Live to work… Work to live?

The jobs I’ve had in the past haven’t really prepared me for the politics involved with my new job.  While I don’t mind the politics, I dislike that they get in the way of doing the real work.  We have to be nice to this guy even though he’s a prick, don’t mind her she’s crazy, etc.. 

In the reality I used to live in, I was insulated from the politics of decisions and how they were made.  I was usually handed a box of money and told to make it happen, which I did and I think I did well.  There are days I miss the simple work of installing a show over a week’s time with multiple vendors and multiple clients all having an opinion on how things should work and run.  In the end the event would come off just fine and everyone seemed to be happy.

Here we have to appease the masses when in reality the masses aren’t the issue, it’s the select few that make the most noise that are the issue.  The masses go along with what the few decide and in a way that’s the issue.  It’s not in the best interest of anyone to work like this, but it’s how we work now.  For good or bad this is the job at hand and we have to take as many opinions and make the most educated decision based on those opinions. 

To bad it’s not a dictatorship like so many other companies I’ve worked with, one person says “this is the way I want it to look” and then all the worker bees had to do is figure out how to make the impossible possible.