I have a job title. This job title is POS which is merely the acronym for "piece of shit." I have always been a POS. This doesn't mean that I don't have a work ethic or care about my work. In fact, I have the opposite viewpoints and outlook. I enjoy my work or any work I do immensely. I try to make my work fun and invigorating. I am always about getting it done, having a sense of urgency, serving my customers both internal and external, and making a profit for the owners of my company. I despise those who sandbag, milk the clock, game the worker's comp system, go on strike, and basically seek every way they can to get paid for nothing. I try in every way both in thought and deed to be a person of value to my company. But make no mistake. I am and will always be a piece of shit to them.
This isn't unique to my company. It is the standard operating procedure of any company or employer I have ever worked for. I do the best job that I know how to do. I am glad for the opportunity and for getting paid for it. I believe in giving value for the dollar. The result of this is that I am hated by my employers. It blows the mind. I am unable to explain why it is like this. But I have a theory.
Companies don't want value from their employees. They want obedience. Consider the term "supervisor." This merely a more politically correct rendering of "overseer." You can see that they are essentially the same word. "Overseer" is a term from slave days. Essentially, workers are slaves in the minds of the company masters. I don't see it that way. I see myself as an entrepreneur selling my services to a customer. That customer has the right to buy or refuse those services even on a whim. Of course, I have the right to sell those services to another employer on a whim as well. This is the nature of a free market not slavery.
I figure that even on a "paid slave" basis which I know is an oxymoron that I work as hard or harder than an actual slave. This is because I am motivated by an internal need and drive. My libertarian ethics and autotelic ways demand that I give everything I can in my job. I follow my own internal boss. He is one hard motherfucker, but I love working for him. The external boss is a different matter.
You can't serve two masters, but this is exactly what you do when you work for a company with multiple layers of management. One boss tells you to do it one way. Another boss tells you to do it another way. Your customers want it a certain way. You can't piss off the one boss, but you are going to do that by listening to the other boss. You will have your ass reamed if you piss off a customer, but the customer is usually pissed over something you can't control. Piss off that customer, and you will hear from that boss. Please that customer by being proactive, and you will hear it from the boss about not following directions. It gets so bad that the same boss will tell you to do two different things that actually cancel each other out in a logical Catch-22 such that you are utterly fucked no matter which direction you take. You literally can't win no matter what you do.
Is this disheartening? Yes, it is. I would be a liar if I said otherwise. It sucks. You can fight it by speaking out, but you only get shouted down and threatened with termination. You can leave to work for someone else, but it will be the same story there as well because that was the way it was at the last job you had. You can keep your mouth shut and play the CYA game, but this won't help you either. In this game, it is heads I win and tails you lose.
The reason companies hate you comes down to one simple fact. They have to pay you. They hate this, but there it is. It works the other way as well. You have workers who want to get paid for not working. I am not one of those people. I want to feel good about the work I do. But no matter what I do, there will be no gratitude. The one year I got absolute top marks on my annual review was the year they had a freeze on pay raises. The next year I was back to being a piece of shit.
You can't get something for nothing, but this doesn't stop people from trying. This is why dedicated employees are regarded as pieces of shit while the actual pieces of shit in a company are given rewards and praise. And why do this strangeness happen? Because sometimes the slaves respond to honey instead of vinegar. Good workers don't need motivation, but bad workers always need motivation. So, they get bribes to do the job they are already paid to do. Companies think this is clever on their part. If the stick doesn't work, they try the carrot. So, they buy employees treats, stage mock lotteries, or have cash bonuses for things as ridiculous as just showing up to work on time or simply not getting injured or killed on the job. This is money for nothing. I suspect that slaves in the old days were periodically given such treats.
If you don't buy into this slavery mindset, your bosses will hate you. They don't want value. They want control and obedience. This would be a relatively easy thing to do except the Catch-22 directives make compliance a logical impossibility. So, you are a piece of shit. Always. The only thing that keeps you employed is the wider and saner logic of the marketplace. They pay you because ultimately you can't get something for nothing. But the dirty secret is that you can get something for nothing if you are willing to show the simple respect that customers and merchants display daily in their transactions. This is the double thank you. When an exchange is made, both parties say thank you to the other. I do it all the time. I even do it internally when a coworker does their job. I tell them thanks. It costs me nothing, but I always get it back in heaps from coworkers, customers, and subordinates. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on bosses.
You never say thank you to a slave. This is because it isn't a mutual exchange. A thank you implies a choice. It implies freedom and free exchange. Freedom is a foreign concept to Machiavellian managers who will threaten you, bribe you, and belittle you. But they are never going to thank you. But sometimes, when I do the things they would never do themselves, they slip up and say thanks. Those are golden moments. But I can't get used to that. It would become disheartening to expect that sort of thing. So, I go in to work everyday and I tell myself the same thing. No matter what I do, I will always be a piece of shit to this company. I am always and forever a POS.
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