Are You Working For A Cult?

No holding back! I'm breaking free of assumption and asking; Is your current place of employment a "Cult"? With national and state numbers still scraping the paint off the base of a passing black cloud; feeling the economic pinch is loosening up the system quicker than a thick granola bar! Since 2008, millions have been numbed by unemployment benefit disconnections. Once high standards have evolved into "I'll do anything" to make a penny projects. Which makes you perfect for hire. Conversations about workplace expectations has invited me into areas of deeply driven questions. How far is "legal"? Department heads, Company Presidents and Decision Makers are programmed to keep their engines locked in cutback mode. Who better to invest in than a financially strapped survivor who promises to dedicate more than the nationally accepted 40 hours a week without overtime? Or even worse, the part time face and hands guaranteed 29 hours of pay but works 39 without getting insurance coverage. The unknowingly untrained job seeker reaches toward opportunity. Hell yes! It's what you've been looking for! There's no better feeling than getting doped up on starting over, being fresh and most importantly feeling accepted. The cost? To a company...it's only time. A week, maybe a month to reprogram what people think. To get them focused on the importance of delivering the company message and how it operates. Never realizing a barely decorated non-compete clause located in the center of that stack of customary paperwork has the power to keep you from furthering your dreams once set free. You see it every day! Well programmed managers brushing a savory sauce onto the ambitions of the newly hired. They're trained to give them just enough attention to ignite the night. Is there a better set of ribs better than those you carry? You feel incredible about a team of people that believe in you! The moment you fly out the door blazing brightly under a halo of new attitude the goal of winning, achieving and succeeding hikes up the skirt of whose next in line. Is a new wave of hiring taking place? You've spent a year maybe more casting out resumes and cover letters like a fly fishing guru in Yellowstone National Park. Having experience isn't worth a dime. Having no experience makes you mine. From rickross.com I share: Ten warning signs of a potentially unsafe group/leader. 1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability. 2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry. 3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement. 4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions. 5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil. 6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances. 7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader. 8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough". 9. The group/leader is always right. 10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible. Ten warning signs regarding people involved in/with a potentially unsafe group/leader. 1. Extreme obsessiveness regarding the group/leader resulting in the exclusion of almost every practical consideration. 2. Individual identity, the group, the leader and/or God as distinct and separate categories of existence become increasingly blurred. Instead, in the follower's mind these identities become substantially and increasingly fused--as that person's involvement with the group/leader continues and deepens. 3. Whenever the group/leader is criticized or questioned it is characterized as "persecution". 4. Uncharacteristically stilted and seemingly programmed conversation and mannerisms, cloning of the group/leader in personal behavior. 5. Dependency upon the group/leader for problem solving, solutions, and definitions without meaningful reflective thought. A seeming inability to think independently or analyze situations without group/leader involvement. 6. Hyperactivity centered on the group/leader agenda, which seems to supersede any personal goals or individual interests. 7. A dramatic loss of spontaneity and sense of humor. 8. Increasing isolation from family and old friends unless they demonstrate an interest in the group/leader. 9. Anything the group/leader does can be justified no matter how harsh or harmful. 10. Former followers are at best-considered negative or worse evil and under bad influences. They cannot be trusted and personal contact is avoided. Maybe you're a cult leader and don't know it. You've been programmed to do one thing... Your job or face unemployment. You made a choice. arroe@arroe.net