I have a confession to make. I’ve been feelin’ an ever-so-slight propaganda vibe in these work gratitude posts. Don’t get me wrong — every last spankin’ one of my items has been true. But my college journalism training has been nudging uncomfortably at the back of my head, whispering things like, “You know you’re not telling the whole story” and “Yeah, that’s great, but….there’s a but, you know.”

While I can’t remember the exact reason we were asked to participate in this exercise — it has something to do with a task given to directors, managers, and supervisors in a leadership development retreat — I do get the WHY of it. People who focus on positive things are happier. Period. The emotions and feelings you get out of life are the emotions and feelings you put into it. Your attitude about your life is ALL about focus. Every person on the planet has good times, frustrating times, buoyant times, and heartbreaking times. Will you keep your eye on the great things while looking for the lessons learned from the not-so-great things? Or will you keep an eye on the negative situations and events while viewing the great times as flukes?

What you feed, grows.

Of specific importance to our bosses and their bosses is that employees who focus on positive things are happier, more productive, and more compliant. Everyone buzzes along, content and grateful and laughy and agreeable.

I agree.

See? I’m being agreeable.

But….

I know you know it’s coming….

The “but.”

It’s just that an overtly Pollyanna-ish outlook feels at times……well, dishonest. Not to mention neglectful, in a poke-your-head-in-the-sand sort of way. I like to spike my optimism with a dash of reality and proactive determination.

For example, at work it is true that “tough questions” are solicited and admirable efforts are made to solve problems….and I appreciate this. But have problems been defined correctly? Have root issues been addressed, or is it that symptoms have been elevated to issue status? In my opinion, nails have been hit on their proverbial heads at times….. but, at other times….well. Not.

Am I grateful that our offices are downtown and I have a sunshiny window beside my desk? Absolutely. But the cubicle environment can often be disruptive and claustrophobic and decidedly unproductive. Am I grateful that GHS has adopted an informal “work/life balance” stance? Yup. 100 percent. But it’s being spun as innovative when it stopped being innovative years ago.

I’m not complaining. As corporate jobs go, mine is tippitytop first-rate. I recognize that we are all human, for heaven’s sake — even middle management all the way through the upperupper echelon. It ROCKS that hearts really do seem to be in the right place. Perhaps I am too sensitive to “spin” considering the industry I’m in, but I worry that forced optimism will prevent us from addressing REAL problems in order to make a REAL, positive difference.

That’s all.

Let’s see……I’ve got two more grateful items to go before I complete my required list of 15 (phooey, by the way, to you guys who did not correct my math in the very first warm-fuzzies post). And here they are — no ifs, ands, or buts.

Well, mostly no buts.

Sigh….OK, there are buts. And ands.

But some of my buts have buts, and ands aren’t really that bad.

No ifs, though!

I’m grateful for the team members who share my desire to create high quality work. With such an overbearing emphasis nowadays on price and speed, attention to excellence seems to be dying a slow, tragic, choking death. Today’s tolerance for mediocrity, sloppiness, and inconsistency in design and messaging makes me a little sad. Ohhhh, wait…. that sentence seems to be a segue into a but, doesn’t it? Well, never mind the but. The point is that I LOVE working with other creatives — Steven, Gary, Nancy, and Jeanine — who have the same ethic, understand my internal struggles, and help to hash out possible solutions.

I’m grateful for our massage chairs! This one almost doesn’t count, because it’s not like Greenville Hospital System would’ve been so frivolous as to buy these things for us. Purchased by the previous tenants in our office space, they were worked in as part of the leasing deal. They ARE just down the hall, however, and I am unapologetically grateful for them. At my Mac for hours and hours each day, I visit the one in the back hallway a few times a week so that those firm little relentless “thumbs” can work a little magic on my tightnesses. Some people are creeped out by them, because “who knows WHAT has been DONE on those chairs,” but I don’t care — embracing the cooties around me will just make me stronger, right? Other people think the action presses too hard, but I’ve experimented with positions and leverage in an effort to increase the pressure to a masochistic level. For example, if you roll slightly to one side, lean toward your shoulder a little, and tell the chair to do tiny circles in that highest upperback spot, it’ll dig into your neck muscles quite pleasurably.

As great as that feels, though, it doesn’t hold a candle to the moan-inducing glute maneuver I invented last year.

I am grateful for my new underwear which is keepin’ my keester happy while sitting in front of my Mac. But just in case that’s deemed NOT to be work related, I decided to steal another co-worker’s gratitude. And it’s not really stealing. I’m wholeheartedly agreeing!

I am grateful for the sunshiny picture window right beside my desk. Life’s so much better when the sun’s shining on you, don’t ya think? It makes desk clutter seem downright cheerful, and it makes honeycrisp apples such a pretty, bright, go-get-em RED! Gray, dreary, depressing officedrab just doesn’t happen in our world.

A year ago today, I was trying to comfort my mom, nephew, and brother-in-law while myself wrestling through some powerful emotions. My sister had died suddenly two days before, and, during the stereotypical calm before the storm, we were bracing ourselves for the visitation that evening and the funeral the next day. Dianna had spent several days at Self Regional Hospital in Greenwood following a scary midnight heart episode at home. While her condition was serious, we never dreamed it was really, truly life threatening — she was too stubborn to die, for heaven’s sake! If you knew her, you know exactly what I mean. :)

What does this have to do with work-related gratitude?

I’m grateful that, during times of crisis in each others’ lives, we pull together like family. I don’t have the words to describe my appreciation for the concern, love, and patience which poured from these people during my sister’s hospitalization and my family’s subsequent struggles. Many of us in the department have gone through very difficult times, and everyone always gathers ’round like protective moms, dads, brothers, and sisters. It reinforces my faith in human kindness.

May I say “ditto”?

I’m grateful we can freelance overflow work. It’s the only way I’m able to keep my head above water….and, even so, once in awhile I’ll stay under a tad too long and come up gasping.

I’m grateful for free coffee. Yeah, I know every decent employer in the whole entire nation serves this one up as a perk. But have you seen how much coffee I can drink??

Oops, please don’t tell anyone at the office that I wasn’t publicly grateful yesterday. I didn’t forget….my head was deep into projects all day. Then I had to race to that deliciously brutal bootcamp class where I was introduced to a new form of torture called “loading docks.” Gratefully, I’m a tad bit masochistic.

Heyyyy….I just said ‘gratefully.’ And this is a post about being grateful at work.

Hmmmmm.

Do these somehow relate?

Reaching….

Thinking….

Pondering….

Nope, can’t do it. This particular train of thought is catalyzing too much philosophy for me to handle before noon. Have I mentioned that I’m not a morning person? AT. ALL.

Heyyyy….let’s use my non-morning-personedness as a segue. It may not be an effective segue, but — geesh, weren’t you paying attention a second ago? — it is before noon.

I’m grateful that GHS has given a nod to employees’ pursuit of a favorable “work/life balance.” It’s actually been decreed recently in some sort of official document. Or email. Or something. That’s a big deal for a traditional corporate entity. Managers have been given some freedom in how to interpret this notion within each department…..and in my world, the best, happiest, most ubercool manifestation is through a flexible work schedule.

[Note to self: insert whisperingly-derogatory-yet-howlingly-witty remark about morning people and militant clock watchers. Later. Much later. After brain kicks in.]