Workplace ambition

Case 1
I met this guy (a grad) last week at the client I was working out at. It had just gone 7pm and we were both still plugging away at our desks. I asked him conversationally "You're here pretty late...will you be getting dinner on the company tonight then?"

This brought on a torrent of talk from him about "showing the company he was committed" and "working hard to get ahead" and "free meals are nothing when you look at my potential bonus for working hard" and "wanting to make portfolio manager by x years time" and "playing with millions of other people's dollars".

Reflecting on this now, I find it strange that I haven't seen much (or any!) of this before. I mean, I did a degree chock-a-block FULL of over-achieving ambitious types (I've heard all about them!). Guess I just managed to closet myself away from them. After all it can hardly be said that I had a wild 'n' rockin' uni social life! But the fact remains, that this was the most blatant show of workplace ambition I've ever encountered. NO ONE I talk to talks like that. I mean, people work hard and stuff, but it's because it's their job to do so, not because they're trying to "get ahead".

Even for myself, I want to be successful at work, in so much as I want to do my job as well as I possibly can. But although the percentage of hours at work might suggest otherwise, there's other things which are so much more important to me. As I say to people who ask whether I'm enjoying work: "Well...it passes the time..."

Which brings me to Case 2.

Case 2
Someone in my small group at church was saying how she really hated her job and how her passion was elsewhere, and that she really wanted to leave her current job, despite not having anything else lined up in her chosen field.

I could never imagine hating a job so much, and simultaneously loving another occupation so much that I would leave a job before not having another one. I'm just not passionate about work that way. As I alluded to above...for me, work is just to pass the time and get the dollars. As long as the work is tolerable (I think I've done some pretty menial office tasks in my work life) and the people are nice, it's fine. Work is work. Whatever. I don't have to love it - I just do it. Bf thinks that this is totally the wrong attitude, but I don't think so. It's just the way I am!

***

I've juggling blogging, college reading and working on a future costs spreadsheet at the moment. Guess which task is getting priority, and which are getting the flick at the moment. Guess which one has a due date of this Wednesday? And guess who will probably be working a crazily long day tomorrow?

Guess who needs better, more disciplined time management!! =p

(Oh, and while you're doing all this rather pointed guessing, here is a fun one: guess how much I got for my tax return!)




















($3. I'm not joking.)