AtomicBaboon!?!

I work for a decent sized software corporation. Large corporations are good for some things. They are good for cultivating the idea that every waking hour of your life should be spent doing something for the company... unless you are using your PTO time, and even then you need to have your cell phone and laptop ready. Yep... they are good for swallowing your soul, but you sometimes get a fat pay check for it, which is nice.

I obviously disagree with this idea that your job and the company is your life. I used to have a similar opinion about what I do... programming is what I do, who I am, and I don't really have anything else. I eventually figured out that's not healthy. If I enjoy programming I should do it because I enjoy it, but not let it define me as a person. If I enjoy my job that is a bonus and is good, but for me right now it is just a means to an end. That end being shelter, food, and entertainment. Sometimes I get to do things I enjoy, the rest of the time I am there doing what they ask because I know I will get to do what I want (theoretically).

There are some other people, usually (not always) management, that seem to think that people with my attitude about work aren't good employees. Some go so far as to write articles about how we aren't good people who don't understand loyalty and duty and who don't do a good job at work because we don't come in early and stay late even when there isn't a reason to. We aren't motivated people. We won't accomplish anything. This pisses me off... I always get my job done on time, and I do a good job.

I was sent a scanned article yesterday that came from someone in upper management entitled "One Simple Habit That Leads to Success." It was scanned from a magazine and sent to us as a PDF. In it, a person who is successful attributes part of his success to the fact that he comes into work 1 hour early everyday. Now, he does point out that for some people it isn't the way and gives Thomas Edison as an example of a Night Owl who was successful. I expected the article to be about coming to work early to get work for the company done before other people show up, and how that was the way to be popular among the people who matter where you work. The whole "If you are at work early you must have your act together..." line. The funny thing about the article is that although he does say that, he goes on to talk about what he worked on when he first started going into work early; He wrote a book. Not a book about company policy, or a way for the company to make a new product. It was a book he went on to sell that was about wealth that became a best-seller, and encouraged him to write three more.

So here I am, reading an article sent by upper management, about coming into work early... to work on personal projects that will allow me to possibly develop a new source of income and quit my job. I already think the typical corporate attitude that you need to come in early to be successful in a company is stupid, and then to get an article from upper management that tells me I will be successful in the company by coming in early to work on something personal just seems ridiculous. Why do I need to spend more of the little bit of time I get on earth at work to accomplish my personal goals outside of work? They already get 9 hours of my day. I could just get up an hour early, use that time at home to work on my proverbial book, and then come in at the same time I do now and the company will get the same amount of work done for them, except that I won't be putting on a show and essentially lying.

Don't get me wrong, I see what the article is getting at. Basically, find a time everyday you can set aside as your own, without distractions, to work on things that will help you achieve success, financial or otherwise. It was just funny to get it from upper management the way I did and then see how they apparently completely missed, what in my opinion, is the point of the article. They wanted us to see how good coming to work early to give them an extra hour would be. It just struck me as the typical corporate BS that drives me nuts.

Here is the scanned version of the article I got. It is from a magazine. I have no idea what magazine it is from. The article appears to be appropriately attributed at the end.