Complete and utter horseshit.
It’s just an attempt to get you to think about why you’re at work.
Yeah, I know why you show up to work. You gots to get paid. But why is somebody paying you to show up to work? Because they have some job that can’t be done by a machine.
How did you get this job? The company isn’t going to keep paying you to do this job for one second longer than they have to. When you leave this job, how are you getting your next one?
The point is, you aren’t engaging in personal sharing and hugs when you go to work, you are engaging in a commercial transaction. You do the work, they pay you. They don’t give a shit about you, any more than you give a shit about the guy at Starbucks who makes your coffee in the morning. He makes the coffee because you pay him to make the coffee. You do the work because they pay you to do the work.
So you are selling a service to an uncaring faceless void with a short memory. You want to get the most money for the least amount of hassle, right? How do you convince your customer that the service you provide is worth the money they pay you? Or maybe that it’s worth more money? Or the same money but less hassle? How do you get some leverage over your own career? Even if your strategy is to do good work and not complain, that’s a strategy. If tomorrow the company had to fire somebody, would they fire you or the guy sitting next to you? Is there anything you can do to influence that choice?
This news will come as a great surprise and disappointment to anyone who’s ever written a political speech, press release, closing argument, editorial or advertisement.
Whoop dee freaking doo. Do you know why I do nice things for people? Because it makes me feel good. Why does it make me feel good? Because beginning with my infancy, my parents and other authority figures associated being nice, being polite, being charitable with praise, with favor, and with positive emotions. I do nice things without thought of a reward because in actuality, I am rewarded by the way others view me and through the chemicals my brain has learned to associate with those actions. Someone being charitable to curry favor with a boss is simply using a different coin and their charity is just as valuable as that of someone who is more ‘altruistic’.
It strikes as a bit of a silly metaphor, but to me, “brand” and “commodity” are opposites, not synonyms.
That’s a nice sentiment, but the guy who determines your raise may have 100 reports, and he is not going to know all of them up close and personal. Would you rather stand out as an individual or be a generic spear carrier, one of 50 people doing mostly the same thing?
Marketing may be lying - but it may also be a sincere attempt to get information about something you think is good through the clutter. Marketing crap doesn’t work very well in the long run, but there is nothing wrong with marketing the good stuff you do.
This here- “you are your reputation, which is offensive.” is what personal branding is all about and why I hate that whole way of thinking.
Corporations can worry about their reputation and sell themselves.
I hate all this - ‘you have to sell yourself’. I find it offensive.
People always counter with if I do not sell myself how will I get that new job or promotion.
Everyone else can sell themselves. I will keep my dignity.
That’s my take on it.
To the OP: your manager was basically telling you that you have a reputation, and if you want to succeed at work, you need to maintain it.
Alternately, your manager is just a jerk and has no idea what he or she is saying. Always a possibility. But also a possibility that the manager has an important observation, even if he or she didn’t put it in terms that hit home for you. The bottom line is, it’s up to you whether you want to just get by or do your best to promote yourself, or somewhere in between.
I assume you buy things–food, clothing, and shelter, if nothing else. How do you buy if you have nothing to sell?
My manager is a bitch who think she is clever- she obviously just read an article about personal branding.
If people want to talk about my reputation- that is fine. I know all about my reputation. A good manager should judge on how you do your job. Not on reputation.
Did you know that the vast majority of people can buy a loaf of bread at the shops without having to even know of the concept of personal branding?
That doesn’t answer my question.
You said, “Everyone else can sell themselves. I will keep my dignity.” Again, how do you buy if you have nothing to sell?
If you can sell without a personal brand, that’s fine. I’ve done it myself for 37 years. But there’s nothing undignified about selling. On the contrary, selling our labor is one of the most meaningful and valuable things that we do as social human beings.
She is wrong. There is only One Brand…
“I’d like a marker for £10,000.00 in chips for the Baccarat table.”
“Your name, Monsieur?”
"My name is Brand. Russell Brand… "
What I meant was that if you don’t define yourself, people will be happy to come up with their own definition of you, which will probably be wrong. And this is an essential reality in a world where most jobs and opportunities come from strangers, not from your brother’s uncle’s cousin whom you’ve known since high school. It is painfully naive to think people will get what you’re about just from being in the general vicinity of your brilliance for a few moments.
Here’s the real issue, that you don’t get along with your manager. Since you don’t, you’re gong to think anything she says to you is stupid. If you were working for someone whom you liked, this terminology might not bother you nearly as much.