Do you find it easier to avoid emotional/personal investment in such a job? A lot of my friends and I talk about the mythical "just a job" job as a way to be able to pursue outside Interests (like sleep) instead of struggling with being assimilated by a Very Friendly Startup. I half-tried it once, but I didn't have anything to take the place of my emotional/personal investment, and the company in question had a monstrous work environment (really openly-hostile; people didn't throw chairs in meetings anymore, but the people who used to throw chairs in meetings were still around and everybody knew it and "what am I going to say to X?" was used as a way of intimidating one by proxy) so I found myself a corporate nihilist with no work ethic or fear of being unemployed or whatever to drive my participation - in short, I just didn't put up with the shit and left. Which was admittedly a big improvement over how I would deal with abusive environments at companies that I wanted to be my friend, but made me take a few steps back from the "
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Yes, I think so. It's still a technology job, so the urge to do things right causes some attachment and frustration issues. And there are social problems at any job. More than anything I get invested in my own personal success there and whether I am appreciated, but that would happen at a Kwik-e-Mart.
This is more of a normal job in that we all give a damn while we're there or on call, and we do our best for each other as well, but no one is going to flip out and leave in an ambulance because of the job.
My own experience is that the treehouse atmosphere of a dot com causes a lot more emotional stress, perhaps because of the infamous "because the stakes are so low" rule of life.
Working with sane, sensible adults makes a huge difference, doesn't it? My first job out of school was at a startup. It took a long time to get over the year I spent there. For a number of years I've done contract work for large corporations - many of the perks, but little involvement in the drama. Little personal satisfaction, but I'm treated very decently and really have nothing to complain about, especially in this economy.
mod this up!taskboy3000September 27 2009, 21:40:57 UTC
As an increasingly old fart, I'm also drawn to the BS corp jobs rather than hip startups. I just want cash and I don't want to sleep at my desk. That's really not asking a lot. I don't want to deal with coworks parking their motorcycles in my cube.
I want perks and I'm willing to sell my soul for them (if the price is right).
I read this and at the end said to Gordon across the room, "I like substitute.
I really enjoy reading your writing. I've been reading Joan Didion all day, too. You are just as easy to read, in that good, trustworthy driver-writer way.
Oddly enough I started straight out of college in one of the biggest, most enterprisey companies you can name. And yeah, it was about like you describe, and free of the kind of bullshit I have heard from the startup culture. Of course it did have its own special sort of bullshit and eventually (>13 years!) I found that I had grown tired of it. Tired enough to move on
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This is more of a normal job in that we all give a damn while we're there or on call, and we do our best for each other as well, but no one is going to flip out and leave in an ambulance because of the job.
My own experience is that the treehouse atmosphere of a dot com causes a lot more emotional stress, perhaps because of the infamous "because the stakes are so low" rule of life.
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My first job out of school was at a startup. It took a long time to get over the year I spent there. For a number of years I've done contract work for large corporations - many of the perks, but little involvement in the drama. Little personal satisfaction, but I'm treated very decently and really have nothing to complain about, especially in this economy.
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I don't want to deal with coworks parking their motorcycles in my cube.
I want perks and I'm willing to sell my soul for them (if the price is right).
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I really enjoy reading your writing. I've been reading Joan Didion all day, too. You are just as easy to read, in that good, trustworthy driver-writer way.
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