Love Thy Job, Not Thy Company

In one of my ‘mid-life crisis’ moods, I Googled the phrase “Do I need to be passionate about my company?” It was almost as if (God-like) Google read my mind, because the following link appeared at the top of the list of search results:

Creating Passionate Users: Don't ask employees to be passionate about the company!

The article really hit the nail on the head. Across the five (5) companies that I have worked for in the past 13½ years, I have never once been passionate about the products and services they sell – be it light-emitting diodes, mobile phone cameras, cigarettes, conveyors, robots, petroleum or soft drinks. I don’t get all hyped-up about brands (unlike some of my colleagues, whom I personally deem to be neurotics). I just happened to enjoy doing the stuff I did at work, and I did my job well because I liked it – plain and simple. And once I stopped enjoying it, or when assholes at the workplace made the job no longer enjoyable, I just moved on. So, does that make me a bad employee?

Thankfully, a number of my friends agree with my viewpoint. It’s nice to know that I am not alone on this. Honestly, for a while, I thought I was the only disloyal bastard who – time and again – was “not with the team”, just because I happen not to go all ga-ga about the companies I work(ed) for, and their products and services. I work for a company because I enjoy the job that it offers, and not because I get a hard-on over its brands.

Quite frankly, I find those people who chime those sickening “Ooh, I love my brand so much” theatrics so fuggin’ fake – and especially so when the product in question is about as exciting as toilet paper (no offence intended towards toilet paper manufacturers). Let’s see them continue to wax lyrical when they switch companies or, better still, if they jump ship over to a competitor. I would be the first to ask them, “So, I take it you decided to file for divorce so that you can sleep with the enemy, huh?”

To my current and prospective employers: When you decide to hire me, please do so because you deem me as someone capable of doing a good job within your company, and not because you think I am someone who is madly in love with your company’s brand and products/services. The latter is not a prerequisite for the former. And between the two, I think you know which of the two is the more important trait you would want in an employee.

Facebook Etiquette 101

Some people should learn to tell the difference between public wall posts and private messages. I do not need to know that Tweedledum is rendezvousing with Tweedledee at whatever-ungodly-hour and whatever-dodgy-joint, wearing whatever-gaudy-coloured-underwear.

Let’s keep those one-on-one conversations offline (yes, plank-heads – the catch-phrase “We'll take it offline” was invented with you in mind) where they belong, shall we? Or, if you must use Wall Posts, then at least learn to use the “Custom Privacy” settings to limit readership. Unless you’re feeling so unloved that you absolutely feel the need for the whole wide world to be privy to the details of your weekly diary and the contents of your wardrobe.

Call me a closed-minded grouch if you like. But in an increasingly-connected world, let’s not forget that there is a lot to be said for this precious, fast-diminishing, and nowadays taken-for-granted asset called privacy. Networking is not synonymous with baring all. The last thing you need is for some loose-tongued Facebook acquaintance (whom you probably detest anyway, but mindlessly acknowledged his/her “Friend Request” with that whimsical click of a mouse) meeting you at a black-tie social gathering and saying out-loud in front of your partner, “Hey, I read on your Facebook post that you’re sleeping with so-and-so.”