Why I'm going to try Professional Blogging - Reason #1

Although I've labeled this Post 'Reason #1', I'm warning you it's gonna be rambling. What I mean to say is that it won't exactly be the most organized ... entry. See, as I am SO new at Blogging, I think I'm still approaching it with an old school mind set. And that would be thoughts like, '...You're veering off topic here'.... 'What has THAT to do with today's topic?!' ....

I have to remind myself that this is NOT an academic paper! This is a BLOG! Ok. Oh, and I'd like to give a 'Shout Out' and 'Thank you!!' to Angela Booth. Her enthusiasm for Blogging and its future convinced me that I seriously give Blogging a try. Also a big THANK YOU to Pamela Slim who wrote the Forward to Bob Walsh's book 'Clear Blogging: How People Blogging are Changing the World and How You can Join Them'.

So less than 2 months ago I was employed as a 'support' person at a very successful, industry-leading company. This company is not a Fortune 500 or 1000 company. But in 20 years it had grown from 3 guys to an organization with 150 employees in like 4 states (I think that's right). Initially I got myself hired as a temp to fill in for a woman who was taking a 4-month maternity leave. My goal with this company: it would provide the cash flow needed for rent, food and bills, while I pursue my artistic life.

I don't think I ever worked as hard at a job as I did at this company. Specifically I worked for a team of six salespeople, and more specifically, I worked closely with the company's 2nd highest-producing sales associates. He was a whippersnapper, to say the least.

One of the things I found most amazing about working there was no matter how skilled one was, or how much initiative one had, or how positive and team-oriented one was, it all boiled down to whether you were part of the 'In' Group or not. Since I'm an ideal employee (i.e. I'm extremely reliable, proactive, quick, energetic, and have a good attitude), and because of a suddenly vacant position in my department (the lady literally walked off the job!), I came on board as a regular employee with benefits. A good thing.

But as I said, it became apparent that other rules, so to speak, were at play in this organization. I was reminded often of what I'd learned in my undergraduate course, 'Intro to Social Psychology' at UWM. In particular the dynamics of small-group interaction. Not to mention of course large-group interaction, which I guess would be the topic of 'organizational behavior' or 'sociology of organizations' or something like that.

Not only was I reminded of the 'Intro' course but also of ... high school! High school is that place where reality hits hard, if you aren't part of the 'A-list' crowd. You remember, right? If you were part of the 'A-list' you could goof off more, hand in more late homework, teachers were more lenient towards you, etc. Especially if you were a top performer, whether athletic or academic or artsy-wise, you were just somehow 'special.'

At my job, this was happening all over again.

So if I had to summarize (oops I'm writing a college paper again!) the above it would be that some part of me - my soul? - totally rejected the idea of selling my Self between the hours of 8am and 5pm, making my Self available to produce documents, marketing sheets, update innumerable records, files, websites, etc, etc. constantly, being 'supervised' by a person who didn't actually have a sense of what I did day in and day out, for a paycheck every other week.

The sad thing is (or maybe not so sad), soon after I was hired by the company, I realized how unfit the real 'me' was for the job. But that'll be my topic for tomorrow!