I'm trying to figure out if I am a poor employee or if I am just a product of my generation. For the past years of my career I have repeatedly been the youngest person in the office. Sometimes I feel like a foreigner in the office; my perspective on what work should be all about has been noticeably different from my older counterparts. I would like to believe that I am a product of my generation. I exhibit all the symptoms of being an employee who spent her formative absorbing the culture of the 90's. Before I get too far into this issue, I would like to take a moment to pause and think about how amazing the 90's were. Everything was possible in the 90's.
Now that I have reflected on one of the greatest decades ever(I will defend that statement until I die), I am ready to determine whether or not my work habits are a result of nurture or nature. Everything in this world seems to boil down to nurture vs. nature. Since this is a face-off between my culture and my genetic disposition, I think it is probably easiest to simply list my work habits and determine the root of each habit.
Here goes:
1. I blog at work: Nurture. There is no doubt culture has influenced my desire to blog at work. When I was conceived my parents did not have 'blog' in their vocabulary. My parents don't blog; clearly my parents did not pass on the blogging trait. Now, there is the issue that I am spending time in the office to publish my thoughts on the internet. I have to argue that this is a case of nurture, too. I consider my generation to be the founders of the internet. I spent some of my formative years pushing the edges of the internet. Employment should not stop that sort of innovation.
2. I text and use Gchat at work: Tie, nurture and nature. This is very similar to blogging at work, except there is more an element of nature involved. Staying connected and involved with my friends and family is part of my nature. I am going to consider texting and instant messaging to be tied for nurture vs. nature because it's through cultural nurturing that I have become adept in quickly chatting through text messages or instant messages, but it is my nature that makes me crave the communication.
3. Somehow I feel like I can't get a bad report: Nurture. It's not in my nature to assume that I can't experience consequences. In fact, I make many decisions after weighing out the consequences. Interestingly, though, I have been employed for less than a month, and I am not terribly concerned about the consequences of texting at work, blogging my experiences, etc. It's not that I don't need this job - I do need this job. However, a formative experience of growing up in the 90s is that I watched many folks create a nice career for themselves with no corporate rules. According to the 90s anyone can be his or her own boss. Even though I am aware that I have bills to pay, I live under the illusion that I can always become self-employed, and even make millions while staying in my pajamas all day. In a way, employers are lucky to have employees who spent their formative years in the 90s make it into the office at all. I'm surprised anyone from the 90s actually works in an office.
I'm sure more symptoms of my work ethic will arise as the weeks go on. It is almost 5 PM, and I would like to get a head-start on traffic. For now, nurture seems to be winning when it comes to my corporate behaviors. Time will tell.
1 comment:
Fantastic. I had to pause and give a moment of silence to the 90's. I'm interested to see how you, as a so-called Millennial are courted in the office environment. People are making a killing on books about how to keep Millennial's these days... perhaps THAT's how you can make millions in your PJ's.
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