Charging Through Life

Have you every meet anyone who is incapable of lying? It's the coolest thing (and by cool, I mean odd). Take my buddy KC for example. From the outside, the boy just looks to be a little slow; like he's almost there but "there" just isn't.... well "here." Fact is, though, he's just incredibly honest - to the point of being incapable of lying.

Take last week, for example. He and his roommate, Regan, were driving to downtown LA. Regan asked KC to let him know when they got to the downtown area.
"How will I know when we're downtown," KC asked?
"You'll see a bunch of tall buildings," answered Regan.
"These buildings are tall," noted KC.
"We're not in downtown yet!" snapped Regan.

It's his level of honesty that I've always strived for and admired in the boy. He just looks at things and calls them how he sees them.

We are never honest in our daily lives. I mean, come on, when someone asks, "how's your day going," they don't want an honest answer and you don't want to give them one.

We don't tell the truth in our relationships either. I went on a date the other day and the guy told me pretty much his entire life story over the course of the two-hour dinner. Now did I interrupt him and say, "you know, every gay guy's high school coming out story is pretty much the same, and I haven't thought about mine in, like, 10-years. So can we talk about something more current?" No. I listened attentively, laughed appropriately, and offered occasional feedback.

But I think the place where we are most dis-honest is at work. We spend more time with these people then we do our actual friends and family; yet we hardly ever speak our minds or reveal our true self. When coworkers ask how your weekend was, how many of you will tell the story about getting wasted at the club and going down on this hot guy in the bathroom before ditching him to go home and fuck someone else? (OK, extreme example)

When you are passed over for a promotion, do you go in and tell your boss how you're way better qualified for the position, or do you go bitch to your friends or vent your feelings in a blog entry? (is that more universal?)

The reason we are not honest, I mean truly honest, at work is not out of professional decorum - it's out of fear. We fear loosing our job.

I've recently shed that fear. I've come to realize I don't like doing what I'm doing and I'm likely not going to advance far there. So I really have no fear in getting fired because I'm already looking for something else. And if I should get canned prior to finding that something else, well then I'll just half to deal. But here's what I've noticed: I've been saying thing at work lately that I probably shouldn't.

My new "boss" (the chick whom I adore as a person but who is so incredibly un-qualified for her job that it's a crime) has been acting like, well she's been acting like my boss - which I loathe. And I find I've been making snarky comments to her all week long. I'm cute and I say them in a funny way so I can get away with it, but the sentiments are real.

Lately I've been seriously contemplating a new strategy at work whereby I sit my Director and VP down and tell them the truth. The un-biast, no holding back truth - whole truth and nothing but the truth. I would let them know that I'm unhappy, that I could teach an intern to do what I do, and I'm actively looking for a more fufilling employment opportunity and will take it at this company or some other place if I find it.
I'll either get fired or get promoted.

Here are my honest facts that I am thinking about just laying out there on the table:

1. I can not afford to work at this job any more. The money I am brining in from this position does not cover the bills I have going out. Because of this fact I've had to re-structure my financial life to the point of declaring bankruptcy. A person with the skills, talents, and background that I have should not be working for so little. And because of this fact, I am actively seeking to change my income status. I hope to be able to do that here at Beachbody, but the first institution that can provide me with more income and a higher growth potential will win me as their employee.
2. I have been under-utilized at Beachbody now for three years and I am not on an actual career path. When I took this job I was already over-qualified for it but I assumed that, because I was in a small start-up, it would be easy for me to advance with the company. I've grown my position as much as I can and now it's time to break up the tasks I do and incorporate them into other people's job responsibilities. It's silly to pay me for what little I do around here. It would be better for the company to dissolve my position completely and change my career to a producer/content developer.
3. The programming that the VP and Director are producing is crap and I can do better. Plus the website we have is crap and I can do better. The shows we are airing online now are horrible! Nobody is watching them and people are not willing to pay $40 a quarter to be part of a crappy website which is why TeamBeachbody.com has such a high cancelation rate. People don't pay anything to go to a website. Online revenue is generated by advertising! I can change the entire dynamic of the business by streamlining content creation which may reduce overhead, introducing ad revenue streams, and improving the overall user experience. But I'm not doing any of that without more cash, a better title, and support for my decisions. And, no, I'm not first going to prove to you that I can do the job before you promote me.