'Professionalism'

[Polenicus]

Bleh, I hate that word. Hate it hate it hate it.

Professionalism as I understand it, indicates a certain commitment to your job. You pay attention to details, you take your tasks seriously, and you don't engage in activities or practises which hamper or negatively affect your ability to do your job.

Dictionary definition is thus:

pro·fes·sion·al·ism(pr-fsh-n-lzm)
n.
1. Professional status, methods, character, or standards.
2. The use of professional performers, as in athletics or in the arts.

So when the hell did 'professionalism' come to mean divesting of any and all signs of individuality or outside interests?

Our company has instituited a 'clean desk' policy. Part of which has banned any and all of the knick knacks (Toys), funny posters, jokes, cartoons (Such as Dilbert) or other paraphenalia. Family photos and work stuff, that's it. This is so we appear 'professional' to our clients.

Bleh, means I gotta take home all my toys, take down my TF movie poster, and generally pretend to not be the overgrown man-child I really am. Which sucks.

So therefore, I hate 'professionalism'

[Der Cute]

Oh lord, Poly, I'm right here with you.

My boss is soooooooooo afraid of "upsetting" the customer (Backstory: I'm FTE for a vendor inside of a large IT operation, our customer is the Big Big company that owns the building and parts/stuff inside it...we keep the servers/ network alive)

Boss is sooo afraid of upsetting customer he's turned farking anal. I sent an internal, team only update after ending my shift. It had something of the lines on " status: Tired, Next: sleep & do it again tomorrow"

Asshole sent an email to ME and THE WHOLE TEAM (respond to all buttons SUCK) stating that "This is unprofressional and will not be tolerated"

Wrote back to the boss "I used humor to help uplift us all since we're all tired. But since you don't want humor I will cease to use humor in any of my emails." I don't think he caught that one.

We're now told: 15 min of shift is to read email. No surfing allowed during this time. Surfing is allowed on breaks "only to appropriate websites"...What If I'm on my break looking up Vaginal Discharge? WAAAAAAAAA.

I hope this guy gets busted soon. He's already broken some federal and state laws and is being "investigated" by HR.

Cutenoob

[ArenaBoy]

To them, professionalism means kissing ass no matter what. I've found that usually those types of people are lacking in a spine and they think that professional = doing all that you can to impress someone.

[Kiwi]

My mother is a civil servant and they have a clean desk policy as well, although its for "saftey" reasons for them though.

See if my employer expected me to be professional, I expect them to be professional back. I will put everything in to the job if you treat me well. I dont want or need to be babied, but respect is a street that runs both ways.

[Der Cute]

I just want to put a sign up that says:

Flogging will continue until morale improves.

cutenoob

[Tigress]

Professionalism: It doesn't matter if you know how to do your job, just that you look good doing it.

IME, those that insist on being "professional" aren't very "professional" themselves. And they don't see their employees as human beings, but just mindless automatons.

If I was a client/customer, I'd rather see toys and knick-knacks on people's desks because it shows me that the employees like working there enough to personalize and decorate their space.

[strawbabies]

I'm glad my company lets the employees be themselves. I get a lot of questions from new clients who come to visit about the target from the shooting range I have pinned up on my office wall. Yes, I did fire all those shots myself. It's a warning not to mess with me.

[BusyBee]

I haven't had much experience with this sort of policy being forced on me (yet) (thank god), so I don't really have anything to say there...
But speaking from the other side of the desk, I much prefer when I am talking to someone at their desk/counter/whatever, and there is what I will call an obvious stamp of that person on the area. Even something as small as some coloured stones or a little fluffy yellow chick figurine (I love those things, they're like the size of my pinky finger and so cute! =P). It makes it feel less like I'm talking to someone who hates their job and is totally disinterested, and more like I'm talking to someone who has a personality and thoughts in their head and wouldn't just see me as a receipt number on their computer.
I wonder how many places EVER actually think of asking what the customers/whatever-you-want-to-call-thems would like before they introduce policies like this........... >.<

[powerboy]

It doesn't really matter to me, what the desk looks like.

[Polenicus]

The source of this new policy is due to the move. Our old location was... well, like a well-worn armchair. Comfortable, but kinda rung down and dingy.

This new place would be the newest high end leather armchair recliner with vibrating massage and built-in 30 device remote.

In other words, we're in a period now when they're showing off the place to their clients, and swelling with the pride that comes from having something shiny and new and spiffy. I'm guessing they don't want us crudding up the spiffyness with our stuffed animals, Kinder surprise knicknacks, Dilbert clippings or 'inspirational' posters. We're 'big time' now, and 'big time' companies don't have that sort of stuff.

I suspect it won't last long, really. This stuff will creep back in once there aren't clients touring every day, and nobody will enforce the policy, though I suspect it will stay on the books.

[siead_lietrathua]

man your bosses would hate me. pictures of family? the walls would be plastered out of spite with 8x10s of my friends (we consider each other family) at anime conventions. in costumes. with swords. lol

[Tigress]

man your bosses would hate me. pictures of family? the walls would be plastered out of spite with 8x10s of my friends (we consider each other family) at anime conventions. in costumes. with swords. lol

I had that at my last job. I had Inu-Yasha action figures, all kinds of drawings I thought were interesting, Tibetan prayer flags, a bunch of souvenirs from Disneyworld and 4x6s of me posing in all the costumes I had made. The 4x6s were slowly taking over my cubicle.

[Andara Bledin]

Ugh.

Speaking from the customer's point of view, I don't really trust a place that has desks that are completely interchangeable. That gives me the impression that the staff and/or management believe the staff to be like automatons with no loyalty or pride. I prefer some sign that there is a human stationed at the desk and that they have been/will be there for long enough to collect at least a couple of personal touches.

I'd hate a clean desk policy. All my little gashapon (need to add the two Bleach figures I picked up and re-introduce Talbain) and flotsam (a gold button, a beaded flag lapel pin a braided gold-wrapped wire removeable handbag strap, etc) and pithy comics (one of which was given to me by the boss) would have to be removed. That would suck.

Then there are the truly anal clean desk people who want clean desks because they're obsessive compulsive. My mother had to deal with one manager that decided that things like calendars, staplers and tape dispensers belonged inside drawers! The only things that were supposed to be on the desk were the keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and whatever you were working on right that second, with any other work to be done in a sorter to the side. That was it.

^-.-^

[Rapscallion]

Hmm - we have a mixture at work. Some desks are held by a position, so the person in that position sits there on a regular basis. However, others can be found there at any particular time if it's not occupied. Personal touches - photos, nerf guns, rice cakes pasted on the ceiling - can be found there.

Some desks are like the sales desks - could be two different people there during the day, and rarely the same person in that place. Those are kept spotless.

Horses for courses.

Rapscallion