Cerebus
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|  #1 Posted on 16.2.06 1741.45
Reposted on: 16.2.13 1742.14 | One more day at work, then I'm off for two whole weeks. During those two weeks, I will be deciding if I'm gonna tell them to go fuck themselves.
I finally acknowledged that I was a 'sell out' last Wednesday.
I've done some crap in my many jobs that I felt bad about, but THIS one takes the cake.
I received a package from the 'corporate office' with some new signs and stickers to put up in various places within the store I'm currently working at. These stickers claim 'FOR THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF OUR CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES, YOUR ACTIVITIES MAY BE RECORDED'.
Now, at first, I didn't even read the stickers, I just placed them where I was told and went on to the next one. My problem came up with the last one I was placing... on the inside of a restroom stall door.
As I looked at the sticker, my mind started working. Were we actually going to start placing cameras in the restroom stalls? Is this legal? Do I actually CARE? I'M not doing anything wrong, why should I?
It should also be noted, that I went back and saw that each place I had put a sticker, had a ventilation grate just above it.
The REALLY sad thing is that I really DIDN'T seem to care all that much. Why should I, if it helps to catch one more stupid kid putting merchandise down his pants or some grown-up stealing shit, I don't have a problem with it...
And THAT is where I think I need to be whacked in the head with a lead pipe. I'm officially 'The Man'. I'm actually what I started my life out as NOT wanting to be. I never wanted to be an 'authority' figure. I never wanted to actually be the cause of someone else's rights to be taken away from them. Hell, I used to root for the bad guys. I used to be all about the anarchy and the demise of the 'Powers That Be'.
It's really sad, because I don't mind it all that much. I'm OK with it, to a point, I suppose.
I do really like those pay stubs I get in the mail. I'm making more money now then I did working as a DJ or bartender in nightclubs, that's for sure. I enjoy being able to go a store and impulse buy almost anything I see.
I think I can live with myself.
What about you? | Promote this thread! |             | Tenken347
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| #2 Posted on 16.2.06 1946.12
Reposted on: 16.2.13 1946.45 | | Let me get this straight. You think that getting to a point in your life where you no longer want to wreck the world and rebuild it as you see fit counts as "selling out?" That not selling out man, that's growing the fuck up. If you still want to change the world, there are responsible ways to do it. Anarchy is something stupid that kids think sounds cool. As for the cameras in the bathroom, well that's why they have you putting signs up. If people don't feel comfortable using a restroom with cameras in it (and frankly, who would blame them) then they are well aware of the situation and can find another place to go. And you're not "The Man" unless you have some measure of genuine authority. Putting up stickers doesn't count. | Cerebus
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| #3 Posted on 16.2.06 2035.35
Reposted on: 16.2.13 2035.44 | Originally posted by Tenken347
Let me get this straight. You think that getting to a point in your life where you no longer want to wreck the world and rebuild it as you see fit counts as "selling out?" That not selling out man, that's growing the fuck up. If you still want to change the world, there are responsible ways to do it. Anarchy is something stupid that kids think sounds cool. As for the cameras in the bathroom, well that's why they have you putting signs up. If people don't feel comfortable using a restroom with cameras in it (and frankly, who would blame them) then they are well aware of the situation and can find another place to go. And you're not "The Man" unless you have some measure of genuine authority. Putting up stickers doesn't count.
You didn't answer the question. What was the point of you posting in the 'One Question' forum when you don't give an answer? | StaggerLee
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| #4 Posted on 16.2.06 2126.27
Reposted on: 16.2.13 2126.28 | | I havent sold out, if I had, I wouldnt be so fucking broke. | Tenken347
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| #5 Posted on 16.2.06 2129.50
Reposted on: 16.2.13 2129.50 | | I think the implicit answer there is "never." | Kevintripod
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| #6 Posted on 16.2.06 2147.15
Reposted on: 16.2.13 2147.18 | | A few of my friends at work call me Mr. Inertia (because I'm so resistant to change), so I guess I haven't sold out yet. | Oliver
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|  #7 Posted on 16.2.06 2307.04
Reposted on: 16.2.13 2307.38 | I'm trying to put my mind around the entire 'SELLING OUT' idea...could it be when our youth based opinions, attitudes, habits, mannerisms and whatever are shed and reformed for adulthood? If that's considered selling out, then I've pretty much been there since age 20, when I moved out of my parents place, took up a full time job, and started paying rent, bills, and the like. It wasn't a screeching halt, but it was an eventual change of perspective. Sorta.
HOWEVER...if selling out is dropping what is personally preferred in order to go with the status quo, then no, I haven't sold out. I'm still me, and I haven't (nor will I ever) change for anyone.
This is an intriguing question. | Nag
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| #8 Posted on 16.2.06 2351.49
Reposted on: 16.2.13 2352.14 | Originally posted by StaggerLee
I havent sold out, if I had, I wouldnt be so fucking broke.
Ditto
I've matured, no doubt. A 16 year old me would probably call the 25 year old me a sellout. Yet, I've refused to play "The game". I don't kiss ass, I don't play politics, I am totally honest, and I put a higher priority on my morals and beliefs than the all mighty dollar. As a result, I know in todays corporate homogenized world, even with the two year degree I'm finally finishing, I'll never reach certain income brackets that I could with a pair of knee pads.
I've always said, I wasn't made for these times, too old-school. 100 years ago, I'd probably be pretty damned successful.
(edited by Nag on 17.2.06 0052) | AWArulz
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| #9 Posted on 17.2.06 0729.59
Reposted on: 17.2.13 0730.53 | I haven't sold out. I have been with the company I work for 22 years and have never done anything unethical that I can pin down (maybe I traded a "I didn't eat breakfast, but I am putting $5 down for it because I had a coffee and then a mid-morning snack" thing or two). When I am in discussion about policy or operations, I always say what I think. I don't sugarcoat much. I don't lie to get sales. I deliver value to my customers (who are mostly internal).
my closest thing to a sell-out is stopping smoking pot - I think what influenced me was that my company started entry drug tests - it wouldn't have even affected me - but I convinced myself that they could change - and anyway, I was like 30 years old at the time, and it was time to grow up. So I still didn't sell out, I just used it as internal psychology to help me do what needed to happen. | rinberg
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| #10 Posted on 17.2.06 0842.05
Reposted on: 17.2.13 0843.09 | My tastes & preferences have changed over the years. My ethics are more clearly defined. I guess the closest to selling out for me: I have lowered some of my impossibly high standards, which I believe comes from heavy doses of reality. I see truth less in black & white and more in shades of grey.
Example: The bum on the corner. I used to blame his circumstance entirely on him. Now, I understand that I don't know how he came into that circumstance and allow for the possibility that maybe it wasn't his fault.
Poor example for selling out, but the same viewpoint change goes for my feelings toward the telemarketer, the repo man, the tax collector, the supervisor enforcing the rules he was told to enforce, etc. Essentially, I have more sympathy for my fellow man.
FWIW, Cerebus, it doesn't sound to me like you've sold out. I've done the retail thing and I'm in favor of anything that will make shoplifters think twice. Sometimes they are truly desperate individuals in need of (x), but usually it just some punk kid that wants (x) without paying for it. Fuhgettaboutit! | DrDirt
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| #11 Posted on 17.2.06 0912.54
Reposted on: 17.2.13 0913.43 | | I don't like to think I've sold out but simply grown up and also changed tactics. As I tell my daughter, you can be right or you can accomplish what you think is necessary and important. The two seldom coincide. Also if you keep doing the same thing over and over never change your methods/opinions, you are insane or will soon be. | too-old-now
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| #12 Posted on 20.2.06 1034.07
Reposted on: 20.2.13 1035.46 | I don't think I was ever anything but a sell-out.
It's more fun beating the system from within, than it could possibly be to rail against it.
| Alpha Dog
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| #13 Posted on 21.2.06 2117.20
Reposted on: 21.2.13 2117.25 | I like to think I anti-sold out, maybe the fall of 2004.
Lemme paint you a picture, see: Yours truly drops out of college circa 1996, maybe 3 semesters short of a degree. Want to have a job, be an adult. Think I know everything.
Eventually, I grind out a good job as an accountant, and start to make my way up the chain. Middle management before I'm 30, and I'm the golden child. I'm the one chosen for special projects, blah blah. Everything is good, you'd think, right?
No, wrong!
You see, I don't like the person that this daily grind is turning me into - I become increasingly short with everyone and everything, can't sleep, would happily cut the throat of the person in front of me in order to get ahead. To get over, if ya weel...
Cutting to the chase, it all comes to a head, as these things all do. I remember the final straw: I balanced the monthly financials (for a company subsidy I hadn't done before) right before the end of month deadline, and I was totally excited about it. I turned it in to my boss, and I was fired up, and then the emptiness of my accomplishment hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks: There would be financials next month, and the month after that, and so on, until I am 65 and I'm at some half-assed party getting some half-assed watch or some such. That as proud as I was for this accomplishment, it meant NOTHING! My proudest accomplishments would only "matter" just to other accountants. I wasn't making the world a better place, and when I was finally shuffled loose this mortal coil, I would have made no difference to anyone.
I realized that accounting is the most soulless, joyless, meaningless profession I could imagine.
Anyhow, that day I set my plan in motion: I would keep my head down and work, strictly for the paychecks of course, for the next 9 months to save up the resquisite scratch to go back to school, and I would try to make a difference; I would do what I think I am here to do, to teach and coach and try to make a difference in the lives of young people.
Anyhow, I am back in school now (my 2nd full-time semester back), added English Lit as a double-major to my Mathematics major and couldn't be happier about it. Whenever people ask me about accounting or my old job, I always quote the great Neil McCauley (imdb.com), "I am never goin' back."
To answer your question, Cerebus (loved your comic, by the way), I had sold out. But now I'm found. | | ALL ORIGINAL POSTS IN THIS THREAD ARE NOW AVAILABLE |
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