The Man

My brother recently laid a rather startling realization on me: I work for "the man." They work hard to convince you, at first, that they are not, that they are different, that this is a special place. Most importantly, I suppose, they convince you to extrapolate from the "do good" and "have fun" motto. We all (or anyway, those who stay) come to believe that the company has our best interest in mind. We actually believe that the company cares about us, and I suppose this comes from the fact that at a 1-to-1 level (my boss, for example), this is actually true. Or maybe that's just a delusion too. At the level of the system in general though, I am decidedly not cared for. What's best for me is relevant only inasmuch as it's best for the company. I suppose this is true of any large organization, or large system of any sort. "Caring" is a human thing, an individual thing, and the ability to do so breaks down pretty quickly with scale.

They worked to convince us otherwise because these relationships are always reciprocal. When I believed that the company cared about me, I cared about the company. I was willing to on occasion put the company's interest ahead of my own (e.g. late nights) because of that perceived relationship.

My brother's a smart guy for seeing through this illusion so quickly. I worry that I tainted him by talking frankly about what was behind the curtain, but I guess the cat's out of the bag. Now that I've been disabused of this naivete, everything changes, and not necessarily in good ways.

Ignorance is bliss.