Our resident corporate Agony Uncle, CEO Ken Cheng, tackles business challenges – so you don’t have to.
Dear Ken Cheng,
One of my employees, an accountant, shared around a meme of a seapig rolling around the bottom of the ocean with the caption “I wish this were me right now instead of working.” Is it wrong that I’ve taken this personally?
– Rich, Branch Manager, Reading
Ken Cheng:
No. Fire this employee right now.
There is nothing more dangerous than anti-work memes. They are flippant and low value and most of all, they often do not capture how rewarding work can be.
Yes, inputting data into a spreadsheet or writing reports is not the most thrilling task, but that does not mean you’d rather be a seapig.
While seapigs don’t have any known predators and live a comfortable life at the bottom of the ocean, they are very prone to parasites.
Sure, it might be very fun to roll around the ocean floor, but it would get very boring very fast. There are only so many ways you can roll: forwards, sideways, backwards, and maybe diagonally (I’ve tried all in my living room.)
However, after you’ve tried the different rolls, what then?
Do you know what seapigs don’t have? The internet. They don’t have Netflix, video games, art, infrastructure, photography. There’s frankly a lot they don’t have.
I do not pretend Excel is riveting, but doing 10 hours of Excel a day so you can have maybe 1-2 hours of Netflix once you get home after a long commute and finish making dinner and doing laundry: that is worth it. That is far better than the life of a sea pig.
Sea pigs suck.
To have your business issues addressed or to book Ken Cheng for your event: [email protected]
