We're all just roleplaying
Do you ever have deep, philosophical thoughts about life? Like, are we all just living in a simulation. Or are we in a video game being controlled by other people?
My latest philosophical thought is that we’re all just roleplaying at work. We’re not actually ourselves—we’re a carefully crafted version of ourselves. We’re cosplaying as employees.
I’ve always kind of knew this, but it hit me hard after I was laid off and joined an ex-employee Slack group with my former co-workers. I saw people in there that I used to interact with at work, and now they were like different people.
Folks who abused corporate lingo during meetings were now just shootin’ the shit in the Slack group. Folks who used to say stuff like, “In order to leverage holistic solutions, we need to operationalize the value proposition to optimize stakeholder engagement and maximize ROI” were now just saying stuff like, “Yo! Can’t believe what a shitshow this has been. Hope y’all are keeping your head up. I’m down to chat if anyone needs anything.”
When we worked together, my perception of this person was, “Wow, this person knows what they’re talking about and is much smarter than I am.”
But now that we were in the same boat on an equal playing field, this person and I were the same. They weren’t smarter than me. They were just playing the game way better than I was—the game of Corporate America.
Essentially, I was gaslighting myself into thinking that these people were smarter than me. There were times where someone would say something like, “We need to optimize our customer engagement channels to enhance accessibility and streamline communication touchpoints,” and I would think, “Uhh, do you mean we need to create a better way for our customers to contact us?” But surely I wasn’t smart enough to know what they were talking about..
Once it all clicked for me, it made so much sense. They’re just playing the game. Corporate America forces us to talk like this because that’s what it wants.
When this person signs off for the day and goes home to his family, he doesn’t continue to use corporate jargon when talking to his partner, kids, and friends. When making plans for the weekend, they don’t say stuff like, “Let's circle back on this idea and leverage our synergies to ensure we're all aligned on the fun agenda for the weekend!” That would be weird.
We’re all just playing the game and doing our best to get ahead. We all want to be promoted and get raises, and the best way to do that is to play the game.