Corporate Barnyard
IF YOU'RE THE 'SPECIAL' SHEEP IN THE CORPORATE HERD...
10:04 arrive at mass produced, mega-commercial coffee manufacturing establishment
10:05 order the same drink that has been consumed every work day since time began – laugh with server that it is “your” drink in pathetic attempt to seem unique
10:07 arrive at “usual” table and sit in “your” chair in pre-determined sitting arranged that is never to alter for fear the sky will fall
10:08 – 10:27 due to absence of all social graces and life skills, talk only about work so as to appear diligent and hardworking
10:28 all rise in unison so as appear to be a cohesive group structure, walk en masse back to the office in designated position in the herd – two steps left and four back of lead accountant, who walks precisely seven steps right and three forward of the consulting engineer
Repeat with varying groups of varying sizes, in various outfits until lunch…at 11:30.
While downtown yesterday I found myself paying less attention to the task at hand, and more attention to people watching. Now many of us are guilty of this little pastime in food courts and coffee shops, but this was a little bit different. Where in a truly public environment you can have a wide variety of people; in the downtown corporate core all you can watch is “the suits”.
Now maybe I had forgotten what a Hitchcockian realm the corporate social scene was like, but in the hours that I spent there, not only did I blend in about as well as a flamingo in the middle of the desert, but I sat transfixed on the characters that befell my line of sight. Where to start? The clothing? The behaviours? The feeble attempts at professional conversation that quickly downgraded into “the-only-way-she-could-have-been-promoted”? All of it was so bizarre and foreign; I was mortified to think that even on a bad day I would be like this in the years I worked downtown.
These pathetic little sheep have no sense of individuality or soul left in them; as though the cubicle-speckled landscape lit by florescent sunbeams somehow sucks out their ability to be cognitively functioning human beings. Their lives are dictated by the seconds on the clock;
10:02 leave en masse with office cronies to embark on coffee run
Now maybe I had forgotten what a Hitchcockian realm the corporate social scene was like, but in the hours that I spent there, not only did I blend in about as well as a flamingo in the middle of the desert, but I sat transfixed on the characters that befell my line of sight. Where to start? The clothing? The behaviours? The feeble attempts at professional conversation that quickly downgraded into “the-only-way-she-could-have-been-promoted”? All of it was so bizarre and foreign; I was mortified to think that even on a bad day I would be like this in the years I worked downtown.
These pathetic little sheep have no sense of individuality or soul left in them; as though the cubicle-speckled landscape lit by florescent sunbeams somehow sucks out their ability to be cognitively functioning human beings. Their lives are dictated by the seconds on the clock;
10:02 leave en masse with office cronies to embark on coffee run
10:04 arrive at mass produced, mega-commercial coffee manufacturing establishment
10:05 order the same drink that has been consumed every work day since time began – laugh with server that it is “your” drink in pathetic attempt to seem unique
10:07 arrive at “usual” table and sit in “your” chair in pre-determined sitting arranged that is never to alter for fear the sky will fall
10:08 – 10:27 due to absence of all social graces and life skills, talk only about work so as to appear diligent and hardworking
10:28 all rise in unison so as appear to be a cohesive group structure, walk en masse back to the office in designated position in the herd – two steps left and four back of lead accountant, who walks precisely seven steps right and three forward of the consulting engineer
Repeat with varying groups of varying sizes, in various outfits until lunch…at 11:30.
Copyrighted by Okami 10:41 AM
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