Hammurabi's Entire Code

And so as the saying goes... "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a hundred and sixty-seven e-mails at work because you took a week of vacation of which all but one e-mail is spam but you still have to go through each and every damn one of them unless you want them to be a dark number in your Delete Items box and that number just sits there driving you crazy for days..."

The e-mail part is typically excluded from Hammurabi's Regular Code and I may be paraphrasing him a bit, but he really was quite a visionary when it came to codes of conduct.

There are so many great philosophies out there that people try to utilize in a trendy manner to fit into their workplace.  I remember being told to read Sung Tzu's: The Art of War to help me in the business world.  But then I went into the television business which, although it is a business, it is not really a part of the business world.  At no point did it help me to sit by the river and wait for my enemies body nor did it help me to light a lot of fires at night around the office.  Essentially, I didn't get much out of that for my career field, yet I still told my co-workers that it was "a good read that will help you in the workplace."

I think it sort of helped me to "choose my battles wisely" but I cannot recall whether or not that was Sung Tzu or Mr. Miyagi. But let's face it, Mr. Miyagi's best career philosophy is more beneficial for those working in the auto industry; especially in the field of "copious shinability automobile detail-ism."

It is interesting how more Eastern World Philosophies are utilized in the work place where as your more Western World Philosophies are not as helpful.  Sure there is the whole Christian Philosophy  of "do unto to others as you would have them do unto you" but that pretty much only works if you give your boss a raise and more vacation time in the hopes and expectations that he/ she does the same for you.

But really, could you imagine doing unto another company as you expect them to do unto you in a corporate buyout scenario.  "We're buying you out large conglomerate!..... okay, it's your turn to buy us out now... Good?  HAHA!!!  We're buying you out large conglomerate...."  It would just keep going in a never ending cycle of aggressive consideration for a competitors needs.  Business is too aggressive for that sort of thinking. 

However, if you go really really west for your corporate philosophy, you know, like West Texas, you get to the whole "shoot first ask questions later" mentality.  But see, that's not a metaphor for anything.  You really would carry a gun, shoot your competitor as soon as you walked into their office for a meet and greet.  Then you go to jail.  So it backfires into a whole, "shoot first, ask questions later if you have an opportunity or even a need to do so since you are now going to jail and you are going to lose your business in any settlement deal..."

Sadly, in many of the places I've worked, it seems like the philosophy that is adhered to most is the one about all the stuff that "rolls down hill!"   At times, I have felt like I am at the base of a valley, staring uphill... waitin'.

And with that, that's about all I have to type today.  As it turns out, I really do have a lot of e-mails to go through and on top of all that, I 've got the post vacation itchies.  I just could not get suntan lotion on my back and on the backs of my arms.