Suspended Cynicism Temporarily

If you spend a decade or so in corporate life, it’s easy, perhaps even mandatory, to get cynical. I don’t know a successful long-term cube dweller who doesn’t look at everything the company does without a critical, skeptical, jaundiced eye.

Cubelanders who start hopeful and optimistic eventually get their souls crushed. Some leave for other destinies (perhaps at start ups, or as teachers, or as people in unemployment lines). Or, they get cynical, understand the rules this game is played by, and begin playing to win (or at least to not lose).

I’m as cynical as they come. And yet, every once in a while, I have moment where the optimism and pride of my youth returns, when I am reminded of what I felt when I was a new employee with a new computer in a slightly used cube working for a massive company even my parents had heard of.

Yesterday at the cold fusion meeting was one of those times. One of the upsides to giant corporations is that at almost every level, in every division, you bump into amazing, talented, intelligent and genuinely nice people. For the last two days, I had the pleasure of sitting in a room with a handful of those people, and I’m once again glad I work here.

So, here’s to you, guy who is doing something risky that could change our business forever, and other guy who is inventing something amazing with a small budget no one knows about, and gal who genuinely cares about the people who work for her, and other guy who calls bullshit on bullshit with seemingly no fear. Nicely done. Nice working with you.