(This doesn’t speak to specialists like doctors, lawyers,
scientists etc.)
In an era when even high school kids
know that corporations are really running the country, why are Americans still
seeking meaning in the workplace? Not
too long ago, media outlets praised what they called the “modern
employee”. This modern marvel is the
equivalent of a workforce mercenary; able to move between careers as easily as a
401K could be rolled over. What a dramatic
shift from the employee who worked her whole life for one company. But is it realistic to be a career hopping
Rambo? I doubt many Americans want that kind of career. Cubicle hopscotch isn’t the definition of a
career. It’s closer to becoming a programmable
chimp.
Here’s a simplistic example of what
I mean by “programmable chimp”. Let us say
that a company needs someone to file TPS reports (gratuitous Office Space
reference), the new workforce mercenary can do that. How about process or design TPS reports? Got it.
Underwrite, audit, proofread, quality control. Yep, that too and we can’t forget the most
important job, Supervise. You get the picture.
And one reason corporations can bring any Joe Shmoe off the street to do
these jobs is the Operations Manual!
Saints be praised! Normally
compiled before a massive layoff, by the very people about to be laid off, the
Operations Manual is pretty much the how-to and the key to employee
expendability.
Interestingly, the real innovation
has gone almost completely unnoticed by the media (shocking). Corporations are now nearly identical in
their employment needs. America is a
service economy which means we manufacture very little. Our economy has become a veritable waste land
of cubicles or the 21st century equivalent of the factory era. Let’s look at the corporate organizational
structure for a moment. A company of 150
to 200 people serving anywhere between 2 to 3 thousand customers usually
consists of the following departments: Human Resources, Executive Team,
Information Technologies and the Staff.
Increasingly
anything remotely resembling performance recognition perks or opportunities for
mobility is reserved for everyone but the Staff. Bonuses, additional paid time off, holiday
parties, raises that match the rate of inflation, things once considered incentives to motivate Staff have been kicked up the ladder as exclusive to supervisory management.
The Staff (who also exist within IT and
HR) consist of the aforementioned “modern employee” mostly because they have no
choice. The resulting workplace is a demoralized zone
consisting of the hopeless, the fake, and those biding their time. Furthermore,
the thousands of dollars these employees spent on college educations go to
waste because corporations aren’t looking to hear from their mercenaries. I know, I know, at least these people can pay their bills (barely), go on vacation once
a year and pray like a monk not to get sick (we won’t even get into healthcare). The truth is corporations have always looked
at staff as interchangeable expendable parts but these days they don’t have to
hide it.
Here is the rub for Staff: they are
all treated like the so called “modern employee” whether they choose to be
workforce mercenaries or not. Don’t get
me wrong, if you get your kicks going from job to job building a resume that
looks like a thesis, that’s your deal.
Go for it. Where does that leave
the others?
