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Colin’s boss is on vacation this week. He recorded a message by webcam. He’s lying on his side on a hotel bed. He talks about the clarity of Colin’s p

Colin’s boss is on vacation this week. He recorded a message by webcam. He’s lying on his side on a hotel bed. He talks about the clarity of Colin’s press releases as palm trees shudder in the wind behind him. “I wish I had gotten to know him better,” he says. “He seemed nice.” Reading this kind of made me rage...and sad. Tragic, but the inequality, and the indifference free market creates, makes me steer clear away from corporate environments. I'd rather be a writer or an artist working on one's creation and dropping dead than die for someone's marginal materialistic desires. I know this is just one way of looking at it, maybe the company was a great place to work at and the words alone do not carry justice. Unsettling. Knowing that you can die at any moment, yet you work to fulfill the desires of those above you. When I start a company, I don't want people below me or be insensitive. I'm gonna pay them well, make their work not overwhelming (by creating more software to automate and lighten their workload). Maybe I'm just young and naive. but I sure as shit not going to be an insensitive jerk to my partners in crime. Nobody is killing themselves or getting sick because of being overworked. Fuck that ferrari man, if someone kills themselves in the process of making money for you, I'd be devastated. I don't know how I'd feel when I turn old though, as your frontal cortex deteriorates, causing you to have less empathy and concern for your surrounding.

dkokelley 13y ago
> you work to fulfill the desires of those above you. If this is your attitude towards work for hire, then almost anything you do will be unfulfilling. Work to fulfill your own desires. For some, work is a means to an end. To others, the product of their work fulfills them. If you work to earn enough money to see your family thrive, then your work should be fulfilling because your family is provided for. If you work to enrich the lives of the markets you serve, your work should be fulfilling because you know that you are making the lives of others better in some marginal way. Don't work for your boss. Work for your mission.
michaelochurch 13y ago
I'd rather be a writer or an artist working on one's creation and dropping dead than die for someone's marginal materialistic desires. It doesn't seem to me like he died "for" work. People die, often randomly, and sometimes at surprisingly young ages. It's a Gompertz curve. With the Internet, we hear about it a lot more than we would have, 25 or 50 years ago (even though early death was more common in the past). I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, but I don't think we have any good reason to assume his death was work-related.
hudibras 13y ago
To all supervisors: If one of your employees dies while you're on vacation, cancel the rest of your vacation. No exceptions.
- bjt 13y ago
  Except, people are more than supervisors. Maybe it's the vacation that he's been planning with his wife and kids for 5 years. You can just as easily make a rule like "To all parents: Family time is not work time. Not even a death at the office trumps that. No exceptions."
- randomacct 13y ago
  Why?
  - cdcarter 13y ago
    If for no other reason, to be with the rest of your employees, the dead fellow's direct co-workers?
  - hudibras 13y ago
    Because it's the decent thing to do, and your other employees will appreciate it.

dkokelley 13y ago

> you work to fulfill the desires of those above you. If this is your attitude towards work for hire, then almost anything you do will be unfulfilling. Work to fulfill your own desires. For some, work is a means to an end. To others, the product of their work fulfills them. If you work to earn enough money to see your family thrive, then your work should be fulfilling because your family is provided for. If you work to enrich the lives of the markets you serve, your work should be fulfilling because you know that you are making the lives of others better in some marginal way. Don't work for your boss. Work for your mission.

michaelochurch 13y ago

I'd rather be a writer or an artist working on one's creation and dropping dead than die for someone's marginal materialistic desires. It doesn't seem to me like he died "for" work. People die, often randomly, and sometimes at surprisingly young ages. It's a Gompertz curve. With the Internet, we hear about it a lot more than we would have, 25 or 50 years ago (even though early death was more common in the past). I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, but I don't think we have any good reason to assume his death was work-related.

hudibras 13y ago

To all supervisors: If one of your employees dies while you're on vacation, cancel the rest of your vacation. No exceptions.

bjt 13y ago
Except, people are more than supervisors. Maybe it's the vacation that he's been planning with his wife and kids for 5 years. You can just as easily make a rule like "To all parents: Family time is not work time. Not even a death at the office trumps that. No exceptions."
randomacct 13y ago
Why?
- cdcarter 13y ago
  If for no other reason, to be with the rest of your employees, the dead fellow's direct co-workers?
- hudibras 13y ago
  Because it's the decent thing to do, and your other employees will appreciate it.