I’ve only had this job since April 9.  What have I learned since then?

One must be jaded to survive.  There can be no interest in doing what is right or best; there can only be interest in surviving the moment, day to day, until the next paycheck.

One must be partially blind, deaf, and dumb.  Seeing that which needs to be corrected leads only to political firestorms.  Hearing that which needs to be said leads only to battles with management, other teams, and even HR.  Saying that which needs to be said leads only to escalation, and only those things which should not be escalated ever get escalated; what’s important languishes in the bowl of truths like so much fruit left to wither and rot.

One must be calloused to the point of being insensitive and uncaring.  A simple observation of a mistake too often leads to backstabbing and outright dishonesty.  Too many seconds defined by observation and interest are left marred by the backlash of ingrained, entrenched cluelessness.

One must be prepared to sacrifice what must be done for what makes little if any sense.  Period.

One must have no desire, or at least suppress the desire to give a damn.  At all.  About anything.  Including one’s own integrity.  If one finds it prudent to defend one’s own honor and work ethic, one is to be thrown to the wolves.  Post haste.

One must possess no interest in justice.  It is most detrimental to note that one takes on more responsibility so that someone else might work less while taking the credit, even when that someone else already hasn’t worked a forty-hour week in more than a year and spends less than six hours per day working.  Every single day.

One must close one’s eyes to the machinations of ambition allowed to run rampant throughout the environment.

One must believe that one is unimportant and insignificant when compared to the whole—or those who apparently blow the boss to cover wrongdoing and ineptitude.

One must accept that one is responsible for an infrastructure over which one has absolutely no control.  Noting that problems one must resolve have been caused by those allowed to manipulate and damage the environment receives nothing more than a cursory nod.  Action will not be taken.  The cause of the problems will not be resolved.  Instead, one will be expected to continue taking the abuse without question, and all so empire builders and control freaks can stir the pot without concern for consequences.

One must bleed upon the altar of ignorance all that one knows.

And the list goes on.

Is any of this new in the corporate world?  Of course not, yet my decades of experience have never included this level of malicious and selfish activity, especially when it is tolerated to the detriment of the company as a whole.

I hate where I work, I hate what I do, and I can’t wait to get the hell out of Dodge!