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October 09, 2003
Personal Life vs. Corporate Life
First, I must apologize for not updating more regularly. I've been seriously derelict in my duties. The experiment continues though. No less now than before.One of my recent epiphanies, which seems obvious in hindsight as most epiphanies do; if ones corporate ideals, as expressed by ones actions and decisions related to 'work', are not consistent with ones personal ideals, the pursuit of the personal ideal will be seriously impeded. How much it is impeded is based on the persons ability to separate his/her self from work. As to myself, I have a very difficult time seeing myself separate from work, or visa versa. Back in my programming days, when a client was unhappy, I took it very personally, whether it was my fault or not. Those that can separate themselves from work, still are faced with ignoring their corporate ideals while pursuing personal improvement. Good people frequently justify doing things at work they would NEVER do in their personal lives. But even for those that CAN separate themselves from their work, the divergence in ideals is still a hindrance, though maybe less so. Its only a matter of degrees.
What does this mean in practical terms. We often find ourselves unhappy with some of our traits or where we are. Yet, for many, change comes slowly. Its possible that the paradox between our two selves is the source of much of our unhappiness and our criticism of various personal traits, slowing our improvement. In many instances, it moves us in exactly the wrong direction, exacerbating the problems. We all have ideas of who we want ourselves to be. We probably can't fool ourselves into thinking we hold certain ideals when we only really hold them half the time. Obigabu said recently that it is lack of choice that makes us unhappy. Pdhman stated that we ALWAYS have a choice. If this is true, its only our perceived lack of choice that contributes to our unhappiness. This is consistent with the idea that we feel forced to hold certain ideals in our corporate life, in order to gain ground or maintain ground at the very least. Yet, in as far as these ideals are inconsistent with what we would choose in our personal lives, this forced character choice makes us feel helpless.
This points out an inconsistency in what we are taught about what makes a 'good' individual. 'Work ethic' is often cited as a strong character trait, even when certain manifestations of that ethic would be viewed as a weak character trait if practiced in ones personal life. Being a good salesman will be met with approval by peers even if the actual details of how you sell are far from the publics view of decent behavior. There is clearly a different level of decency for personal behavior than there is for business behavior. It is only through compromise and rationalization that we can reconcile this paradox.
Part of the great experiment is to recognize, accept, and act on this realization. If we are truly concerned with continual personal improvement, at some point we will hit a wall until we address this issue. Character traits are holistic and can't be compartmentalized in a particular area of your life given only particular environmental circumstances. "Character is what we do when no one is around." I'd extend that truism to say, "Character is what we do while at work." It's another way of saying that each of our character traits should be measured by how we externalize that trait in our worst orientation.
Discuss.
Posted by wonko at October 9, 2003 09:53 PM
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Comments
Why is there a different role? If one lives their life in a costant, i.e. practice the same ethical and moral traits in all their affairs on a daily basis, then they are who they are always. This is the only society that I know of that changes roles as they change their clothes. What doctrine of life states that one should live two different lives? This society most surely would be a more pleasant and peaceful one if we all simply accepted who we are and simply lived it always. I don't think that Ganhdi, Bhudda, Mother Theresa nor anyone that has or does currently walk this planet that lived a life of goodness, lived two seperate lives.
"The real hero in this world is the one who keeps faith in himself, his personality, his identity. Unfortunately, this is very difficult in today as we live in a society of compromise."
- Walter Bonatti, 1964
Posted by: pdhman at October 10, 2003 06:36 AM
Didn't Ghandi beat his wife? Certainly seems like two seperate lives to me.
Didn't Obigabu just say that we do all have the choice to be happy? Either way, I suggest you read up on determinism; If it makes you feel better, you can believe you have a choice in how your life plays out. But...
Posted by: kasei at October 13, 2003 05:05 PM
To some degree I think we all have 2 or more selves with few exceptions. Certainly the more public a persons life is, the more likely they are to have these multiple personalities so to speak. The disparity between public and private selves seems even greater the more public a person is. I am not surprised to learn that revelation about Ghandi, and I do not feel it in any way diminishes his message. The pressure of public life is tremendous. Knowing so many people are scrutinizing your actions and words. It is easier to be one person when few people are looking at you as an example.
Posted by: Wonko at October 16, 2003 11:03 AM
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