"Playing The Game"
We have all heard this phrase at one stage or another in our slow paced, yet ultimately too short lives. Unless, of course, you are hearing impared, in which case one of three things will happen to you: a.) First and simplest, someone will have signed it to you -probably a relative or any readily available gang member, BLOODS being the obvious choice for their mastery of American Sign Language, which is the merritt badge they (I mean they as in they, not the Archie Bunker "they") must earn before moving on to the more challenging "carjacking" and "drive-by" tests... b.) If not traditional signing exactly, someone should be good enough to make some such effort - maybe an index finger extended in your direction followed by a mimed free-throw or craps roll...or...c.) the last and admittedly least likely scenario, involves Garrett Morris appearing picture-in-picture on your television or computer screen and yelling the phrase to you, ala his old bit on the SNL Weekend Update.
The "game" referred to in this assinine word set typically points to what we of the blue-ish collar call through gritted teeth a "nine-to-five." That is to say, much more simply, a job. That's right, the old j-o-b. That's the same spelling, certainly not coincidentally, as the name of the most fucked over guy in the Holy Bible; the Good Book ( it's okay, actually, six-point-five out of ten but comes across a bit preachy). Seriously, look back at Job's story: hardship upon hardship, damned if you do or don't, with no end to misery nor a truly viable reason for that misery to have been inflicted on a relatively good person. The only real explanation for his crops, livestock and family being devestated amounts to not much more than a pissing contest between dieties.
Now look at your workplace situation and see how it compares. Aside from the boils, you probably wouldn't check off "favorably." If it was or is anything like mine, it probably involves about a half dozen or more people coming down on you for something you are hearing about for the first time, right then and there, or wanting you to "prioritize better." Translating into layman's terms, that basically means "put my work first."
Make no mistake, while it is "best for the company" to prioritize logically, it isn't necessarily the best for you. If someone who has the potential to throw you under the bus when need be, they will do it with little hesitation. Why accept blame for something if you don't have to? If you did step up and accept blame for a project of yours going awry, you would be showing not only a backbone but a sense of moral decency. Know that there is no place for either in the workplace. Showing either trait could very well be career suicide, for some time ago the two were misconstrued as somehow showing weakness. It was probably the 80's Wall Street boom, the creation of financial "sharks" and the millions upon millions of sacrificial lambs who have since been "downsized" or seen there job "outsourced"...both of which are bullshit terms that make up for there being no really good reason that you were fired (and make no mistake, that's what it is) aside from an already obscenely wealthy handful of suits seeing that they could make an extra $2 or $3 Million annually, at no cost to them, and it would only mean taking food off of a few thousand families' tables per year. What's more, those suits were rarely in the office to begin with, so its not like their cutbacks affected anyone they knew "personally", just a person who was loyal to the job that eventually shit on them. And let's face it, you can do it cheaper in India right now...until an even more "cost-effective" (defined loosely as "what can I keep in, or add to, my pocket") country pops up....Come to think of it, once things settle down, there could be hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who need work and several CEOs who have the shears out to "trim the fat" in the name of a beefier bottom line.
I know, I know, it's capitalism. And capitalism is a good thing...to an extent. Free market economies are a good thing on paper, but so too was true Marxist Communism and every form of relgion. Then the greedy get involved and healthy competition becomes all-out war.
Think about it in simplest terms; if you're a CEO type who produces a good or service for the country and/or world, why would you cut out your own workforce, and thereby effect a large percentage of those who would have given you money for said good or service?
All this ties to the crux of playing the game...we hate to do it, but in the end, we have to do it. So take a lesson from the big wigs that run your own company; Lie, cheat, deceive and always, always delegate: Not just work, but blame. "Well, Sir, I put Johnson in charge of that..." Boom. You're okay, even if you knew it wasn't in Johnson's job description or even his skill set. Besides, they're his kids that are going to be hungry...not yours. He can always swallow his pride and push a broom somewhere, then get a night job that forces him to miss recitals, games and eventually graduation. If it doesn't kill him, he may even get to know his grandson for 6 months like my father did before he passed.
Take the step to help grow the divide between rich and poor and see if we can't do away with the lifeblood of America, The Middle Class, in as short a time as possible. Play the game. Play it hard. The neck you save may, if only for a short time, be your own...
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