Have you heard the news lately? On a recent BBC radio broadcast Martin Wolfe, a leading economic commentator in the Financial Times stated that the world is undergoing the worst deep recession in the last seventy-five years. And Wolfe said that there is a long time left before the world will see a sustained economic recovery. Some say the worst is yet to come!
To me it has always been very insecure in our World of Work. I remember in 1970 I graduated with an MBA from a top rated university, full of bright eyed optimism about the future and my ability to create income and security. I was elated when in the college recruitment process I was selected by a very big and prestigious computer company. I was ready to enter the World of Work and give it my all. But after only fifteen days on the job, this company proceeded to lay-off four thousand employees, including my whole department, except me. This was because I was willing to slog and work extraordinarily long hours. It was all a rocky ride after that. This same company carried on the laying off and cut my salary ten percent two times during a six-year stint in that company (by the way this company does not exist anymore). It has been downhill ever since. Every company I joined after that laid -off people. Some of these companies, during my stay in those companies, hired hundreds of people and then laid-off hundreds within very short time intervals. The average hard working stiff in any company anywhere in the world has no job security.
I plan to do a study soon where I will prove that worker security over the forty years I have been working has a negative correlation with the rise in the levels of executive pay. I had an executive point blank tell me, that during the dark days of the Bush Presidency when salary levels and job security of working stiffs have plummeted, he, the executive became a millionaire. Whoppy! This reflects the attitude of the so-called leaders of most companies. Screw you dear average employee! This is currently "The World of Work!"
Clearly the exchange theory of employment is dysfunctional now. It is NOT working! The exchange theory basically said that in the world of work equilibrium exists when there is balance between what a worker brings to the job by way of skill, effort, talent, ability, time sacrificed, knowledge etc. with what they get back from the company by way of wages, benefits, security, promotion, working conditions etc. Now dear reader tell me in which direction the scale is tipping these days. Clearly most employers are not living up to their side of the balance.
So what should the average person who works do?
I think that the only solution is a concept of career self -reliance. The modern worker has to change their work paradigms and vociferously adopt career self-reliance.
Let me define career self-reliance first: "Career self-reliance was originally defined as “the attitude of being self-employed, whether inside or outside an organization.” (Collard, Epperheimer & Saign, 1996). The Career Action Center, an independent, non-profit career center based in Cupertino, CA which coined the term, later modified their definition to make it more palatable to the consumer: “the ability to actively manage one’s work life and learning in a rapidly changing environment.” (Collard, Epperheimer & Saign, 1996). In either definition the underlying assumption is clear - that the individual must think of him or herself as his/her own corporation." This definition has been taken from an article: Critique of Career Self-Reliance, Diane Byster, MFCC, NCC.
From my point of view here are the dimensions of career self-reliance.
The dimensions of career self-reliance are: entrepreneurship, controlled job effort, a personal career risk/reward analysis, career SWOT analyses, a second income source, networking, life-long learning, job based practical intelligence, leader management, career positioning, a clear career plan, a self-sufficient life-style and finally personal power.
Look out for future posts where I will describe all of these dimensions in detail.
No comments:
Post a Comment