Member-only story
What I Wish I’d Known Before I Took a Corporate Job
Survival tips for employees at all levels of an organization
The CEO at our startup was livid when he called all of us into his capacious corner office to berate us for some stupid little thing that hadn’t gone his way and the ensuing employee uprising caused by his request for yet one more minor but time-consuming website change to something that didn’t need changing. Something to do with a red button not being made green or some such. I can’t remember exactly, because the man was mercurial, and we were constantly shifting from some version of red to green, always anxious over what might fuel his next outburst.
The CEO laid down the law, said anyone who wasn’t with him was against him, and looked around the room. Only one employee had the balls to walk out.
The CEO’s eyes then landed on me. As the newly promoted Director of Site Operations, I was ultimately responsible for changing red to green, or whatever, and for keeping the troops in line (I write “troops,” because that’s what we were to him).
“Britt? You staying or going?”
I literally rocked on my heels. Should I stay or should I go? My gut said go. My brain flashed to my role in helping to support my family. I pondered my career, which had only recently shifted from writing to upper management, a former small-town kid in my 30s overseeing a dozen mostly middle-age veeps in my first foray into the corporate world. I pondered my decision for a time-suspended eternity, meaning a second or two. Mostly I froze. And I said nothing.
I said nothing.
Our company, and my career, eventually stabilized under new management and I had many great years of corporate life, along with some not so great. But I’ve regretted that one decision ever since. The employees deserved more from me. They deserved to have someone who had the CEO’s ear stand up and say enough is enough, and we’re not gonna take it anymore. But I was naive to corporate culture, after years in family-run businesses where people were treated like people, not troops. I didn’t yet know how corporations were supposed to run.
I know now that they’re not supposed to run like that.
