[QUOTE=omamana;34941]Let me give you a couple examples… My boss told me that I need to become more ?political?, i.e. play the corporate game, which does not resonate with me. Another example is, someone else taking credit for my work, in this case do I just let it go, or do I point it out to ensure I am not taken advantage of? Do you now see what I mean, its these types of challenges which are difficult to deal with.
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So my revised questions is: How do I balance corporate culture with spirituality, bearing in mind I need this job to fund my future one.[/QUOTE]
What do you do for work?
I am am an evil corporate consultant who has to be diplomatic at all times and compromise to allow clients to learn from their own mistakes, err… to try things their way, and then be there 80 hours a week to cover for their costly decisions. My … boss?.. constantly yells at us and tells us to be something other than what we are, but you know what the hallmark tool in the toolbox is for dealing with EVERYTHING?
[B]Patience.[/B]
Patience. Whether I am training someone who has never touched a computer before, listening to office workers complain about their work or each other, working through system failures, selling ideas, talking to your boss, or LISTENING <— to ANYONE. AND yourself. Once, after two 80 hour training weeks, a staff member told me she was glad I was ‘patient with them, always willing to listen fully, and they felt so comfortable being trained by me because I never was upset at their ignorance or tried to rush them’. I was so relieved that even after so many hellish hours when I thought I was being short and cranky, I was still acting from a place that made them capable of learning from me (which is my role). Eureka!
Now - maybe patience isn’t your thing. But pick something, some virtue, and concentrate on it. You could pick truth. You could say to your boss, “I am not a political person, I don’t play games. If you want a solid company, build a strong foundation, not with false relationships and promises. Show your clients the same respect that you would show your family.” Or, you could just make it a focus during your regular day - and be as honest as you can be without harming others during the day. Try not to put up a false front, try to fully engage with people, try not to promise things that you cannot produce. You can also practice not lying to yourself, which is something that I am exceptionally good at and requires a lot of self-reflection to identify.
Or you can choose anything else.
What I am saying is - pick something else to focus on. Someone above mentioned that you could work for the sake of working, which is a technique I have also found helpful. Picking anything to focus on brings you out of your current situations and reminds you that there is something else going on in this world.
Two last thoughts:
- This will be a memory in a few hours. Remind yourself of that when work gets crappy.
- Being a spiritual person in a corporate environment can make you an asset to your employer. By practicing devotion and hard work, honesty, respect, friendliness, patience, mindfulness of decisions, and accepting the consequences of your actions, you become the ULTIMATE employee. Whether that is recognized by your employers or taken advantage of by coworkers who envy your capabilities is not your problem. You can only choose how to react to situations, and the calmer you are, the less obstacles will enter your life. A coworker who steals your ideas is someone that is not creative by them self and cannot put teamwork into practice. They’re working at a serious disadvantage compared to you, and this is a good opportunity to practice compassion. Whatever choice you make, make it the path of least resistance for everyone involved. Maybe just talking to them would be useful. They obviously need the attention and enjoy rising to the levels of the corporate world way more than you do, so perhaps you should just let them have it. Everybody gets what is due to them.
