Stand proud sisters; you have knowledge
and experience that money can’t buy
Once when I was being interviewed, I was asked what I’m looking for in a company. In my in-side-the-head voice say: “I want to make a butt load of money due to my genius, work about 3 hours a day, and have my teams adore and worship me for my knowledge and guts.” But what generally comes out is: “I want to work with nice people…..” And as silly as it may sound, I meant it.
Well I’ll be … I got my wish! The nice people part, not the butt load of money part. Nice people, great surroundings and a decent paycheck. I should be in hog’s heaven, don’t you think? But I’m not.
Root cause analysis time! I ask myself:
What is bothering you? The nice people.
Isn’t that what you wanted? Yes
So what’s the problem? You have nice people, just like you asked.
Wait! Maybe we should define ‘nice’! (Ah-ha, the $3.50 I spent on the coffee while reading a USA Today introspective on proto-analysis is now paying big dividends!)
What is nice? Let’s make a list of nice attributes! After all, we’re highly organized and lists are our life!
Nice is:
People not being deliberate pains-in-the-ass
People who smile appropriately
People to offer help and suggestions rather than demand help
People who can stop working long enough to engage in occasional social banter.
So, are the people ‘nice’?
Yep, they certainly are!
Then what is the problem?
Wait; is there such a thing as being too nice? Ahhh-haaa!
Yes! They smile way too much, yet no one is that happy! Have they missed scheduled medications or just waiting for an opportune time to cook off some crystalline devils dandruff?
Crap, these folks wouldn’t say crap if they had a burning bag of it on their desks! What kind of games are they playing? Do they have something so hideous in their pasts that they can’t stop smiling, as the reoccurring memories are just too delicious to let go of?
Does this really affect the day’s progress?
You tell me…One guy hijacks all conversations within ear shot, no matter what the focus of the discussion. This nice person will jumps in, commandeer the conversation and wander off in the weirdest direction!
Seriously, he smiles and injects, “yeah, but, have you ever wondered what…” And continues to describe or construct a straw-man or a contention that is so full of crap, you wonder how he could pile it that high and it not slump over due to gravity.
Then, the other nice folks blindly follow the course and respond in a children-of-the-corn type monotone: “no, I never thought that…’. And off we go!
By then I just want to shove hot burning spikes deep into my ears and block it all out…
How many pleasant conversations can you have about the lovely freakin’ weather? I think I’m working with Stepford-Children-of-the-Corn people, except these clones are just comical, out of shape, real people.
I am to the point of wanting to stand up on my desk, open my blouse and while the old warm winds of truth blow over my girls; burst out with a string of coarse expletives that would make a dockworker blush, all in an attempt to bring a bit of worldly grit into play!
Next time an employer asks what I want in a company, I just might have to tell them the truth.
Peace; pass it on!
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