jasonbutler42

I feel like I’m drifting at work. I keep finding out minor (and some not so minor) details and I just can’t build the emotional attachment necessary to live and die for my company. Not that I would ever place my employer over my family – work / life balance is imperative – but I need to know that the company I work for is the best at what they do. Or at the very least, the best at something!

I’ve taken to using the term “tattoo company.” You know, the kind of place that you love so much and believe in so deeply that you would get their logo tattooed onto your body. There are very few companies like this, at least big companies. Microsoft, Apple, Google, maybe even IBM are a few examples. They have corporate cultures that extend beyond their stock price and financial ledgers.

The place I work at now is not a tattoo company and I fear that they never will be one and that saddens me because what we do is really cool. We provide a capitalistic solution for what is essentially a socialistic need. I could totally get behind that! Rock on! Helping people! Making money! The problem is that, like most companies, we take the approach of “just good enough” and I can’t live like that. I have to do my best. If I can’t do my best because of other people I stop caring because I don’t want to live my life as one of those angry people who hates everyone. It’s tough to restrain passion – even if that passion is for things like user interface design, or web standards, or browser load times.

Sigh.