Some people really have a heart for business, worker conditions, training, and education, and that’s something the world needs. However, there is a widespread disease of excessive professionalism that has invaded everything.
For whatever reasons, this seems to be very prominent in Asian countries. In China, the “996” lifestyle means working from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week. In Japan, there is “karoshi” which apparently means “overwork death”, combined with a culture of extreme dedication to one’s job. I believe Korea has similar issues and an insanely competitive education system. We don’t have it quite as bad here in the United States, but we still have it pretty bad.
No place makes this more evident than LinkedIn, a social media platform for business and employment. There are very specific shifts in language and tone that distinguish “LinkedIn” speak from the type of language you see on Facebook, and while this isn’t necessarily bad, it’s uncannily restrained and pitched with a campy, upbeat tone that really annoys me. With all of the layoffs lately, too, there seems to be a ubiquitous script that people follow: 1) state you were laid off and are sad, 2) express gratitude for all of the “opportunities” you had at your previous employer, and all the great people you worked with, 3) wish your previous company a great future, 4) express the desire to find new (and exciting?) “opportunities” elsewhere.
First of all, we all know that big employers don’t give a shit about you. But you still have to be careful what you say, otherwise it comes off as human “unprofessional”. Being professional largely means being bent over and being thankful for it. (Can you tell why I don’t post often on LinkedIn?)
It’s honestly a bit different at smaller companies, and it’s usually true that even in large companies, your supervisors probably do care about you to some extent. But business is business, and at the end of the day, you aren’t family, and there’s a bottom line to look out for. If you don’t stay productive enough, too, you’ll get kicked out regardless, so there’s that.
I believe in doing a good job. I believe in doing quality work, and being good to people, and fair. Most of my coworkers actually find me to be a fun guy to work with. But I don’t go to work to bask in the glory of hard work, or productivity, or whatever. I go…largely for myself. It’s how I pay the bills, how I invest in the future. Is it all about me? Of course not! Like I said, I always try to treat people well and do a good job. But I’m definitely largely there for my own reasons.
There are a few tech channels I watch on YouTube, and many of them will have these podcasters sitting around and they’ll be like, “In this day and age, EVERYONE should be a content creator!” And all of these videos will say, “EVERYONE in X field needs to know Y about Z!” It’s similar to the whole “success” genre of business books, where some highly “successful” author writes about their strategies, and write it as if the only possible way to be “successful” is to do things the way they did. It’s like pickup artists trying to tell you how you should be ripped and artificially confident or “you’ll never score the ladies!” Like…no. You don’t need to be a content creator. You don’t need to be up-to-date on every technology available. You don’t need to be ripped to find a wife (though being in shape can certainly help), and you just…you don’t. You don’t have to be all of these things. You don’t even, technically, need to be “successful” to live a good life.
There was this idea in high school that you have to go to the best possible college in order to be successful. And yet, people get good jobs after 2 years of community college all the time. I got a 4 year degree from a glorified community college and still got into software! Some of my friends just pissed themselves dry trying so, so hard to get the highest possible grades and do the best extracurricular activities, but now, they aren’t really doing anything different than anybody else. The guys I know who went to Ivy League schools went for fucking English and Classics! And that’s nothing against English and Classics, it’s just like…did you really need to go to a top school for those? [Okay, one went to a Christian college instead, but I think he qualified for Ivy League. Time has passed]
And then there’s people obsessed with the “top jobs”. Sure, it’s great to be qualified for stuff, but do you really need to jump on the absolute latest technology to be a good software developer, for example? Most companies don’t even work with the latest technology.
There’s this idea that if you aren’t the “best”, then you won’t get a job, but that’s ridiculous. There’s no shortage of people who are better than you at your job, it’s that there aren’t enough of them to go around. It’s the demand that ultimately matters. Sometimes, too, being better than someone else only comes at a thin marginal advantage. You don’t have to be a brilliant developer to write good C# code. And this is something people get so wrong.
It’s something I always got wrong. I was terrified of working in high school, not because I didn’t want to work, but because I was constantly afraid I had no idea what I was doing. It didn’t occur to me that most places actually train you to work there. In my head, everyone else was better at those things, so I was afraid I would always be out-competed. And to be fair, it was the Recession, and experienced adults were basically taking high school jobs, but still, the fear didn’t do me any good. It turned out, though, that I was pretty good in a library, and people liked me.
It’s kind of funny the similarities between dating and employment hinted at earlier. There are some self-proclaimed “incels” who are always complaining about women being too picky. One angle often taken is that they think that no women ever go for short guys. Here’s a better way to think about it: most women prefer a guy who is taller than them, but certainly not all of them. In fact, I know several shorter guys who seem to be happily married. Generally speaking, you’ll get way more attention if you’re six feet tall and have a six pack, but that’s not to say you won’t get any attention at all if you’re not. This is very similar to employment. Sure, having a fancy degree might get you more job offers. Having all of the latest and greatest skills might open up some doors for high-demand work. But that’s doesn’t mean you won’t still qualify for several other jobs. Neither of these things are “all or nothing”. And quite frankly, do you really need to qualify for every employer? Or do you maybe just need to be able to find good jobs from time to time? Do you need all of the ladies to be interested in you? Or just a few you go on to date, and one you go on to marry?
It’s not all or nothing, but so much of modern professionalism treats it like it is.
I don’t want to work myself to death. I enjoy learning, I’m more than happy to keep learning for my job. But some trends in technology are incredibly stupid, and I’m not biting the bullet. Some trends in technology I simply don’t like and I’d rather work with their alternatives. Will every company want to hire me? No, of course not. Will some companies want to hire me? Yes, they probably will.
So…I don’t know. I think a lot of competition is manufactured by overly-competitive people. This works great for employers, who have command over a host of terrified job seekers who will pour years of their life into short-term expertise that only benefits the company, but I prefer to think a little more strategically about what I’m doing with my life. But who knows? I can’t tell the future better than anyone else can.