After getting a job as a writer for a third-party credit card company, I am very drawn towards the actual mechanics of business both on a small and large scale. I wrote this off in college as being too mainstream, which in retrospect I think this was to my benefit because now I think I can see the undertones more clearly than if I just went straight into business.
When I walk into work in the morning, I am immediately caught up in a stampede of workers. It's almost like in those old fashion movies where everyone is rushing to clock-in and clock-out. I swipe my badge at the entrance and am pushed forward into one of those revolving doors, which apparently people like myself can get stuck in. People are nice and smile politely, but I get this strange sensation of walking inside the mechanics of a Big Ben style clock-- seeing the cogs and wheels turning as I take my place in the machinery. It's like people turned into metal parts right before my eyes. All these brains, all these thoughts, all these human beings in one place. It's almost too overwhelming to think about. There is this old man named Bassam (I think he is Russian) that I walk past everyday on my way to get coffee. I look into his cubicle with the corner of my eye, and his gray wrinkled face is staring at a black computer screen with a bunch of green numbers on it; it's like looking at a pacman game all day. Bassam is not going to be drawn into a "light-hearted" concept for motivation. Light-hearted? Come on. He's just not. What does he crave? What does he want in a concept? What motivates him?
This is interesting to me for two reasons: I want to know how all of this different parts make up the whole of a business, and I want to understand the psychology behind business, and the psychology of each individual within a large company. What makes a business really work? Since the whole understanding the mechanics of business can be done on my own by studying business textbooks, I want to focus on the psychological and philosophical undertones of my job.
I asked the woman next to me in the line of cubicles, "why do you go to work?" She said, "Because I need to make money to do the things I want to." This is the mentality that most seem to have adopted at work. I wonder, what do you need to do to get people honestly invested in a concept? I remember reading about the notion of perception and concept in terms of literature and I may be able to move the rules over to business as well. Do people need to be both perceiving and adopting a concept, simultaneously? How do you make a group of 8,000 feel like parts of an overarching concept are tangible to them on an individual level without being disingenuous? Is the whole system flawed initially because the concept is insincere? Do people have to be part of the creation of a concept in order to feel invested or engaged in it? I just don't think personalization or rewards is the way to go (getting an oversized calculator or a t-shirt with a world of everyone holding hands just doesn't "get at me" the way it is supposed to), but what else is there?
These are my questions. I want to go back and understand how groups formed anthropologically, and in evolutionary terms. Adam Smith says something about the feeling of obligation towards family or people in close proximity-- the familiarity principle-- so I need to go back and reference that as well. (Need more time! Ah!) I read recently that the highest levels of seratonin are in the leaders of a group. Does that mean that the subordinates have to take a backseat with happiness on a chemical level? Maybe evolution has wired our brains to feel dissastified in large groups so we can have an outlet for competition? Who knows. But, the fascination with groups within a business is unbelievably intriguing to me. Almost as intriguing as the old Russian man, Bassam, that sits quietly at his desk inputting green numbers onto a black screen. One day I'll get up to the nerve to talk to him. One day. . .
When I walk into work in the morning, I am immediately caught up in a stampede of workers. It's almost like in those old fashion movies where everyone is rushing to clock-in and clock-out. I swipe my badge at the entrance and am pushed forward into one of those revolving doors, which apparently people like myself can get stuck in. People are nice and smile politely, but I get this strange sensation of walking inside the mechanics of a Big Ben style clock-- seeing the cogs and wheels turning as I take my place in the machinery. It's like people turned into metal parts right before my eyes. All these brains, all these thoughts, all these human beings in one place. It's almost too overwhelming to think about. There is this old man named Bassam (I think he is Russian) that I walk past everyday on my way to get coffee. I look into his cubicle with the corner of my eye, and his gray wrinkled face is staring at a black computer screen with a bunch of green numbers on it; it's like looking at a pacman game all day. Bassam is not going to be drawn into a "light-hearted" concept for motivation. Light-hearted? Come on. He's just not. What does he crave? What does he want in a concept? What motivates him?
This is interesting to me for two reasons: I want to know how all of this different parts make up the whole of a business, and I want to understand the psychology behind business, and the psychology of each individual within a large company. What makes a business really work? Since the whole understanding the mechanics of business can be done on my own by studying business textbooks, I want to focus on the psychological and philosophical undertones of my job.
I asked the woman next to me in the line of cubicles, "why do you go to work?" She said, "Because I need to make money to do the things I want to." This is the mentality that most seem to have adopted at work. I wonder, what do you need to do to get people honestly invested in a concept? I remember reading about the notion of perception and concept in terms of literature and I may be able to move the rules over to business as well. Do people need to be both perceiving and adopting a concept, simultaneously? How do you make a group of 8,000 feel like parts of an overarching concept are tangible to them on an individual level without being disingenuous? Is the whole system flawed initially because the concept is insincere? Do people have to be part of the creation of a concept in order to feel invested or engaged in it? I just don't think personalization or rewards is the way to go (getting an oversized calculator or a t-shirt with a world of everyone holding hands just doesn't "get at me" the way it is supposed to), but what else is there?
These are my questions. I want to go back and understand how groups formed anthropologically, and in evolutionary terms. Adam Smith says something about the feeling of obligation towards family or people in close proximity-- the familiarity principle-- so I need to go back and reference that as well. (Need more time! Ah!) I read recently that the highest levels of seratonin are in the leaders of a group. Does that mean that the subordinates have to take a backseat with happiness on a chemical level? Maybe evolution has wired our brains to feel dissastified in large groups so we can have an outlet for competition? Who knows. But, the fascination with groups within a business is unbelievably intriguing to me. Almost as intriguing as the old Russian man, Bassam, that sits quietly at his desk inputting green numbers onto a black screen. One day I'll get up to the nerve to talk to him. One day. . .
