July 19, 2010

Unlearning the corporate code of conduct

I am sure you have heard this a million times before: - Advertising guru ditches the corporate life to become a farmer, IIM-A graduate leaves a million dollar job in favour of starting a rural start up, Ivy League Scholar takes up a low income teaching job... and so on.

Have you stopped to wonder why increasingly people are moving back to the basics? Why 'successful' people are ditching their $$$$ jobs in favour of the simple life? Why after having climbed the corporate ladder, people suddenly feel they have no-one to share their accomplishments with? Why?

I recently re-read George Orwell's classic "The Animal Farm", and find that a reflection of a microcosm of the farm is present in every office. There is always a Napoleon who assumes total power and commands respect through lies, deceit and treachery. Then there is always a Snowball who might have the greatest vision, but succumbs to the great tide of corruption... then there is Boxer, or rather a series of Boxers who work their hardest till the very end... believing in Utopia and the greater good, until one day, they are nothing more than a statistic, being ticked off a chart. And then there are always the minor characters of the cat, the sheep, Benjamin the Donkey & Moses the Raven...

What is interesting thus is to realise what one's place in the story really is? Are we the hard workers, the yes-men, the work shirkers, the evangelists, the bull dogs, the blind supporters, or the eternal pessimists??- For all of us do find a reflection in the animals of the Manor Farm.

Quite frankly, I am tired of the gibblygook being fed in the name of visions and missions... what pays is to be a mindless pawn who does exactly what the perfect employee in the employee handbook does (and they never even show you the fine print which states that 'having an opinion = insubordination, apolitical = professional suicide, climbing the corporate ladder= kissing tusshy big time, and my personal favourite "The boss is always right!")

Once you have superimposed this simple story on your life, you will realise that 'the greater good' is nothing but the biggest lie that was told to you, over and over again, to make you tow the line.

And it is this realisation that made these people choose a different path, a path in which LIFE is no longer a footnote...

1 comment:

Pravahan said...

*a BIG grin*
Can't agree more!