sitz·fleisch/ˈsitsˌflīSH/
Noun:
1. A person's buttocks.
2. Power to endure or to persevere in an activity; staying power.
Years ago when I had the best, and longest-lived, job of my career, I was unhappy with a lot of my agency's politics. There was a no-talent sitting on top of me who I felt was squashing my advancement. Though I produced a lot of work and all of it good, this guy kept on trying to keep me down.
At the time my regular therapist suggested I see a super-therapist--the guy who had trained him. My regular therapist reasoned that he and I had been together for ten years. It was time to let an outsider evaluate us and see how we were progressing.
We set up a one-time-only special two-hour session and I gave him the lay of my land. At the end of the session he suggested I summon "sitzfleisch." I shouldn't do anything I might later regret. I should be patient. I should give the agency a bit of time and see if things would work themselves out.
Unfortunately, I was unable to do what the doctor suggested. I left the agency for places West, walking into a dying agency which has burned through creatives like a Texas wild-fire.
Sitzfleisch, however, is something I've never stopped thinking about, even when quitting places abruptly, I wish that my ability to endure was greater.
Today, a guy I worked with was pushed out of the agency. I started here freelance about two years ago with probably two-dozen other people who had to wrestle to the ground an account that was just won.
Of all those two dozen, only I remain.
Sitzfleisch.
4 comments:
Perhaps it's time to move on geo. Life, like career, is motion. Sitting is stasis which is the opposite of motion and equates to death. If you work for an agency run by a holding company, you're really fish in a barrel waiting to get shot. Your current agency has transformed itself from the cool upstart to a sweatshop. It's your life muchacho, choose wisely. jobs gone at 56. You're in the bonus rounds now. go the f@ck for it.
While a shrink would have a field day at an agency, they really don't get it. It's wrath insular neurotic intense political self loathing churning sometimes brilliant often not topsy turvy environment. You gotta live it to get it.
And live it you have. ( liked the wild fire analogy)
Follow your intuition. If the vibe is going south, be like yr uncle slappy and split.
Joel
I get it. And while I know nothing about you, I hear where you are coming from and know that the older we get the more grit we can have, the more grit we need to have, the less rash we want to be, it's no longer ideal to be throwing down toys - all rock 'n roll, and storming off every time the sh*t hits the fan.
I work with a guy who has this Sitzfleisch you speak of. My husband has it. Me, I am all tantrums and fragile ego....but I get it.
Thanks for the wisdom, ER.
Post a Comment