Many
companies have capitalized on this sort of
sentiment, and have made huge
advances in the
atmosphere of the rapidly changing
corporate environment, to better how people feel in the
workplace and how
productively they work.
One such company,
Microsoft, comes to mind who made many changes to the
corporate culture to be more like a
college campus. College campuses are open,
invigorating to be on, open, and have a feeling of
community and even family in a way. Everyone on a college campus gets excited when their team wins a huge
football tournament, people get jazzed up when a new
speaker comes to town, or a large party is thrown out on the
quad. These elements separate
college from work not by the pressures of
academia, in which there are similar pressures at work (
audits,
reviews,
crunch time, etc), but rather by how the
personal relationships are
structured, and how the people view themselves in relation to one another, and as a part of the whole.
Microsoft put together their
company exteriors like a college campus. There are individual
buildings, with
courtyards and green open spaces ( none larger than a few floors high, as to make people feel individual). Everyone (even down to interns) get's their own office, or shared office (no cubicles that destroy morale). The
soccer and
baseball fields stand
prominently in the main
square as a place of
relaxation and family involvement in the middle of a hectic
workday. Parties are often thrown in the
summer, and the company is in touch with employee
morale. Pressures of
transportation are relieved as
shuttles take you from place to place, not having to worry about small
details, leaving you to focus at your
task at hand.
College is way better than going to work, because so much of your life is
insulated from you.
Universities allow contrived life
experiences: your food is cooked for you, your housing is
arranged for you, and your
bathroom is cleaned for you. It allows you to
wean yourself off of these
hand-holding experiences one at a time, until you are ready to walk on your own as an
adult. That is one of the beauties of
college.
Work only separates itself from college if the company allows the
atmosphere to change. There are many small companies, and several large ones that separate themselves from the pack of other places of employment because of their approach to making employees feel at home, and allow them to do their best work. Many people feel college is better than work, simply because their work does not treat them as well as they treated themselves in college. Take control of where you work, and live the way you want to, but give your best to your
employer; it's the best long-term
investment you'll ever make.