Prison and Office Life

11-28-04

Office Life is Similar to Being in a Prison Movie: A Primer for the New Graduate
By The Liberal Arts Dude

In many ways, working in an office is comparable to being in a prison movie. Mind you, I say “prison movie” rather than actually being in prison since I’ve never been to prison and don’t know what that is really like. But the insights you can get from watching prison movies can serve you well in surviving and thriving in an office environment.

Fresh Fish
When you are a new employee—especially if you’re a recent graduate—no matter how smart you were in school or how good your grades were all you are is “fresh fish,” or the new inmate on the cell block. You have no status and you have no power. You still have to prove yourself and your worth to the organization. People from the very outset will be measuring and testing you to see if you will last. At this stage you will most likely encounter people other than your supervisor who will act very friendly towards you. The best thing to do in this case would be to be nice and polite, but don’t trust them. They may be approaching you because they have their own agenda in mind. In prison it would be to “punk” you or to make you their sexual slave. In office life you might get caught up in this person’s office politics, interpersonal backbiting, or they may be looking for allies for their petty agendas. Get caught up in their game and it can be very difficult and stressful to get out. The first rule as Fresh Fish is to be very wary of those other than your supervisor who seem overly friendly and eager to be your friend.

The Supervisor and Others in Power
In office life your supervisor holds the power of life and death over you (at least as it concerns your career). The most important aspect of working in an office is getting along with your boss and others in power and managing your relationship with them. Because the happier they are the happier and more comfortable you will be. In prison, the ones who get the beat down and who get thrown to the wolves are the problem inmates—the ones who cause problems and troubles for those in power (note that the definition of people in power isn’t necessarily just the warden or prison guards, Some of your fellow inmates can hold a lot of power as well. Be careful). Negotiate well the power relationships in the office and your life will be much easier.

Much like in prison movies, people with power in office life don’t necessarily always correspond with the organizational chart. In prison as well as in the office, there are those with official power and unofficial power. Someone in a position of authority can, in reality, turn out to be very weak. For example, a prison guard who doesn’t get along well with their boss and who is seen as overly friendly to the inmates. Conversely, someone in a lowly official capacity can turn out to have a lot of power and influence. For example, the executive assistant to the president of the company who controls their calendar and schedule of meetings and who holds their trust. In prison, gang leaders, drug dealers, or people with specialized skills and abilities needed in the operation of the prison can be inmates who wield a lot of unofficial power and influence. Think of Tim Robbins’ role in The Shawshank Redemption as the in-house accountant for the prison officials. Cross any of these people and you will suffer consequences. Either officially as in the results of your performance review, or unofficially, in how much or how little access you will have to the boss or how cooperative the various departments will be with you in getting your projects done.

Your Fellow Inmates
Much like in prison movies, an unspoken rule of any job is to gain the respect of your co-workers. Doing this successfully varies from place to place and according to your official role in the organization. In prison movies you might have to prove your toughness in getting into and winning fistfights. In offices, it might be working hard beyond office hours and putting your work above your personal life. It might be to do your job well and get along with everyone. In extreme cases, it might be to cultivate relationships and alliances with an “in-crowd.” An example of the latter in prison happened in American History X when Edward Norton’s skinhead main character had to join a prison gang of other skinheads to survive in a black-dominated prison. No matter what, finding out what works for your office is your job as much as the actual duties in your job description. Gain the respect of your co-workers and your life will be much easier and more comfortable. If you don’t, you can get pegged as someone who has trouble “fitting in” to the culture of the office and find yourself with a negative mark in your first performance review. In prison, if you annoy your fellow inmates enough, they can decide to welcome you to the fold with a “blanket party.” A blanket party is when you are asleep, the other inmates wrap you up in a blanket and proceed to beat the shit out of you. A blanket party in office life can be social ostracism, rudeness, or deliberate sabotage of your work.

Your Job Description
If you’ve read this far, you will have noticed that I suggest throughout this essay that doing your job well doesn’t just involve “doing your job”—that is, accomplishing the tasks in your job description. You have to gain the respect of your peers. You have to cultivate a good relationship with your boss and those in official and unofficial power. You have to be wary of those who may want to involve you in their petty agendas. All of these lie in the realm of human relationships that fall outside your job description. As a Fresh Fish, like it or not, you will be judged according to these criteria and these, in turn, will affect the perception of you by the bosses and your fellow employees. Like it or not, how you handle these relationships will determine how happy or how miserable you are—which in turn will be reflected in your performance on the job and hence, your performance review. In prison, inmates eventually get out except for those who are there for life. In the working world, unless you are independently wealthy, just like everybody else, you will be there for a major part of your life. So you have to do what you can to be happy, comfortable, and of course, to survive.

Copyright 2004