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"You are 23 minutes and 42 seconds behind schedule," the manager warned her subordinate. "If you can't learn to pick orders faster, you won't last the week."
No encouraging words or helpful training. Just a threat.
(For more on this type of work environment, you might want to listen to this Radiolab episode, starting at the 16:20 mark.)
And so goes the reality of many businesses: they can become cruel, demanding, and harsh places. But here's the rub: they are staffed by people who think they are very good people.
Somehow, many of us learn to "be realistic" and act like a robot in a manner that hides our humanity. Our job is to be efficient, cut costs or "better serve customers" and thus we act in a manner that to others may seem harsh, impatient, overly demanding, or just plain cruel.
In many cases, we don't even realize this is the case.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Is your job turning you into someone you don't want to be?
Unfortunately, if you spend 20 to 50 years acting mean, you will become mean. If you write off any behavior as acceptable because "it's just business", you will learn to be evil in the name of money.
Unlike in many of my articles, I don't have a solution to offer today. In fact, I'd love it if you could point me towards a solution.
I believe in the free market system, but also recognize that it has some awfully nasty side effects. If profit is the only metric, then things can get ugly pretty quickly. If short-term profit is the only metric, they get nasty even quicker.
Can you and I solve this dilemma today? Probably not. But here's what we can do: each of us has the ability to control how we treat others.
If you don't want to be an evil, insensitive jerk, don't be one. If that means pushing back on a few demands, push back. Could this jeopardize your next raise or entire career? Maybe. But in the final analysis, you have to live with yourself. Don't let someone else decide the kind or person you will be.