So, how’s work?  …A question we get asked so many times a week; month; year…  What do we answer?  “Hey man, it’s fine.”  Or maybe:  “Same old.”  How about “It’s going great!”  Perhaps not so much.  The reality is that no matter where you work, you are expected to conform to the values, principles and beliefs of the organisation (if it’s big) or the values principles and beliefs of the entrepreneur (if it’s small).

Once you step into the corporate space you are transported to a place where you have to submit to a moral environment that is not the same as at home.  In the evenings and on the weekends we have decent relationships, have full access to information, partake in decision making, operate with autonomy and freedom and pay attention to what makes us happy.

Too frequently however the corporate teleportation device beams us into an environment where our true capabilities and creativity is caged by a demanding, invisible shareholder and manager.  We have to submit to the will and decision of someone we have never met and when that decision leads to poor results we are often stuck with the consequences – layoffs, pay cuts, ‘optimization’, right-sizing, etc.

You would like to speak up when you see that things are going wrong, people are treated poorly or there is room for improvement.  You may even have the opportunity when management ‘listens’ to the employees but the reality is that it rarely changes anything.  The ‘listening’ is all for show and the decision has already been made – FIFO (fit in or f-off).

Perhaps I am being quite cynical, but I have been around and have seen the same recipe repeated over and over.  This is especially true if you are someone that seeks a life of fullness which incorporates as much of who you are on a daily basis.  In other words it is especially true if you don’t just want to survive but truly live!

I am here to tell you today not to give up the fight.  Don’t accept the mediocre!  If you can help change your current organisation – do it!  If you need to step out and seek a better opportunity – do it!  If you need to start your own thing – do it!  Keep on dreaming of a life that is better and better.  And don’t stop taking action in order to help create organisations where there is no moral teleportation device.  Stand for businesses and organisations where people can express themselves and be true to who they are every day.

Go from survive to alive!