The past few months have allowed me to reflect on the choices i’ve made in life, particularly those surrounding my career. And i’ve come to this conclusion:
None of us know what we’re doing. Not really.
When it comes to the things that matter, the stuff we really give fucks about, I feel like the most we can do is our best. I often find myself seeking the advice and opinions of my homies, looking to them to give me the answers I already have. While validation isn’t always important, sometimes it’s necessary.
I’ve had a lot of job interviews in my lifetime, ha. I think it’s really good practice to overcome various things: nerves, understanding what you want, learning how to articulate yourself etc., and one question I was asked has forever stood out to me:
What do you think is the reason for the decline of big corporate or luxury brands?
Well, here comes my conspiracy.
I thought this was a really interesting question and the first thing that came to my head was: internal structures. Or as most of my experience has taught me, lack thereof. I scanned back through the jobs that I had left in the past and my reasoning for doing so and somehow it always comes back to the other L-word: leadership. Poor management ultimately leads to one big hot mess. Teams are divided, people are stressed and in comes the almighty anxiety. It sounds almost too simple to be true, but how can you expect to get great work from your people if you don’t take care of them.
Having been freelance now for a couple of months now, it’s always interesting to walk into a project and try to grasp the situation. It’s hard not be subjected to some of the drama people go through on a daily basis, let alone be affected by it. I speak to so many peeps who love their jobs but not the place they work at—or friends who spend 90% of their job managing people’s attitudes versus getting the work done. That shit suckkkkkkkks. And as with anything, most of the BS comes straight from the top.
We’re in a time where we constantly talk and preach about mental and self care, and I think a large part of the problem occurs where people are spending most of their time, the workplace. Look C-suite folks, actually not even, management period, it’s 2018 and our needs have changed. We’re looking to be understood and to connect with the place where we spend 40+ hours a week. Pizza parties on a Friday and team socials are dope—all employees love to drink on their company’s dime but what’s the use when at the end of the day a large majority of the staff are miserable? Yeah, I said it.
It’s no wonder why, start up’s (that have their own issues) are so appealing. But I hate to see the places we once prized go down the pan. In fact, taking a hard look in the mirror could be a great stepping stone to changing the internal mindset and in turn infrastructure. Someone told me it takes exactly 21 days to make a habit. So it must be hard to break the cycle a company has been in for the last 50 or so years. At some point though, there are gonna be more and more people like me, walking away because they’re not fulfilled and/or tired of being treated like crap. Have some fucking empathy folks.
Not quite sure if this was a rant or the start of some problem solving… but there you have it. As always, let’s keep the conversation going.
Ps. I respect that not everyone feels like this, but for the ones who do, I gotchu.