One thing in my ever-growing list of things that annoy me about corporate America is this concept of “work hard/play hard.” Who came up with this? It is basically the most annoying blend of pompous self-importance and annoying, overage frat-boy that I can imagine.
Interviewer: (very serious tone) As you can see our company is very busy. Its not uncommon to work 70 hours in a week here. We work really hard… (fake smile and lighthearted tone) But we also like to have fun! Our department is crazy! You never know when there's going to be NERF footballs flying around! I mean who has NERF footballs in an office?!? How zany is that!?!? We work hard... but we play even harder! (fake laugh and awkward pat on the shoulder) We go to happy hours on Fridays! Just the other day O’Donnell and the other partners took us out to Applebees after we got off work at 7:30. They picked up the whole tab! One of the guys here, Timmy… Timmy’s a big drinker. Seriously that guy is crazy and you’ve probably never met or spent your whole college career hating anyone like him… Anyway, Timmy was so drunk!!! I have no idea how he drove home. I bet his wife was ticked!! But he sure was late when he got in on Saturday morning…
Kill me.
