It’s summer associate season here at my firm.  In this miserable job climate summer associateships are not the paid 12 week booze fests they used to be.  The kids come in knowing they have less than a 50% chance at landing permanent gainful employment…on the first day.  Some even hold on to that precious realism for a full week.  By Week 2 though most are drinking the firm Kool-Aid and are convinced that they will get a job despite the odds.

I used to think “drinking the firm Kool-Aid” was just an expression for swallowing the lies an organization spoon feeds you to engender loyalty until you are tossed out in the street like a self-employed prostitute.  Who says a working girl doesn’t need a pimp?  But then I realized that there seems to be an actual correlation between eating at the firm and swallowing the lies they feed you.

There is a reason “comfort food” is an expression in the English language.  Certain foods engender certain feelings, in the aforementioned case feelings of being at home so to speak.  Firms feed you a different kind of food, let’s call it “complacency food.”  Let’s face it, intellectually we all know we’re screwed.  Firms and large corporations don’t care.  They are about squeezing the money out of you today.  When the sponge gets a little dry, they wet it.

Classic example:  At a law firm you can order food after a certain time at night.  Why? Because it’s around 8 pm where resentment builds up, and you start asking yourself questions like “is this really how I want to spend my life?” or more importantly “I’m killing myself and what’s to stop them from putting all my stuff in the box the moment I punch out of here?” But then 8 pm rolls around, you order a steak, shrimp and a baked potato and yeah the steak is tough and the shrimp is soggy and they forgot either the steak sauce or the cocktail sauce but hey it’s free and you start to think eh, life’s not so bad…and that’s when the Firm wins.

Conversely, whereas eating lukewarm, overpriced food promotes complacency, sustained physical activity fosters a sense of confidence and rebelliousness.  People who have other things going for them, like an attractive fit physique, tend to define themselves as more than just their job, and hence are less afraid to lose it…and more likely to make a positive change for themselves, and that’s bad news for  service oriented firms whose top commodity is control of their people.