Silly Games in Corporate America

“Godliness with contentment is great gain,” Paul told Timothy. Most people turn that around, believing that if they can gain a lot then they must be godly. I work in a corporate environment and all most people care about is what other people can do to help them advance their careers. That takes priority over the product. If producing a good product will advance their career, they’ll produce a good product, but what they really want is to advance their career.

There are times that it’s hard to stay content in that kind of environment. People are always asking what you’re doing to advance your career or why you haven’t reached some level in your career. But I can’t help but think that another statement by Paul is very true in the corporate world as well. “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” Paul is referring to the fact that we can take nothing we gain in this world into the next, but there is some truth to that in the corporate world as well. Eventually, all these people who are fighting for position in the company will retire. Aside from having a little more money in retirement, no one really cares whether you retire at the top of the ladder or if you fell off the bottom by being “requested” to take early retirement.

So much that goes on in large corporations has the appearance of petty games. People think some of the silliest things are important and they will fight to protect their territory, just because they don’t want to look bad or they feel that it will hurt their career advancement.

But there’s something to be said for being content. It won’t get you a lot of money. Many of your co-workers will think you’re crazy, but the people who are content are able to focus on the job they’ve been hired to do rather than hopping from job to job, never spending enough time on any of them to do anything meaningful.