Is it just me or is this just nauseating? Column about workplace attitude by Barbara Ehrenreich.

[pdrichards114]

Get Promoted with a YES! Attitude? Yuck.

By Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet. Posted February 10, 2007.



It's not enough these days for employees to slave to the bone -- workplace motivators are pushing us to squeeze a smile out of our hefty workloads.


First, starting way back in the 1950s, you had to be "positive" to get ahead in business, i.e., ready to see the glass half full even when it was lying shattered on the floor. Then, somewhere in the first few years of the 21st century, the bar was raised to "passionate." It wasn't good enough to feel "positive" about spending your day doing cold calls to potential customers in Dayton, you be had to be "passionate" about it. And now, apparently, even that isn't good enough -- you have to develop a YES! Attitude, as in throwing back your head, balling up your fists, and screaming YEESSS!!!


(More after jump)
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/47768/

[pdrichards114]

1. By the way, thanks for whoever gave me the heart. I needed it.

[katsy]

2. YEESSS!

YEESSS!

We will rid the world of the PNAC plague!

How'd I do?

[LSparkle]

3. Thanks for the link -- now I'll find out why I'm not getting promoted

:argh:

[pdrichards114]

7. Me either!!! RA RA shish boom bah

, give me a T, give me an E, give me an A, give me a M, What's that spell Team, and there's no I in team!!! Revolting!

[mikeytherat]

4. Corporate cheerleading - this is why I left back in '95

Back in the 1990s, I worked for what was then one of the "Big Six" accounting firms. The Inspirational Leader/Cheerleader thing was starting to rear it's ugly head around our firm, and I wanted nothing to do with it. One week after I left, I came back in to get some paperwork and they were having both a "cheerleading" sort of thing going on and, I s**t you not, an Image Consultant to work with each employee and help him/her "dress for success." I knew right then I had absolutely made the right choice to leave.

mikey_the_rat

[pdrichards114]

9. I am a financial analyst. But I have never even heard of the Image Consultant virus yet.

Frightening. I got a little to much Hunter S. Thompson in me to deal with that.

[Sapere aude]

27. I left CPA firms back in the late 80's. I got tired of knowing I had to step on my co workers if I

wanted to move up. Also the monthly billing meetings were you were humiliated if you didn't make "enough money for the store."

[EC]

5. This is why I will never be part of corporate America

magazine smiles are worthless....And I will bet that each and everyone of the people pushing this, just wanted a job, just like everyone else...not a happy, happy smiley face fake way of life...yuck, yuck, yuck...:puke:

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Peter Principle revealed: Just Say "Yes"!

You are promoted until you reach your ultimate level of incompetence.

If you have doubts, look at the "Commander In Chief".

[pdrichards114]

10. Smile your way to the top of the worthless pile!!! LOL

[niyad]

8. my response to the "smile, why don't you" from a customer was, "what on earth do I have to smile

about, I have to put up with jerks all day" end of discussion.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Work is a highly over rated pastime.

I, for one, had a really, really, "bad" attitude about working for a living. I avoided it as long as I could, but started at 15. Then, when fully employed, I still avoided it as much as possible.

Now that I'm retired I take no little pride in saying that I, very successfully, had a 30 year career doing as little as possible and am still getting paid for it.

So sue me.

[pdrichards114]

12. I think I share your attitude. If work were fun, we would do it for free.

[LSparkle]

13. Every child ought to keep that in mind when "choosing" a field

I've been trying to get paid for what I love (art) for years, because that's the only way most people get to be a success -- doing something that they literally would do for free because they love it so much.

[supernova]

14. Bait and Switch

BE talks about this in her book, Bait and Switch, about her job search for a coporate white collar job as a PR person.

And yes (!) I've found this to be very true. If you display a more cautious or serious-minded demeanor, rather than cheerleader style, you are discounted. I worked at a Fortune 50 company for five years, BTW. I found it annoying in the extreme because these stupid seminars took away valuable time I could have been focusing on actual work.

[pdrichards114]

15. I read Nickel and Dimed, but I don't know if I could read Bait and Switch.

Is it a good read? Because if this is the general subject of the book, I will pass.

[MamaBear]

16. Bait and Switch

Bait and Switch is about the process of the job search, and the various rip offs out there for job seekers -- personal coaches, seminars, etc.

It is a profoundly depressing read because every word is true. She does her own hands-on research.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

17. Being positive doesn't help

They have all the power and they know it.

I can't compete in the rat race -- too old and too educated, so I said screw it. America is mediocre now and they did it to themselves, because they said that us smart folks are "too expensive". However they are shooting themselves in the foot, because if they ain't got no middle class to buy their products, there will be no business and no money coming in to count. Idiots.
Trickle down is Trickle-on!!!

You can call me Doctor, however!!! :rofl:


I have a T shirt that fits my philosophy perfectly. I got it at Hot Topic:

QUIT WORK, PLAY MUSIC.

Works for me.

[yurbud]

18. like a rapist saying "now act like you like it." this is why I'd be homeless before working in a

an office.

[supernova]

19. And I have no idea

why it's like this.

The idea of looking for yet another corporate job makes me seriously think about starting my own freelance business

[yurbud]

30. I don't know how people do it. I worked as a messenger and walked into thousands of offices and...

there wasn't one I wasn't glad to walk out of 30 seconds later. If I wasn't teaching college, I'd still be doing a job like that just to avoid the office bullshit.

[SOS]

20. This economy has been described as

"feeding the sparrows through the horse."

Now we just need to outfit the little birds with "Positive Attitude Maintenance Department" t-shirts.

[meldroc]

21. Add me to the people who hate the ra-ra cheerleading bullshit.

That's one of the early warning signs that a workplace is going to crap. First, you have new management. Then the new management throw a big all-hands meeting, where they start with the RA-RA-TEAMWORK!!! crap. They expect you to cheer out, saying "It's not just a job!" like it was some sort of nirvana-esque orgasmic enlightening experience.

I'm sorry, but it is, in fact, just a job. We all know perfectly well that right after the cheerleading and the promise of exciting things coming is the layoffs, the pay cuts, the reductions in benefits, the forced overtime, the increased workload. Yeah, really fucking exciting.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

22. The best cheerleaders are almost always the most worthless workers

They are really good at boosterism, and mediocre in actual job skills. They fuck up everything they touch - when they bother to touch it. You have to pick up their slack because only the leader gets the credit for success, but everyone on the team gets a black mark for failure.

"YESSS!" is management's way of negating employees' legitimate concerns about the workplace and fellow workers. Management doesn't want to hear it. It's your problem, and if you can't solve it, then you're the problem.

As I once told my supervisor, if you expect me to be passionate about this job, I had better get to cum at least once a day.

I am now self-employed. Go team.

[blondeatlast]

25. Ain't it the damn truth. nt

[supernova]

26. LOL!!

if you expect me to be passionate about this job, I had better get to cum at least once a day.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Thanks for making me laugh so hard, SWMBO. Do you mind if I ask what you do? I'm thinking of going solo myself for the very same reasons.


edit: smilie patrol

[blondeatlast]

28. Not to mention at least a cuddle and a hug at the door as I leave.

I mean, if we are gonna get so personal and all...

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

31. I work in the BS industry

Marketing, branding, advertising. Whatever I can get. I'm in the middle of some changes in my life, and after they're resolved I hope to parlay my skills into something less bullshitty.

[kitkat65]

23. Oh-oh. Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!

If you haven't seen the movie "Office Space," it's well worth the rental.

[blondeatlast]

24. It's being encouraged in the public sector too. I am leaving my semi-professional library

position after NINE YEARS for many reasons, but one is that I was all but asked to cheerlead the library administration. I just can't, especially when they have hired administrators and frozen our critical clerical and technical staff.

[treestar]

29. I always loved how those articles in the 80s would tell you that

in job interviews, you had to convince them you believed in their company and convince them you could do so much for their company. You'd think it wasn't just, I do a day's work, you pay me. You couldn't answer that the reason you wanted the job was that you wanted to support yourself and/or your family. What's wrong with that? Isn't that a good enough motivator?