Are people getting fed up with the modern "career" world? Whatever happened to just having a "job"? (degrees, average)
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Let me preface this by saying that I like my job. I just want to comment on what I've been observing as a "young professional."
We hear a lot about how society gives women "unfair standards of beauty" by barraging them with pictures of super-thin models. I would submit that the same type of thing is happening in the career world. That is, Americans are being given unrealistic ideas about the role of their vocation in their life and self-esteem.
The following are a few of the phenomenons I've witnessed.
Employees are supposed to feel proud of who they work for. The problem with this is that every career field is a pyramid structure where those who are competitive enough to be in the top 5% get to work at top-tier companies that they feel proud of and the other 95% has to work for low pay at boring companies. It's a recipe for dissatisfaction.
I am very proud of the company I work for.
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Talk of "Average is over" or "No tolerance for C performers." In other words, there is no longer room for Dilbert-type people in the corporate world. The pudgy guy who works in a cubicle and does an average amount of work can no longer survive.
Think about it this way. Would you feel confident driving on a bridge designed or/and built by C performers?
Sure, there are C performers on my team. Every time I start a new project, I immediately try to identify the A, B, C, and F performers on my team. I would never entrust an important task to C and F performers.
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You're supposed to "enjoy what you do for a living" or "live to work". There is no point in debunking this idea since it's complete nonsense. My ideal job would be a professional tennis player, but if I actually decided to pursue that career then I would make $0/year since no one would sponsor me and I couldn't any tournament prize money.
I enjoy my job greatly. It just happens that what I do requires me to intertwine my professional with personal life. When you are a project manager, you are 100% responsible for what happens on your project site. Last year, there was a big accident on my job site at 2-3AM. The first person the authority called was me.
I'm actually ok with that.
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Needing to "keep your skills up-to-date." I imagine that if you were a union worker in an auto plant in the 1950s or a blacksmith in the year 500 A.D., you didn't have to spend your free time outside of work learning more skills to stay competitive enough to be employed. What's worse is that today "staying competitive" often means paying for overpriced degrees or certifications.
Keep up with the times and technologies or look for another career path. Aren't you glad you're typing posts on an online forum rather than writing on stone tablets with hammer and chisel?
As a person who works in a somewhat ever-changing field with a spouse in a professional career (and we had to basically claw our way out of orphandom/the trailer park), I don't think you can ever give up learning. She and I both spend hours reading up on our fields weekly. You can never give up and "coast." It's no secret that all the companies I've worked for the past 25+ years would immediately replace us all with software or robots as soon as possible if they could. The last corporate gig I had, I stayed there for almost 10 years, constantly polishing my skills and learning new ones for the next job. By the time I left, the position I hired in at, requiring a fair amount of skill and a degree, was completely replaced by software. Companies, especially publicly traded companies are sharks that need to keep showing a profit every three months (legitimately or no) or someone will be fired and another will be hired to make this happen. Whenever the quarter is rough, there will be no cost of living raise. People hired on after you will make 30% less an hour. They want you gone, because there will always be some kid right out of college to replace you.
This can make you emotional and sad, or you can work around it. Find a cooperative to work at if this makes you too mad. Build up a skill someone outside of a corporate structure would pay you to do (like remodeling). Pay attention to your health. Build real, meaningful relationships with at least one other person. Hoard your cash, live waaaay below your means, and turn your money it into something that provides a supplemental stream of income (say making arts or crafts, real estate rental or flipping, poker or some other form of gambling if you really have no other skills). Hope that it works out for you. It's the only way I've been able to keep my sanity. If the rent is too high, start planning your escape now. Don't want to lose prestige? Get over it. Some of the richest people I ever met totally lived in modest homes and most days looked like truck drivers.
I been coasting in a Government IT Hourly entry level job for years
I never care about advancement or anything as long as got my paycheck
In some places it depends you could get away with a mediocre average work attitude like me.
To be honest I like it that way
One of the reasons I like being a help desk/ desktop person is because its one of those few IT jobs you can leave the work at the office and not take work home with you.
OP, I think the posing of your question 'Whatever happened to just having a job?" offers some interesting insight.
I understand what you are saying and I think it has value as an insight into the 'modern career world.'
One reason I would think is that there are not enough jobs for everyone and not enough jobs that pay well or at a livable wage - so there is more competition for the fewer jobs - and employers can expect more and demand more from employees.
I never have dealt with anything the OP mentions.
It depends on the place you work for.
And im pretty sure most people in the real world, and not just city data see their job that way
JUST A JOB
I sure see it that way
And one thing it helps to know the difference between a job and a career.
I've spent a large slice of my career as part of the founding teams in metro-Boston tech startups. I've always worked hard and had pride in my accomplishments and the team's accomplishments. Engineers have to stay current and engineers in tech startups tend to be on the bleeding edge of their technology. Engineers always do what they commit to. You meet your schedule. You make sure the quality is there. You make sure everybody else is meeting their schedules and that the quality is there. There are months when it's 9 to 5 but there are also months when you're working long hours to make the project and the company successful. In return, you get pretty good pay and you get an ownership slice. It's a career, not a job.
The people at my companies who have a "job" are given little responsibility and aren't paid anything like the people who behave like it is their career. If you want to punch the clock and go through the motions, by all means do so but don't resent the people who do more and are successful because of it.
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The people at my companies who have a "job" are given little responsibility and aren't paid anything like the people who behave like it is their career. If you want to punch the clock and go through the motions, by all means do so but don't resent the people who do more and are successful because of it.
This. The clock punchers are the first to complain at my work when they don't get a big bonus. Me? I'm not here to punch a clock; I'm here to put humans in space and advance human knowledge. C's and those who are happy being mediocre should just go home to daydream about what they'll never do.
I'm 59 yrs old . I have no desire to move up in the company and take on any more headaches than I have now . Let the young bucks have it . Stop pestering me about " career development " , or the favorite buzzword , " goals " . My goal is to retire as soon as I am able . 40 years in the same industry is enough . It ain't fun anymore ...
I used to manage some sports bars and restaurants. Those were just jobs, I was never really proud to work there and I feel bad for those who that's all they'll ever do. Now I don't look down on people who work a non-skilled position in service and retail industries (at the store level) although admittedly I personally know "lifelong losers" who do just that and I do think less of them but know that's what they deserve.
It's my opinion that everyone should find their career, and never settle for "just a job". You don't get satisfaction from a job, a job is there to pay the bills and keep the wheels turning. Now what I consider a job might be someone's career, and that's totally fine, it depends on the person. But if you consider what you do as just a job, you're selling yourself short. Find something you love and you'll never work a day again. I've found that and I wouldn't trade what I do for anything. Well, almost anything.
Dude, you seem to be having an existential crisis. How about this. YOU decide what YOU want from YOUR life and YOU decide to live however YOU want. Stop looking for external validation from other people or from "society."
Whatever you decide, learn to be okay with your decision regardless if other people like it or agree.
I been coasting in a Government IT Hourly entry level job for years
I never care about advancement or anything as long as got my paycheck
In some places it depends you could get away with a mediocre average work attitude like me.
To be honest I like it that way
One of the reasons I like being a help desk/ desktop person is because its one of those few IT jobs you can leave the work at the office and not take work home with you.
That's one of the aspects of working in a unionized government role. In the private sector, wanting to punch out and leave after your shift is up is being seen as "not being a team player". It's like they want you to spend every waking hour working, especially if you're salaried exempt and do not have to be paid overtime.
Where I work it's seen as a negative thing if you want to remain in an hourly role. They want you to be salaried exempt and work 20+ hours of unpaid overtime a week.
I think the mega corps have gotten too hooked on their foreign slave laborers who drop dead at their assembly posts. They want to bring that here.
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