Optimism in corporate culture; and why I don’t have it.

The past, the present and the future. The good, the bad and the ugly. Perhaps not in that order, but it’s funny how we as humans break things up into threes.

People always seem to be optimistic about our collective corporate future. I wonder why that is because we can be so pessimistic about our present.  I know why leadership is. That’s clear; they’re like politicians, they have to piss on your leg and tell you it’s raining. But our corporate overlords aside, I wonder why we, the proletariats of the corporate ladder are.

Do we have any real cause to be? No. I realized the simple truth that actions do speak louder than words recently. It’s like you know a thing, because you can regurgitate it. But somehow you don’t because it’s not a part of you. That truth is now a part of me.

But we see things things go on for years. We’re cynical about everyday problems we see at work but when leadership says “yea, we’re changing that” we clap and dream about the future.  We dream knowing what the past, and present for that matter, contradicts those hopes.

That’s not to say things can’t change. They absolutely can. My point is only that things should be taken with some amount of skepticism and not wholly believed on face value.  This applies in general to be sure, but specifically as it relates to corporate leadership.

I started this entry while waiting for our fearless leaders at a monthly all hands meeting at work. In that meeting, they said something that upon later reflection really fucking infuriated me. It was this; One of our big pushes in the future is ABC.  Now I redact whatever that feature is, because (a) it really is inconsequential for the overall discussion here and (b) although nobody at work reads these blogs (that I know of) they could and they could get pissed about me blabbing about what our corporate strategy is.

[A moment of reflection while I write this]

I’m worried about giving out corporate strategy but I’m completely OK implying that leadership are inherently liars?  Strange. I suppose the latter are my feelings which I feel justified in having. The former is a real corporate initiative which I probably have some NDA about.

It’s also not that interesting. It’s the principle, not the actual feature, that I want to talk about.

So, back to the new super cool, money making, life altering initiative ABC.  Why’s it so infuriating?

We had it. I was in a group that did it. 

It got disbanded when the powers that be decided to vendor it and now all of the sudden a year and a half later they fucking see the writing on the wall and want it?  My manager saw the writing on the wall and left. My director saw the writing on the wall and he too left.

I didn’t and I stayed. Because although I knew the phrase about actions and words, I didn’t know it in my heart.

Well, by golly, I do now.  I’m trying hard not to be outright cynical. But I feel like cynicism comes from reality.  And optimism, conversely, comes from hopes and dreams.  Which is not to say that optimism isn’t valid or even plain necessary. It is for sure.

I’m just trying to balance the two.

Have optimism where I can justify its existence; and always be trying to justify it.  

It’s not always going to work out. But I’m always on the hunt for it.  Or I want to be,  in any case.