"All in the Family" 2025: Knowledge Workers as the New Archie Bunkers

Rob Reiner's tragic death has returned some of us to reflecting on that breakthrough 1971 - 1979 sitcom "All in the Family." Brilliantly it captured the struggle of an uneducated blue-collar guy Archie Bunker who couldn't get a handle on a rapidly changing world. The counterpoint to his plight had been his educated son-in-law Meathead, portrayed by Reiner. Of course, there was plenty of conflict between the two generations.

The pathos was that Bunker was a decent man. 

That same emotional dynamic has taken off as we encounter knowledge workers in the same sort of pickle that made Bunker a closed system. Although they are losing their jobs now and too many of those jobs probably won't come back they either cannot or refuse to understand that the world is changing. And they have to change with it. Usually that shift entails ditching the mindset that the investment in higher education will be rewarded and the need to start over training for a skill that's marketable in 2025 and for at least a few years. Yeah, measure a career path in single digits. Driving that are cost-efficiency, intensified global competition and AI.  

Meanwhile the rants of knowledge workers on professional anonymous networks Reddit, Fishbowl, Glassdoor and Blind have the same lost quality of Bunker's inability to accept the present. The sitcom's theme song had been "Those Were the Days."

In contrast, those not bellowing in pain - the new version of a kind of Meathead - are leveraging some of the oldest fundamentals of business:

Speed is a competitive weapon. Don't be a deer in the headlights. Adjust to where the Law of Supply and Demand is going. From the get-go in 2008 when Brad Karp became chair of law firm Paul, Weiss he moved quickly. Back then it was introducing transactional practices. More recently it was recognizing the importance of a London office - and creating a dominant presence there. 

Nothing fails like success. What got you where you were is probably way out-of-date. The past is not the present or the future. Initially when Bob Iger returned to Disney he was still an old media guy. That was mocked. He did have the capacity for change. He held onto the job.

Identify what business you're really in. Broaden your skill, for example, from raw analysis to connecting the dots as a storyteller. That could save thousands of lawyers' jobs. Had the railroads done that - and understood the business was transportation not railroading per se - the sector could have kept growing. Read Ted Levitt's "Marketing Myopia."

Be your own boss. Solopreneurs are a growing category. The cost of entry is usually low: under $5k. Success in the first year is about 70%. Most of my clients have that as a goal. At Babson College students have started enterprises in the dorm which generated big money. 

Predictions for 2026? LOL. So many of the moving parts which intersect with each other have gone rogue.

Thrown off your game, maybe the first time since you started working? You made all the right moves and then the world moved in another direction.

Intuitive Coaching. Special expertise with transitions, reskilling and aging. Psychic/tarot readings, upon request. Complimentary consultation with Jane Genova (Text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com). Yes, test out the chemistry. Zero risk.