This week, I’ve really reflected on ideas of community. What it means to support each other and feel supported. Through two major events this week, I’ve seen two separate ways that showcase how community exists and its value within our lives.
In order to parse my thoughts, I’ll provide a little bit of context. As you’ve probably already gathered from my other weekly reflections, I’m extremely career-oriented. I am in a very competitive field and I work at a very competitive company.
Sometimes my immediate coworkers are so competitive it feels like we compete with one another instead of competing against other companies.
That said, my line of work is also fundamentally collaborative. We can’t create any product without support from each other -- and now you see the inherent, unending conflict that I constantly wrestle with.
This past weekend we celebrated one of my coworkers who was leaving. By celebrate, I mean his husband held a going-away party. Both of them work in the same industry, but at different companies. It quickly became apparent that, though my coworker had invited us, it was his husband’s celebration.
Everyone was having a blast and it was clear how much my former co-worker's husband was loved at his company. Person after person who worked with the man I was just meeting shared memories and their sadness that he was leaving. I exchanged glances with a few of my friends who were there and we all shared a look that boiled down to: this would never happen at our company.
The cutthroat culture that was there before my arrival will remain long after I’m gone.
With all that said, you may be surprised by my second anecdote, the other event this week that despite the circumstances made me hopeful for the community not only in my company, but in our world.
Within our organization someone had a massive family tragedy. I will not get into specifics, but there was a funeral. I stopped by the family’s calling hours and then I went to work. At work, there were exactly four people in the building. Everyone else was at the funeral.
Despite the competitive nature of our company, despite the fact we are often at each other’s throats, there was a moment where one of our people needed support. And we all came together to support them. We set aside our frustrations and competitive nature to be there in a time of need.
So while I don’t think my community would gather to celebrate someone’s milestone, this week showed me that when it counts, when we’re at our lowest ebb, they will be there. I know this community is temporary for me. Some of the friends I’ve made will last, but I imagine I will fade into obscurity here after I’ve moved on.
But this workplace taught me important lessons about what it means to support one another, to slash through the competitive veneer and offer a shoulder when things are at their lowest. In spite of our differences, people came together and took time and effort to show up when it counted.
If we can do that at a place where most days require speaking through layers of forced patience, I’m slightly optimistic that in our current world our humanity remains and our humanity will prevail.
A photo I took that reflects community, to me
Until next time.
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