Here’s the problem. There is not a single manager in this company who motivates me. There are a couple who share a kindred skepticism of company culture. And there are a couple who are quite sweet, because they have drank deeply of the koolaide and try to put their best foot forward. And there are a lot that do neither, and don’t need further comment. But no motivation abound.
So I work because pay is okay, security is fine, some of the work is interesting, and job hunting is a little scary. If I were promoted, I don’t know that people would like me either….because I am on track to either be the skeptical complicit or the koolaide drinker. I am not helping the problem. …and it brings me back to why? It’s easy, until it is made so hard that it is just not worth my time and I look elsewhere.
So perhaps here is the message: Really motivate me. Or let me try to motivate; maybe I am wrong about myself, and I can be a catalyst for change. Or pay me better to continue down this rather lackluster track of punching a time card with some interest and a lot of apathy. (Pay is the easiest answer….but not the long term solution.) And the biggest realization is that this is what the company culture does to people over time. What’s the adage about boiling a frog? Yeah, that’s probably most of us. We’re sitting in a big old vat of hot water, and it is getting hotter, degree by degree, but we don’t seem to notice. Right now, we are all talking about how pleasantly warm it is. ‘Like a hot tub’ our managers say. ‘Relax and enjoy it. We appreciate you.’