Friday, December 05, 2008
Walls n Dolls
The wall hit me sometime yesterday morning. Or I hit the wall. But I wasn’t aware I was driving so it must have hit me. It was the wall between lives.
Over there is a real life. Over here a blog life. Down there a Facebook life. Also a LinkedIn life. Tried a MySpace life once but it was completely pointless. Second Life pissed me off, it was so stupid.
Blog life is for trapping occasional moments of brilliance. Drollery. Dumbery, whatever. Facebook for having a less coy link to friends and family so inclined. LinkedIn I maintain in case the 10% force reduction rumors that came out today turn out to be true. Not that there will be any jobs. But one has to give the appearance of trying.
Us irredeemable computer users with broken social lives are a funny lot.
Anyway I was having fun seeking out coworkers whom I’m kind of friends with who have Facebook lives. There are tens of thousands of people in the company, so browsing Facebook for a few I knew was sorta diverting. And I found a few. And I was going to go all friendly and happy and friends them and all that crap. And then I hit the wall.
Because there’s also Burning Man stuff on there. Whatever you’re into, if there are people in their thirties into it too, it will have a large and seriously programmed presence on the internet. And I saw myself on the verge of linking my Work friends with my Burn life and that set off a big loud proximity alarm.
Not that there isn’t a little overlap.
But I never told anyone I work with I went to Burning Man. I don’t need any of the people who have input into my job performance and job prospects and professional life in general picturing me in face paint and a clown wig and a pink tutu. No, I didn’t! But that’s sort of the image of the place. That and public sex (false) and unabashed nakedness (true) and an unconcerned indulgence in certain herbs and spices (um, yes).
It’s a lot more than that but the image in the minds of people who’ve given it between two and four minutes’ thought is not properly conducive to success in the corporate shark tank I swim in. Hence the separation. Hence the wall.
I hate that.
5 comments:
I know exactly what you mean, and it sometimes makes me sad too. My daughter wants to link me on Facebook, but I won't do it because she uses our real last name. Why am I still so paranoid about that? I don't know. My bosses know about "Paula Light" and at least one of them has visited my blog -- this is the thing I was really trying to avoid, and it's happened. So, why don't I just let it all go now. I don't know! I think maybe someday I'll have a new job, and why should those people be able to easily find all this? A corporate environment is different from a small law firm -- but there's no reason to believe I'll ever have that kind of job again. ~shrug~
"Worlds collide!" was the phrase Seinfeld & Co used about mixing coworkers and friends.
Doll, you really think the corporate juggernaut should read what I have to say about men's privates? Or mine?
'you gotta keep 'em separated' :~/
my first week at the new job, and one of the salesfolk emailed me with a "is that YOU?" over my posts at xyzmetblogs. Yes, it was, and there was little/nothing to be worried over, but I was at times transparent with my political agenda, and revealed a penchant for indulgences. uhem. Salesfolk swore silence, but I'm sure that's not been observed. As now the job wants me to spearhead a work-blog, and y'know? not interested. I have to draw the line somewheres.
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