Climbing the corportate ladder, the law of diminishing returns
For most of us that first job out of college meant grasping the first rung of the corporate ladder. Years and rungs latter, we’re making more money, have more responsibility, but have less time for the things that matter than ever before. We’ve learned or are still learning that climbing the corporate ladder is a lesson in the law of diminishing returns.
I consider myself mid-career and have many colleagues who are managers, directors and VP’s. For me the sacrifices they make personally aren’t worth the titles and money. I’ve got nothing against money, it comes in rather handy at times, but at this point, 10-20% more a year isn’t worth the additional hours and time away from home. If you’ve read any of the books written by former CEO’s then you know it just gets worse.
The higher we go, the more personal sacrifices we make in the name of career. I give Gen Y a lot of credit for realizing very early that this wasn’t something they were interested in. For the rest of us the question becomes, how high is high enough?
So how about you, how much is your soul worth? I have a hunch that more and more of us are looking for things other than money to enrich our lives. If that’s you, then good on ya!
Until next time…
[tags] work/life balance, corporate ladder
Beware the 007 in your company
Most of us know that when we are at work, any activity we do, whether on a company computer or just on company time is subject to surveillance by our employer. So when I heard about Boeing spying on their employees I figured it was a case of employees surfing inappropriate websites or something to that effect.
But when I read that ‘a Boeing investigator told a Puget Sound-area employee that he was followed off company property to a lunch spot, that investigators had footage of him “coming and going” and that investigators had accessed his personal Gmail account’, to me that seemed a bit too Orwellian.
Gay in the workplace? Better stay in the closet…for now
You know how every once in a while you read news that makes you wonder what year it is? Well, that happened to me this morning. I’m going through my reader and I stumbled across a piece in Career Journal titled, ‘House Approves Measure to Bar Bias Against Gays in the Workplace’. What? Is this 2007 or 1907? Seriously, I had no idea this was still an issue, shame on me.
The article basically spells out that currently while nineteen states have already enacted laws to bar such discrimination in the workplace, but it is currently legal in 30 states to fire a worker based on sexual orientation. Are you F*cking kidding me?! But wait it gets better, after passing the house, the White House is threatening to veto the bill, saying the bill is constitutionally inconsistent with the free exercise of religion and uses language that is “imprecise” and makes enforcement “extremely difficult.”. Leave it to ‘Dubya’ to NOT fix anything!
I’m not a big ‘Call your congressman or senator’ guy, but this is just ridiculous! So if this outrages you, and it should, call, email, or write your senator and insist they pass this in the Senate and shove it up ‘Dubya’s a$$!
Until next time…
