Talk about a wakeup call!
I was getting ready to write this blog about a positive experience I’d had during the course of my workday today about the value of working in teams, and decided to surf the web about the challenges of teamwork, when I came across this really weird website that seemed like something out of Dilbert.
It’s called Despair.com, and its premise is this: “It began with a dream. A dream of the perfectly-realized American company. A company that would create dissatisfied customers in the process of exploiting demoralized employees while selling overpriced and ineffective products to remediate the problems caused by the very process itself. And now the dream has come true. As nightmares often do.”
Really, its intent appears to be making fun of all positive, employee engagement and teamwork coaching sites that are out there. Compare the traditional Teamwork poster we’ve all seen with one they offer on their site:
While I was there, though, I looked at this video, which is about dealing with employee complaints, by using the theory of “It could be much worse.”
http://spin.despair.com/videos/addressing-employee-complaints/
I watched it, and actually laughed at first—but then I remembered some of the things that were said by managers in my last job, as the economy began its downward spiral, (“Don’t complain, you’re lucky to have a job!”) and realized that there really are discouraging people out in our workplaces. Boy, was I depressed.
My takeaway, when it comes to living a wholistic life?
Negativity is something to avoid like the plague. Tolerate as long as you are in the mood to laugh at it, but…
My personal lesson: optimism is hard work, and while pessimism is real, cynicism is inescapable, optimism is the balance that keeps the world moving forward. Keep at it, keep the faith, and remember that there are people just waiting everywhere you go to drag you down. Laugh at their foolishness, shake your head sadly, and move on.
Linda Norris, NW Communications
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