JM: All right, so let’s go with corporations. I like this. Ron and I were just talking about it and he brought up a good point that it’s a lot different when you work from home for a big corporation than if you were to be in the office. And you and I were talking about this the other night, so I thought it would be a funny and good starting point for us.

JP: Yeah.

JM: I mean how long have you been working from home now?

JP: Let’s see. A year and half, actually.

JM: That’s a pretty long time. So, you’re in the routine now. What was the difference like, in terms of the level of office politics, when you went from working in the office every day to working at home? How did the dynamic change?

JP: I would see the managers and the big wigs as sort of necessary but sort of irrelevant all at the same time. Then when I got home, I realized that they’re not even necessary.

JM: Why do you say that, though? That they’re not necessary? Because some management out there is necessary.

JP: I think, yes and no. Management is necessary with people that [Cut this part out] can’t rally and pull it together. In food service, you kind of need them, I think of it more like a coach.

JM: So, there’s some motivation involved in it then?

JP: Yes, exactly. But our managers just catch our mistakes; that’s what they do. And that does nothing but make us go, “Well, then I don’t care about anything” and then we make more mistakes and then eventually they quit.

JM: Well, here’s the problem with that dynamic as I see it. As we get more and more technologically evolved and people are becoming sharper with their analytical skills in what they’re doing—because there’s fewer of them there and the best ones are the ones that are staying, right?

JP: Right.

JM: Look at the auto industry, at how much they just got downsized in the last month. Okay, that’s because automation has allowed the company to be able to do that same amount of work for what the market will bear for less money. It’s the people who create value in themselves by being able to analyze their job a little bit closer, who can get these automatic reports every day of what they’re doing, and they know where they’re [delete expletive] screwing up, you know what I mean? They know exactly what they’re doing and can manage themselves. So, is that pretty much where you’re at?

JP: What I’m saying is, first off; my manager doesn’t even know what I do. So, c’mon…

JM: When you say that, do you mean that they can’t do the job that you do or that they’re aren’t aware of what you’re doing?

JP: Well no, I don’t mean they’re not aware of what I’m doing; I mean, they have no idea of the operation. They don’t know what goes into it, what you have to do.

JM: Well, that’s a big problem.

JP: That’s what I’m saying. We’re self-managed and we’ve proven that or we wouldn’t be at home in the first place.

JM: And you’re producing more than the average office worker?

JP: Exactly. There’s like this formality that’s in place and I look at formality like it’s a cancer because all it does is it eats and erodes away the passion, basically. Because I know, no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, there’s going to be someone that has a job specifically to tell me what’s wrong. And I understand, criticism’s one thing but it’s not constructive because, first off, they don’t even know what I’m doing. So the criticism is criticism for criticism’s sake and to me that’s different than criticism for the product’s sake.