If you're anything like me, you didn't intend for this to happen.
In fact, you may be justifying to yourself that you're anything but what you've become: a middle manager. To our companies, you're the gel in the hair...the tasty middle stuff in an oreo cookie (what is that stuff, anyway?)...the glue that binds everyone together, cubicle by faric-and-steel cubicle.
Or, maybe you aren't a middle manager. You're an Assistant Whatever or a Something Specialist. You're a clerk, a tech, a systems administrator. You're overworked and underpaid, and under pressure from those below and above you. You have a lot of responsibility, but no real power.
So...how did you end up here?
You probably started your career with some big ideas about Doing Something, or perhaps Making Stuff Happen. You didn't sign up to live life in a flourescent cubicle, reacting to interruptions, your boss' emotional tirades subject to a neverending, mind-sucking parade of pointless meetings where your soul fades away....
...But wait. It's time to take control of your workplace destiny. All of us are responsible for the increased productivity of the American workplace. Corporate balance sheets have never looked better! We've decided our company can spare us a few minutes of creative time and think others feel the same way. Heading into another 9-5 day...sorry, a 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. day...you've got to arm yourself with more than caffeine and the employee manual.
There's still time to make a difference, to make your voice heard. Like you, we're middle managers who still have enough soul to express ourselves in the sparse, sparing lines of a haiku poem.
The ancient Japanese art of Haiku—spare and beautiful, requiring clarity of thought, tolerating no wasted words—is a perfect way to get out your managment frustration. Instead of doodling on that legal pad the next time you're forced to attend a mandatory safety committee meeting, get creative and scratch out some haiku!
ManagementHaiku.Com is a meeting space, of sorts—not the kind you've spent so much time in at your workplaces, but a safe, friendly place populated with like-minded, creative individuals such as yourself. You can take off your tie in here...in fact, better to not even bring one. Share your poetry with others who can relate—exactly—to your plight. See just how creative you can be when your powers are used for good instead of evil. If you've got no haiku to share, tell us what it's like to work at your company. You don't have use names...
So, attend that meeting with a new purpose! Bring in a roller ball pen! And get your Haiku on. We're waiting....
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