The End of Satirical Corporate Me
It’s been awhile since I’ve written a fiery piece complaining about corporate issues that, in the end — don’t and won’t matter to anyone — especially me. And that’s because I left the bad job that was the fuel for every article written in the past year or so.
Like many others, I quit. Joined the proverbial Great Resignation. The Big Quit. The hasta la vista. Sayonara to that crap shoot. Or, because I’m petty and I like to attack the person and not the principle of the matter, I quit my boss.
You know the saying. People don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.
In my case, it was more of a bad everything. Bad manager, bad company, bad culture, bad job.
Decent co-workers.
Except for the ones that were friends with my manager.
Because if I didn’t mention already, I had a bad manager. She was a terrible, horrible, awful manager.
But it’s over. It’s done. She’s my ex-boss.
Gosh, that feels so good to write.
In the process, I’ve thought extensively about what I’d write about after the fact. Because as much as I hated the reality of what I was writing, I enjoyed the writing process. I also really enjoy having written.
Seriously. Looking at some of my old articles is disorienting, in a really good way (?) way. Like, I wrote that?!? Holy smokes.
Truth is, I still don’t have an answer.
In a way, writing was always accidentally synonymous with complaining about work. I first turned to writing when I didn’t have a job.
Then I got a job. But said job more or less created a burning pit of anger in my soul that needed to be extinguished before it ruined me from the inside out. So, I turned to writing again. And that’s when I wrote some of the most cohesive pieces my fingers ever tap-tap-tapped together.
The angrier I was, the easier the words came. Sometimes, the paragraphs more or less strung themselves together.
Everything else I wrote was accidental, lukewarm, and really really painful to write (and now, read).
Part of me wonders if I will ever write anything that’s witty or exciting again if I’m not fired up like I was.
I mean, I have another corporate job now. But I never, ever EVER want to be in the state of mind I was in the past year.
I’ve tried reading some of those sensational articles by The New Yorker and Business Insider that debate corporate minutia to get riled up. But honestly, it’s not the same. Corporate crap is an experience. Albeit a bad one.
So, maybe this is the end of satirical corporate me.
I really hope so. If things work out, I’ll start publishing some weird stuff here.
