Sheepwalking Through Work
Seth Godin’s written a piece on what he’s coined Sheepwalking - those who float through jobs, even their careers, only following their ‘work manual’.
I define “sheepwalking” as the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them a braindead job and enough fear to keep them in line.
Step one is to give the problem a name. Done. Step two is for anyone who sees themself in this mirror to realize that you can always stop. You can always claim the career you deserve merely by refusing to walk down the same path as everyone else just because everyone else is already doing it.
The fault of this outcome, however, doesn’t lie with the ‘walker’ but rather the employer. Non-sheep behavior is rarely encouraged in most workplaces. I’ve had jobs like that where there was no ‘other’ way to get anything done, only the company’s way.
Now, you may want a braindead job [I've done them happily in the past], but a career path should be paved differently.
The question is can you reward non-sheep behavior in the larger scale companies? Doesn’t someone have to do the sheepish work?
Sheepwalking - [SethGodin]
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Comments
Dave C. says on February 13th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Yeah, that pretty much describes 99% of the employees within earshot of me right now. It sucks because I feel like I’m becoming one of them.
Keter says on February 13th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
As much as I love Seth Godin, I gotta say he’s missed the important point on this one. The first step to end ’sheepwalking’ begins in school — where anything other than ’sheepwalking’ is a recipe for absolute disaster.
The second step is to stop utterly the punishment of non-’sheepwalkers’ in their jobs, particularly at the lower levels. This punishment helps ensure that no original thinkers ever manage to make it out of the trenches.
The trick in business, therefore, is two-fold: to *stop rewarding* the sheepwalkers while simultaneously stopping them from punishing those capable of original thought.
Douglas E. Welch says on February 13th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
While employers share some culpability, it is each individual who is, in the end, responsible for their own career.
We all owe it to ourselves to do anything we can to avoid such sheepwalking jobs and understand that there are companies that don’t treat their employees this way.
Yes, some people are truly trapped in their jobs by financial hardship, etc., but the majority of us have ability to call shenanigans on companies that foster sheepwalking and find a better job and a better career.
People who have given up, or blame their employer for their fate are the one’s that are truly trapped.
hew says on February 14th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Funny, I was just saying this to my supervisor on Monday; every time my colleagues and I try to create improvements we’re told it’s against company policy. We’re allowed to have ideas but only if they can be applied to everyone else as well - so that things are standardised. Unfortunately it’s too late for my supervisor who decrees that we can’t implement even minor innovations to improve our workload.
Thanks for the insight.