Do you suppose it's okay for a manager to say this to a person?

"You can use your talents like Ghandi, or you can use them like Hitler."

It seems a very unfortunate choice of words at best and a maliciously cruel choice of words if the person they are speaking to happens to belong to one of the categories of people that were targeted in the holocaust. Which the person on the receiving end of this comment was. Was the manager just oblivious to the objectionable nature of her words? Or was she trying to tell her report exactly what how she felt?

Dressed for Success

A friend and I were having lunch yesterday and I was able to articulate something that had been bopping around in my head for a while. It feeds in to why I resent Corporate America so much.

Here's my beef. Development. Seems harmless enough, right? Organizations should want employees to develop. But why does it seem like 'development opportunities' are frequently aimed at turning me in to a clone of my manager? Or my manager's manager? I did my annual performance self-review today and I realized for the first time that one of the items that I am rated on is 'Professional Appearance'. The decription of the item says something like "dresses to make a good impression" and my manager rates me on that as part of my annual eval.

What. The. Fuck?

First of all, I would like to see the study that correlated dress with performance. Secondly, measuring dress is subjective and potentially discriminatory. What if I wear ethnic or religious dress to work? Is that 'professional'? What if I'm FTM trandgender and my manager thinks I should wear a skirt and heels?

I realize that I'm probably not going to ever find a company that doesn't have issues. I also realize what a pain in the ass I am to manage because shit like this bugs me. If it doesn't fly all over my values, I usually let it go. Like the Christmas Tree in the lobby of HR, this one seriously irks me.

The Disconnect

Corporate America's definition of leadership: Getting the people who report to you to do the behaviors that need to be done in order for the organization to be more profitable.

My definiation of leadership: Acting in a way that challenges those around you to grow and become more effective people.

Corporate America's definition of development: Teaching people to be more like the status quo.

My definition of development: Teaching people to become more themselves.

Corporate America's definition of success: Making more money, moving up the ladder and becoming a manager.

My definition of success: Knowing that I bring the best of who I am to every aspect of my work.

This is why I don't belong.