Oops. Did you just lose another 20 percent of your Workplace Productivity?

I just love our friends at Hallmark cards.

Sometimes they are cheeky, and sometimes they are schmaltzy. But they somehow manage to always have their finger on the pulse of society and popular culture.

Which is why my heart sank when an old client who left State Farm a while back sent me this card after visiting our website and learning more about HiringSmart.

Click here to see card

In it, two characters in a cubicle village (Hoops and Yoyo) have declared the day I Don’t Care Friday. Apparently it’s the new Saturday – a day when deadlines are ignored in favour of rearranging paper clips and slipping out for three hour lunches. Sure, Chew Our Butt Monday is just around the corner, but this is the day to studiously avoid doing anything the boss is counting on us for.

Why did my heart sink as I watched the clip? Frankly, after a decade of self-employment and working only with clients I love, doing work that excites me, I had forgotten just how dismal working life is for so many.

This clip is a testament to the psyche of disengagement and the sickness that permeates life in all too many organizations today. The sad part is that while it’s tongue-in-cheek and designed to elicit a laugh, it’s pretty close to reality in many places I’ve seen.

How on earth did we get into this mess?

There is absolutely no reason why everyone can’t be in a job that interests and engages them, where they click with their manager, their work and their coworkers… and yet this notion is a foreign concept that most dare not even hope for lest they go mad.

And yet, this is the precise reason we do what we do, the thing that drives us: changing at a fundamental level the way organizations bring people together. For everyone’s sake.

So do me a favour. Look to your left, then look to your right. How many of the people around you (including you) are on fire and loving what they are doing, and how many are more like Hoops and Yoyo?

What are you prepared to do about it?