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After 26 years of working in marketing for major corporations doing design, branding, motion/animation, UI, UX, and front end development, I’ve grown tired of all the crap and I can’t do it anymore. I’ve completely lost the desire to work a 9-5.
I still love to design and code. I just have no desire to do it for large corporations. I’d much rather do freelance for small to midsize companies.
The “hustle” culture of entrepreneurs and startups has become popular and permeated big corporations, where they want everything yesterday, and they want to run in-house departments like agencies.
Faster, cheaper, better! This is not realistic, but management and leadership don’t care.
I learned a lot in the 7 years at Universal Parks & Resorts, which ended in August 2020 and not in a very happy way. The problems they have are not unique and every corporation I’ve worked for had the same problems. I’ve spoken to colleagues from other corporations in the area, and it was the same thing at every place.
I also learned that I no longer have it in me to hustle and work in a “fast paced environment.” I no longer have the capacity nor the wherewithal to perform at the “current speed of modern business.”
The “fast paced environments” are nothing but chaos. I could see the real problems that were happening. I’d point them out but there were plenty of people whose feathers got ruffled because they didn’t like hearing the truth, no matter how gently you presented it to them. They loved working on the symptoms and not solving the real problems because this meant more work. Job security. To them, solving real problems was too efficient, and a threat to their positions, so they feared being exposed. They also feared that leadership would see the lies they perpetrated in order to continue to create work and been seen as an “expert.”
Inefficiency breeds work.
This whole ideology of “fail fast” is just a ploy from corporations to fool their employees and make them believe that speed to market and “destroying the competition” is paramount.
What these corporations don’t understand is that they’ve abandoned the quality that time affords. The time to explore, think, ponder, discover, test. The time to discover stellar ideas and solutions.
I’m not talking about exploring for long periods of time with no end in sight. There has to be a stopping point, otherwise one can get stuck in revision mode. There should be a goal, but employees should be allowed the time to explore better solutions.
I’ve witnessed the hustle and hurry first hand and the “improvements” they think they’re making are either non-existant, or fractionally incremental.
I still have a love for design, and I enjoy building with html and css. My problem is the toxic and life destroying environments so many companies allow to take place.
When I really started to pay attention to what was happening, and observe the situations, conversations, and asking the right questions, that lead me to see the truth.
In many corporations, the top level has no idea what’s really going on at the ground level. The ground level will report the truth to their managers. This is where the fun begins. The managers are afraid to report the truth to their managers, so they embellish or paint a more pleasent picture. Those managers do the same. So by the time the information moves up the ladder, everything’s on track as far as senior leadership is concerned. I’ve witnessed straight up lying from management in order to make themselves look good.
Meanwhile, they’re trying to keep the chaos under wraps and unfortunately the ground level employees’ well-being and personal life is sacrificed in order to meet “the needs of the business.”
For example, the business will only allow them to work from home, if it benefits the business. If the employee wanted to work from home because they or one of their kids are sick, or want to be home for a contractor to perform home repairs, instead of using up a sick day, well that’s not acceptable.
But if the business wanted them to work from home in order to finish a project, work late nights, work weekends and holidays, in order to push ahead, and “meet business needs,” then that was acceptable. It’s a one way street.
Good work ethic isn’t rewarded, it’s exploited.
Yes, I’m angry and I’m burnt out. Why?
Because I gave so much of myself to these companies. I gave them all sorts of loyalty, innovation, great solutions, 18-24 hour days for years and years; nights, weekends, holidays, above and beyond performance, sacrifice, proven leadership, selflessness, ideas, and more. I made so many people look good, yet time after time they screwed me over.
I refused to compromise my integrity and dignity in order to move up the ladder. I was never interested in cutting people at the knees in order to move ahead, but those around me didn’t see it the same way.
No matter how much success I brought to the company or to individuals, I was never rewarded for it. Instead, I was punished.
This is why I just don’t have it in me anymore to work at the pace most companies want.
They don’t want to recognize my 26 years of experience and expertise that I’ve acquired. I prefer to go on my own.
Going “on my own” isn’t something I could do by myself. I’m no great entrepreneur nor businessman. It’s GOD who’s allowed me the freedom I’ve so desired to do something meaningful. I can’t thank HIM enough. All I can do is give HIM all of my heart, my love, every fiber of my being, my mind, and surrender my entire life. HIS plan for my life is better than my own. The quality of HIS desires and ideas far exceed mine. And if I surrender completely, HE can take me places I could never even dream of.