The corporate environment is so cold

[JJChicken]

When I am at work, I don't say half the things I would say otherwise because I fear I may offend somebody. Everybody is so robotic (or most people are, some are pretty open) in their actions, nobody shows any personality. All the conversations are based on "how was your weekend", "wow what did you do on your holidays", "its good weather out there", "how was lunch", etc etc - all topics that cannot be controversial. I'm not going to go to work and ask them what they think of Barack Obama or the stimulus package and the jokes on ATOT won't fly in my office. Pretty depressing stuff. What do you guys think of working in large companies?

 

[Zee]

i like it, great benefits

 

[Born2bwire]

Man, the first week I usually spend at an office I find out who I can mess with. After that I usually try to fill my day berating my fellow coworkers.

 

[JMapleton]

It depends on who you work with, at my last job I joked all the time in ways most people could not.

I once told my supervisor, "look on the bright side, it's not our money." (everyone is salaried and hourly)

 

[Colt45]

I usually figure out pretty quickly who can take a joke and who's a hardass / no sense of humour / suck

 

[LtPage1]

Everyone probably thinks you're weird for asking what they think about yourself and your stimulus package.

 

[RichardE]

Walk in and pick up the phone and look at your aides and say "It's that guy from Iran" and say loudly into the phone "What up my Ni**A!" as you wink at them Mr. Obama...

The ones who laugh you can joke with, the ones who have a pure look of horror on their face, watch out for those ones.

 

[rh71]

You can still do that but only if you're actually past just a co-worker relationship with someone. You don't see that in retail because most people there don't give @ shit about professionalism.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: RichardE

The ones who laugh you can joke with, the ones who have a pure look of horror on their face, watch out for those ones.

But the ones with the horrified look won't stab you in the back.

The best way to off someone is to become thier best friend. Only then can you choose the method of their demise. - Obi Wan or some Japanese guy.

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

It depends a LOT on the culture at the particular place you work. I've worked at places that had online forums to discuss politics and other 'sensitive' topics and I've worked at places where even having a political affiliation sticker on your car would be a bit taboo.

The place I'm at now is somewhat in the middle. We have lots of what I call "3rd grader drama."

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: JMapleton
It depends on who you work with, at my last job I joked all the time in ways most people could not.

I once told my supervisor, "look on the bright side, it's not our money." (everyone is salaried and hourly)

A few months back at our weekly team meetings my boss decided to start a new thing every team meeting where each person says one good thing about our team.

Me being the smart ass cynic that I am said, "We work for a company that would be considered too big to fail....."

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: JMapleton
It depends on who you work with, at my last job I joked all the time in ways most people could not.

I once told my supervisor, "look on the bright side, it's not our money." (everyone is salaried and hourly)

A few months back at our weekly team meetings my boss decided to start a new thing every team meeting where each person says one good thing about our team.

Me being the smart ass cynic that I am said, "We work for a company that would be considered too big to fail....."

lol

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper
It depends a LOT on the culture at the particular place you work. I've worked at places that had online forums to discuss politics and other 'sensitive' topics and I've worked at places where even having a political affiliation sticker on your car would be a bit taboo.

The place I'm at now is somewhat in the middle. We have lots of what I call "3rd grader drama."

I wish I worked a place that had online forums to discuss "sensitive" topics. Here it's "talk about God and you're fine, but say anything anti-God and you're an HR issue talking about religious topics"...

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: JMapleton
It depends on who you work with, at my last job I joked all the time in ways most people could not.

I once told my supervisor, "look on the bright side, it's not our money." (everyone is salaried and hourly)

A few months back at our weekly team meetings my boss decided to start a new thing every team meeting where each person says one good thing about our team.

Me being the smart ass cynic that I am said, "We work for a company that would be considered too big to fail....."

lol

It helped it was right after the AIG bailout happened.

 

[evident]

seriously, the hooters down the road is now known as "Building H" since someone reported hooters as being offensive when she overhead someone talking about going there for lunch :roll:

so "how was your lunch" can turn into a controversial topic after all!

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: JMapleton
It depends on who you work with, at my last job I joked all the time in ways most people could not.

I once told my supervisor, "look on the bright side, it's not our money." (everyone is salaried and hourly)

A few months back at our weekly team meetings my boss decided to start a new thing every team meeting where each person says one good thing about our team.

Me being the smart ass cynic that I am said, "We work for a company that would be considered too big to fail....."

lol

It helped it was right after the AIG bailout happened.

so how fast did that feel good self pat in the back get killed off?

 

[Mr Pickles]

Drama and stupid shit like that in the workplace is just dumb. I'm lucky enough to have a boss that's funny and understands that we're real people that are capable of enjoying themselves. I'd go crazy working in an environment that walked on egg shells so they wouldn't make people mad.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

A few of us take a break by going down the block to a fast food place in the morning to get it out of our system. We can talk about anything we want there because we're not in the work place.

 

[Descartes]

It's not like this in all companies, even large ones, but I'm assuming you knew that. Granted, you can't go into a political diatribe like you hear so often in P&N, but a professional knows when it is and isn't appropriate to have such conversations. It is a place of work, after all.

I can say that some of the greatest times I've had, personally and professionally, have been working with friends on large projects. Long hours, a lot of partying in the after hours and a general good time.

So, if it's not a fit for you just move on. There are companies with less stuffy cultures.

 

[CPA]

I work for a Fortune 150 company and I have found that while there is plenty of the boring banter, we get plenty of jokes and one-liners in. Yesterday, I ragged on a VP and his increasing gut due to his penchant for ice cream. While there were some gasps there were plenty of laughs. In a recurring monthly meeting with Corporate Accounting and Corporate Tax, the VP of Tax always starts out the meeting with Texas Trivia. Since Texas and my company has a lot of northerners (including myself) here, it usually turns into one liners about each others states. I guess my company is much more laid back.

 

[Platypus]

I've worked in all size companies, from fortune 100 all the way down to 300 employee shops and I've found that size really has nothing to do with culture. Some of the bigger companies I worked at let you get away with the most and some of the smaller ones were the most strict. As a general rule though, the larger the company, the more cramped the culture. Yes, you're at work so you shouldn't be talking about certain things, but there's a fine line and if you can't joke around and blow off steam in my line of work you're doomed to burn out.

Find a new place... where I work now has a cool albeit cliche motto: work hard but play hard.

 

[roguerower]

You must be working in the wrong field then.

I worked as a intern for a general contractor this summer and there was no topic was spared. It also helps that out of 100 people, the only 2 women on the site were the secretary and one of the plumbers.

Sucks to be you guys

 

[Specop 007]

Not having dumbasses dancing around over the fact we're tossing ANOTHER cool trillion on the government debt keeps me from stabbing people with a sharpie.

Yeah, I like it.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama
When I am at work, I don't say half the things I would say otherwise because I fear I may offend somebody. Everybody is so robotic (or most people are, some are pretty open) in their actions, nobody shows any personality. All the conversations are based on "how was your weekend", "wow what did you do on your holidays", "its good weather out there", "how was lunch", etc etc - all topics that cannot be controversial. I'm not going to go to work and ask them what they think of Barack Obama or the stimulus package and the jokes on ATOT won't fly in my office. Pretty depressing stuff. What do you guys think of working in large companies?

If you want to climb the corporate ladder you have to be more conservative then everybody else. You never know when that joke about the priest, the pig, and the rabbi will offend the guy doing your performance review next year, or will be overheard by a client that will decide to let your boss know that your unprofessional remark is the reason your company is losing a 10 million dollar deal.
In the dog eat dog world of corporate politics small things can cost you big opportunities.
There is always someone that will use your last remark as a rung to put their foot on your back in their climb up the ladder.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: JMapleton
It depends on who you work with, at my last job I joked all the time in ways most people could not.

I once told my supervisor, "look on the bright side, it's not our money." (everyone is salaried and hourly)

A few months back at our weekly team meetings my boss decided to start a new thing every team meeting where each person says one good thing about our team.

Me being the smart ass cynic that I am said, "We work for a company that would be considered too big to fail....."

lol

It helped it was right after the AIG bailout happened.

so how fast did that feel good self pat in the back get killed off?

I realized after I said it that wasn't exactly the positive things about our team my boss had in mind....

The next week I said, "We still have jobs".

She never asked a 3rd time 🙁