Professional Anonymous Networks Reddit, Fishbowl, and More - Likely, the Posters Didn't Work Part-Time Jobs in High School?

 Some experience those professional anonymous networks such as Reddit and Fishbowl (much like Alcoholics Anonymous) as therapy. 

No wonder. They get to bear witness to so much pain. And that is exactly what could be wrong with those professional platforms as well as with AA (about the latter, read The Atlantic 2015 article detailing AA's supposed gigantic flaws).  

For example on Reddit Jobs the postings tend to be about employees and contract workers being "squeezed" by businesses. 

On Fishbowl Consulting, despite the relatively high compensation, most of those brandname consulting firms are positioned and packaged as ruthlessly exploitative of those talented analysts. 

And on Reddit Big Law the memes are about higher-ups who are dead ringers for evil characters from the novels of Charles Dickens. For the holidays Reddit Big Law should script a version of “The Christmas Carol.” Yes, there can be redemption for partners.

Such darkness. The points of light are assumed to be the feedback provided to the posters of woe. There is something to that. 

For a post on Reddit Jobs about alleged reverse discrimination there has been 372 responses. That represents broad-based input. 

On Fishbowl Big Law there are 12 bits of information and perspective on hiring-bonus claw backs if there is an early exit. 

But overall the ethos is negative. That includes the system of downvotes for comments that the "mob" pushes back against. (I did get three downvotes.) The bullying extends to specific other posters who irritated the majority. 

So, the awful question comes up: Are those networks for losers? They seem unable to size up their workplaces and roll with all that.

They should have developed that skill in their part-time jobs in high school. Or were they, like the future gunners described in "Excellent Sheep" by former Yale instructor William Deresiewicz, one-dimensionally focused on good grades and the right extracurricular activities? 

Unlike us first-generation-college boomers, they missed out on being socialized about the work piece in their early development. They still can't seem to get a hang of it. It's about exchanging labor for income and what goes into that. It's not about writing an "A" term paper. 

So here we are wondering: Are the winners too busy putting together success and chasing some work-life balance on the side to make a habit of being part of that online scene?

What seems blatantly absent on those platforms is the ability or even the willingness to discern the silver lining in adversity. Workers encounter plenty of that every day. 

Earning a living is tough. In my very first month in a Fortune 50 job a wise lifer in the corporation read my face. I had been blindsided. The advice: You can and will make lemonade from those lemons. 

Everywhere there are those lemons, of course.

Many might recall how during the carnage of COVID Dentons global head Joe Andrew reminded the whiners locked down at home of their blessing: They didn't have to go into a workplace like so many low-income wage-earners. And risk their lives. Here is that seminal 2020 op-ed in The Hill. You bet, it went viral.

Around the same time Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp was able to distract lawyers in firms throughout America from their own angst. That pertained to everything from contacting the virus to losing their jobs. Karp mobilized them to pitch in, without pay, to develop a digital resource for COVID victims. For that moment in time they forgot about themselves. I always wondered: Did Karp build on that experience to create the first-ever law-firm ESG (Environmental Social Governance) practice?

Jones Day is being vilified for its No-Whiner culture. But perhaps America has to build that stoicism back into its brand of capitalism. Work is work. That's why they call it "work." 

In my intuitive career coaching my clients recognize that right now they have to learn new coping strategies to hold on to their jobs or operate their businesses. Chaos dominates. Not much of civility is around. Working for a living has never been happy-clappy. Currently, it's unusually challenging. 

In transition in your career? Need more income? Healing from a professional setback? Intuitive career coaching.

“On the menu” of services are Tarot readings, both spreads and one-card pulls. Complimentary consultation.

Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com or text 203-468-8579. 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wachtell Partner Romancing Associate in Central Park: Let's Talk About Power

  Would red-haired 40-something Nathaniel Cullerton be so appealing to a 20-something if he hadn't been a partner in an elite law firm and she was an underling at that firm?  That's what most of the coverage of the kissing incident in Central Park by the two Wachtell lawyers doesn't touch. Here is the video by Tik Toker Jay Guapo of their romantic break in the day. It was foreign-policy expert Henry Kissinger who observed: "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."  Since then, organizations have recognized how that reality can create major problems in the workplace. Typically, those take the form of a manager type engaging in an intimate relationship with a subordinate or at least a person with less status. Another issue is that such arrangements can breed favoritism. The subordinate gets goodies others don't. The rest of the organization seethes in resentment.  In addition, it can also trigger penalties for "non-compliance." The subordinate resists th...
Read more

America Not Hiring in 2026: Back to Golden Age of Solopreneurs?

 For hiring, 2025 was a brutal year to search for a job. The Wall Street Journal reports that 2026 could be worse: "At a gathering of CEOs in Midtown Manhattan this month organized by the Yale School of Management, 66% of leaders surveyed said they planned to either fire workers or maintain the size of their existing teams next year. Only a third indicated they planned to hire." The WSJ adds that pullback from adding manpower could be temporary. But given shareholders' demand for cost-efficiency and the continual improvements in AI, chronic unemployment could become standard. However, there is a solution. An old-fashioned one. That's becoming a solopreneur, that is setting up your own business without partners or employees. The model dates back to ancient times.  The golden age of the solo business owner in America had been from the late 1800s to about the mid 1920s.  There had been a wave of immigrants, discrimination against them and few jobs. They drove pushcarts ...
Read more

Scott Barshay's Leadership at Paul, Weiss Torpedoed, PR Nothing But a Joke, Sympathy for Brad Karp

  Last week was a bad, gone worse and worse, one for law firm Wachtell.   This week starts out as what could upend the new leadership of Scott Barshay (The Decider) at Paul, Weiss.  Today's very long-form article in The New York Times  by Michael Schmidt and Jessica Silver-Greenberg depicts Barshay negatively. Understatement. He is rolled out as one-dimensionally power-driven, abrasive, divisive and downright naive about the power of the media. About the latter, he blew off any concern about the media's response to the law firm's removing from the website the Center to Combat Hate.  An example of the beating delivered Barshay? Here is the NYT coverage of the response by some at Paul, Weiss when Barshay was hired: "But there was unease among some at Paul Weiss. Partners and associates learned from lawyers at Cravath that some people there were not unhappy to see Mr. Barshay go. His ego made him difficult to work with, the Paul Weiss lawyers were told." No ambigu...
Read more