees is, inevitably, what you put in. (I also apply this to workout/school/life/diet). The theory states that employers who are constantly suspicious of employees or expect the worst from them will, indeed, receive the worst – whether it’s because they were coincidentally right or because the spirit of suspicion, fear, and intimidation they’ve fostered encourages the exact behavior with which they are concerned. Saying or believing statements like “she’s off 10 miles on her mileage log, she must be trying to cheat the company out of $.40 a mile,” or “he’s clearly late because he doesn’t like his job,” or “you used too much vacation time – it’s not possible that you misunderstood how your time accrues, you were clearly just being careless,” can eventually turn the most dedicated employee into the dishonest, disgruntled, disobedient type. Conversely, expecting and encouraging the best in employees has exactly the opposite effect.

Think of it this way: if you expect to lose weight on a diet, you usually do – whether it’s because the diet works, you try harder, or the placebo effect just makes you feel better – expecting the best usually yields better results. Why do you think successful athletes visualize their perfect win before every event? Because that increases their chance of achieving it.

I’m now going to visualize my perfect job. Granted, I’m going to do it while I’m working on this one – but, I still have to pay the bills in the meantime.

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