So we were talking today about the nature of disgruntled employees. Not an uncommon topic when you're travelling a long way from home and the only family you have is the team of people you work with all day long. But it led to the question as to whether or not there is such a thing as a gruntled employee. And what would that look like?
Of course no one talks about that, probably becasue the word does not exist in the common vernacular. So would one be a nondisgruntled employee? I mean how often is it that we have a pejorative term without a balancing complimentary term? It seems to be one of the quirks of our language.
Big time consulting is a funny business because it almost always involves extensive travel just to do your job. The more common work model is to put in your hours, then just go home or exercise some kind of hobby or some other pursuit of particular interest or just take care of errands and shopping. Not so in this case. We will generally fly out on Monday morning for four or five days at a time, work long days, go out to dinner at a variety of restaurants, then go to a hotel and make blog entries or watch the tube or read, call home or whatever. We do anything except be at home and do things we would like to do when work is not a part of the picture. We relate to each other not so much because we would naturally be good friends, but because we become each other's family.
Once in a while I'll have a dinner by myself, which I would often prefer, but then it looks as if I'm some kind of prima donna so it feels like I can't do that too often. I do pretty well by myself as I have an active and vivid imagination . . . I don't generally get bored even when I don't have direct stimulus from somebody else.
But I also talk very easily with strangers. In fact I have some of my best coversations with people I've never met before and whom I will almost certainly never see again. It happens in airplanes a lot because we sit in such close proximity. And here we are, not only right next to each other but headed for the same destination in the same aluminum cigar at the same time and seemingly each with nothing to lose. I mean when you have reason to believe you will never see this person again, you can pretty safely say anything that comes to mind. There is no history, there is no future, there is only that moment and it's truly remarkable what an ice breaker that can be. I have fallen in love doing this, if only for an hour or two or three. And while loved ones await our return, there is no substitute for open hearted communication with a living breathing human, eyes wide open, work 32,000 feet below.
Of course no one talks about that, probably becasue the word does not exist in the common vernacular. So would one be a nondisgruntled employee? I mean how often is it that we have a pejorative term without a balancing complimentary term? It seems to be one of the quirks of our language.
Big time consulting is a funny business because it almost always involves extensive travel just to do your job. The more common work model is to put in your hours, then just go home or exercise some kind of hobby or some other pursuit of particular interest or just take care of errands and shopping. Not so in this case. We will generally fly out on Monday morning for four or five days at a time, work long days, go out to dinner at a variety of restaurants, then go to a hotel and make blog entries or watch the tube or read, call home or whatever. We do anything except be at home and do things we would like to do when work is not a part of the picture. We relate to each other not so much because we would naturally be good friends, but because we become each other's family.
Once in a while I'll have a dinner by myself, which I would often prefer, but then it looks as if I'm some kind of prima donna so it feels like I can't do that too often. I do pretty well by myself as I have an active and vivid imagination . . . I don't generally get bored even when I don't have direct stimulus from somebody else.
But I also talk very easily with strangers. In fact I have some of my best coversations with people I've never met before and whom I will almost certainly never see again. It happens in airplanes a lot because we sit in such close proximity. And here we are, not only right next to each other but headed for the same destination in the same aluminum cigar at the same time and seemingly each with nothing to lose. I mean when you have reason to believe you will never see this person again, you can pretty safely say anything that comes to mind. There is no history, there is no future, there is only that moment and it's truly remarkable what an ice breaker that can be. I have fallen in love doing this, if only for an hour or two or three. And while loved ones await our return, there is no substitute for open hearted communication with a living breathing human, eyes wide open, work 32,000 feet below.