Hi all,
td;lr- Feelings of disconnection with culture. Thought it was specific to my organization but have learned it exists in other workplaces on the other sides of the country.
Have you ever felt similarly?
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I've been struggling with “ambition” and how that conflicts with workplace culture. I work for a non-profit and have been slowly losing something from my coworkers.
I've being working to define my work-ethic so I can use that to compare with the system I'm working in. I'm defined (by supervisors) as an idea-person (as opposed to task driven) and enthusiastic. I'm genuinely inquisitive about things and always strive for improvement in the work that I do. I'm at a place now in my career that I feel respect from my superiors and have garnered some privileges' to commit to whichever projects I'm interested.
How can I define what value I've been providing…? I like to build task-aligned frameworks and structure. Firmly believe (in my line of work) that “backwards engineering” is fueled by being curious.
Something about that has not been gelling with the work ethic in at my workplace. Maybe it's the culture or the nature of the work? What we're doing is unchartered territory, as it's influenced by the pandemic. Maybe people tend to focus on the things that they already know? Anything symmetric or parallel to that may seem irrelevant to their goals.
A bigger question; How does one recognize the point of diminishing returns when challenging a system? Because I'll admit; I've learned to choose my battles and that there are usually compromises at the end of them, which I'm perfectly happy with because I'm usually the only one who fights that that particular thing. Does that make me entitled?