Everything Is Urgent So Nothing Is Urgent

On the first day of my new job in a corporation, after years spent in the social and government sector, a co-worker who sensed my anxiety to perform well told me: "don't stress this place too much, we're literally not saving lives no matter what anyone tells you. You've literally worked at places where that was the case, it's not here. Don't get caught up in the urgency".

That stuck with me. And still, it was hard not to.

I think those of us who have spent any time in corporate over the past decade are going to quizzically look back at this time and wonder why, in the face of civic/policy infrastructure disintegrating and social safety nets utterly crumbling, did we spend all of our energy at work worrying about corporate urgency.