From the outside, MegaCorp is a 'halo' company; that is, the biggest, the best, and where everyone wants to be. I fondly remember my days of ignorance, when MegaCorp excited me. I could hardly believe I'd landed an almost 'dream' job at the biggest firm in it's field, a powerhouse of money and influence, with zillions of dollars in assets.
What I didn't know, and was yet to learn, is that MegaCorp is dangerous, potentially fatal.
MegaCorp is a little like the X-Men character, "Rogue":
Rogue (Anna Marie) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superheroine of the mutant super-team, the X-Men [..] Rogue considers her powers a curse. She involuntarily absorbs the memories, physical strength and, in the case of super-powered persons, abilities of anyone she touches.
Early on, the sense of 'wanting', the way MegaCorp draws you in and demands your attention, is flattering; it boosts your ego and makes you feel as though you're able to make changes, do something
useful.
However, as the years roll past, the 'draw' becomes a 'suck'.
Kyle Reese (real name Michael Biehn)
says it best:
Listen. And understand. That terminator MegaCorp is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
The instruments of the attack are chiefly poor management and the fact that everyone has given up; all they care about is the next pay cheque, or the next course of action that will secure their position. No-one wants to do things 'right'. Ethics? Bollocks... As Dilbert points out, once you've got a fucked up moral compass, you're on the fast-track to management.
Once you realise that MegaCorp doesn't give a flying fuck about you, and all it wants to do is suck you up and spit you out, your career as a non-dim is effectively over.
Your first (and default, it seems) choice is to cruise. You can easily become part of the beast, be
assimilated, become faceless. My
CH co-author mused yesterday that MegaCorp is where IT geeks now go to die. Whale bones everywhere...
The second choice is to get out. It's harder than it sounds... you have to achieve a level of fury in order to produce escape veolocity necessary to beat MegaCorp's "suck", whilst at the same time, not destroying everything around you.
We're working on the second part; a how-to will be posted here...