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Day’s Verse:
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23-24
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Please help me raise money for the MS Bike Tour Cape Cod Getaway. Donate today on my MS Participant page.
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Tree and SkyCall me dense, but I just cannot understand the first sentence of the following paragraph.

At Charles River, we have an incredible fabric of values. Because our work helps accelerate drug development, we are helping to bring new therapeutics to patients who need them. Our work truly makes a difference that matters, and that is very powerful.

This paragraph was accompanied by a photo of overlapping hands whose skin color ranged from very dark to very light. The more I read it, the less sense the sentence makes. Fabric of values? What does that mean? Do they intend to say we have a diverse company (as implied by the black and white hands in the photo)? Or that we practice moral relativism here? That we have cloth of varying qualities?

The rest of the paragraph requires some attention, too. After all, not only are we making a difference; we’re making a difference that matters. I’m glad that my difference matters. It would be depressing to make a difference, but not have it matter. Additionally, I have to wonder: Why does making a difference make us powerful? What about drug development makes us powerful, and why would we want to be powerful? Are they trying to make us feel good without (a) spending any money; and (b) saying anything substantive? I know it might be taxing — it might even cost money, since time is money — to think of something meaningful and honest to tell employees. And in this economy, cutting costs is everything.

KF quality

4 thoughts on “The Meaning of Meaninglessness

  1. You’re right–this is truly marketing blather. The “making a difference that matters” cracks me up!

  2. Apparently Charles River values are interwoven like a fabric – you grab one thread and the whole thing unravels!

  3. eww the complicated to learn and even more complicated to understand language of ‘corporatese’. You should find the person that wrote that and ask them the questions you posed in this post. Their reaction would probably be very amusing.

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