Blue-Collar Worker Promoted To Middle Management Struggles To Understand ‘Brutal’ Corporate Culture
voronaman | Shutterstock Getting promoted is usually seen as a good thing. There's a salary increase and, more importantly, a chance to further your professional career and resume. That wasn't exactly the case for a blue-collar worker who was promoted to middle manager.
You don’t think of the possible downsides until you’ve experienced corporate culture first-hand. The now middle-management worker said that even after a few years in his new position, he struggled to adapt to the "brutal" corporate culture. He described a worklife filled with brown-nosing and “pseudo-intellectual presentations.” To put it simply, he found corporate life more than disappointing, and many of his peers agreed.
The former blue-collar worker said he struggles to understand ‘brutal’ corporate culture.
fizkes | Shutterstock
According to business journalist Dan Byrne, corporate culture is defined as “the values and beliefs shared by managers, workers, and other staff members,” but for the former blue-collar worker turned middle manager, it's performative and "Machiavellian."
Corporate culture, according to Byrne, is supposed to give employees “a shared sense of purpose and help them stay focused on the company’s goals.” But many, if not all, of the workers who responded to this promoted man's post affirmed that corporate culture is a cult-like experience, espousing together that corporate offices use similar language as a cult when gaining and maintaining members. In fact, it seems to be an exercise in linguistics to go from speaking direct blue-collar language to corporate speak, filled with buzzwords and filler language.
Corporate jargon makes it obvious it’s not about the people, but the system.
TZIDO SUN | Shutterstock
If you've ever sat through a company meeting led by management, chances are you've had to stop yourself from rolling your eyes when leadership starts saying a lot of words that don't actually say anything at all. In an effort to sound sophisticated, this strange way of speaking ends up doing the opposite.
An article and study by Adam Job and Martin Reeves for BCG Henderson Institute uses language to explore the “corporate soul.” And assert that corporate language is currently “impoverished.”
The two detail a study they did about language in corporate situations and found that “this new approach to management prioritized the functional value of the workers over their broader human value,” quoting “in the past, the man has been first, in the future, the system must be first."
One worker's advice was to simply not buy into the fakeness of corporate culture.
One worker, in reply to the man's post, summed it all up by saying that he is no longer invited to corporate meetings because of his obvious disdain for corporate speak, but that his department is doing well. That is certainly a boon for this worker, but for many others, open hostility for the basic rat race in most office settings, including corporate jargon and unnecessary meetings, is frowned upon and a good way to get yourself noticed for the wrong reasons.
The worker encouraged others not to accept the jargon and fake niceties of corporate culture and to ask follow-up questions when speaking with someone who does. That's fair, but for most employees who are actively trying to hold onto their jobs in our current economic climate, going with the flow is a lot easier and safer.
Like this worker wrote on Reddit, "Just needed to vent after another week of this." Sometimes, that's the best way to handle frustrations in the workplace. We all need an outlet now and again. Whether it's a partner, an online forum, a pet, or even an hour of sweating it out at the gym, we all need a way to let the stress of the workday out. Being frustrated with work isn't an anomaly. It's totally okay to not like everything you have to deal with in order to get paid.
Laura Lomas is a writer with a Master’s degree in English and Creative Writing who focuses on news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
