Today Is the Day I Get Fired
blog.katworksgames.com
blog.katworksgames.com
I've found the best employees often have let go of the fear of being fired. They can speak truth to power, stand up for what is right as opposed to what is expected, and they generally leave the place better than they found it. It was interesting watching people at Sun change when Sun going public suddenly meant those people didn't have to work if they didn't want to. Much more engaged, much more willing to look at alternatives and to take risks in pursuit of a better outcome overall.
That said, the philosophy only works when you also have a high degree of integrity. If believing that you're going to get fired tomorrow means you're totally ok with emptying the coffee tin people put money in to cover the cost of the office coffee service, then that doesn't work so well :-).
Sometimes I'll do the exercise where I write down in my notebook all of the things I can think of to worry about and then rank them from most important to least. I find it can help with perspective.
If you are 20, with no kids or family, it's great to have this mindset. However, you can't have this mindset if you have a family or other people to support.
Every place I have ever worked has politics. You need to figure out these politics to survive and many times 'standing up for what is right' will get you fired or you will seen as a person that causes strife and passed up for promotions.
I can't tell you how many times I've worked on a software project where we were making really bad decisions that came directly from management.
Doing things the 'right way' means going against your superiors, and it has many negative consequences. When you are young, you can take these risks.
It's one of the reasons I started my own company. I was tired of playing politics.