A love letter to those who don’t feel OK at work

I try to use LinkedIn to post about work-related issues. Almost all of my posts are about business and tech topics like strategy, antifragility, unthinking, disinformation. But I have also written a few deeply personal posts, for example about being a significantly overweight person at work. My intention with all my posts is to say something useful. I feel compelled to write one more deeply personal post, about not being OK at work. I tossed and turned about whether it is weird or creepy or self-indulgent etc. Apologies if you find it so. It is intended to be useful. As I approach the last few years of my career, I have lots of things I am proud of and enjoyed. A lot of meaningful interactions with others. A lot of things I still hope to do. But also, I have this overwhelming sadness. Across more than 40 years of work, I never really felt like I found my place. My crew. People who had my back and I had theirs. It has just never been like that for me. I have had some work friendships over the years and some great collaborations with colleagues, clients and others, but almost all have been ephemeral. I accept the lion’s share of the blame for this situation. The reason I am writing this is that, in case you feel like that too, I want you to know that despite all of that I am still standing. And I never got out the other side of my issues. I still feel the same way. And it seems fairly likely that things will stay like that through the last few years of my career. In “Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” Stephen King wrote that readers can always see stuff about the author when reading their work, but that when the light is just so, the author can also sometimes get a glimpse of the reader. In this spirit, I would like to reach out to fellow corporate misfits and say: “I see you. I empathize with you deeply. It’s always good to try to improve things. But it’s also OK sometimes to accept that you don’t and maybe even won't ever feel OK at work. Keep on truckin'”