Here’s the thing:
The only person at work who can change the culture of where you work, is you.
The only person who can manage adults as if they are adults, are other adults acting like adults.
The only person who can ensure that products, ideas, and innovations ship on time, is you.
Here’s the other thing:
If you believe that your boss has more responsibility, power, and accountability than you do (or if you believe that you should get more credit, and not take any blame if things go wrong) then you will doggedly pursue advancing in a toxic work environment.
If you believe that managing adults as if they are adults (instead of tolerating, condoning or ignoring childish behavior) is the purview of someone in human resources, and not you, then you will be constantly frustrated by conflicts in the workplace.
If you believe that your responsibility is not to “ship” but instead is to show up and turn a widget in a machine that you don’t really want to contribute to understanding, then you are preparing yourself inevitably for much larger problems in the future.
Here’s the conclusion:
The only person who can prepare for a future they can’t see, and prepare to do work that matters, and engage with hard, taxing emotional labor that pays off many tomorrows from now, but not today, is you.
It’s always been you.
This should be a thought that frees you, but for so many, the thought imprisons them further.
What’s that thought doing to you?
