I work in a very relaxed and laid-back environment. For most people, that would be a big bonus, but I’m not so sure that’s the case with me. I think I like “professional” work environments rather than “laid-back” work environments. In “laid-back” environments, everybody is kind of buddy-buddy, making jokes and being pals as they work. This can be great if you’re working with the types of people you would normally be friends with. The problem comes when you work with people of very different personality types. You don’t enjoy their sense of humor, you don’t particularly want to be their friend, and it would be fine if you could just focus on getting your job done, but you have to be social as well.

Not to say that I don’t enjoy my work. I get along with my coworkers rather well. But I keep getting these little twinges of annoyance that make me think, “You know, if they would just be professional and do their job, I wouldn’t have to put up with this.” It has the potential to be much, much worse, though, if I worked with people any more different than these are.

Being “professional” is a lot like being “civil,” I guess. The more people I meet, the more convinced I am that lots of people are just barely held together by a thin film of civility. They are almost totally dysfunctional in normal relationships. You can see the irrational anger gnawing away at them when they come in to get some service done on their computers. They think they are entitled to have a computer that always works. Well, that would be very nice, I wish they made computers like that. But they don’t. You can’t get them anywhere. We’ll fix your computer for you, but it’ll take 4-7 business days. I’m sorry about the inconvenience. You can see them straining to hold in their vindictives, but veiled threats keep slipping out. “You’d better have this done when I come in by 3!” etc. These people are just looking for someone to lash out against. What do you think it’s like to live with these people? The only reason they’re able to hold it together is because they think it’ll get something done for them.

Granted, I’m seeing them when they’re under stress, but then, these people are always under stress because they’re never able to let it go. I can understand being sad, disappointed, frustrated, or disheartened by a computer failure, but I seldom ever see these emotions. All I see is anger. These people get in their cars and go home, thinking angry thoughts about their boss, their computer store (us), their air conditioning repairman – and then someone cuts them off in traffic, and they imagine that the person did it just to be rude. That’s where road rage comes from, my friends.

To be “professional” means to keep your personal life out of your business life, to suck it down in so that others don’t have to see it or deal with it. Being laid-back is good if you’re all buddies and all well-adjusted, but some people are scary enough that I wouldn’t want to be exposed to their personal lives on a daily basis.