TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

Even before the pandemic remote work had been catching on, at least in progressive organizations such as tech, the freelance economy and a distributed global workforce.  Currently, though, it's increasingly under attack. Amazon, in its announcement of a full-time in-the-office arrangement beginning next year, could be it is feared giving "permission" to other businesses to also adopt that policy. For a while now there has been speculation that many professional services firms - management consulting, law, public relations and finance - have been waiting for bigger, more powerful businesses to make the move. In response to Amazon's shift its employees are speculating on the internal Slack platform and in social networks such as Reddit about what the hell this is really about.  Some size up the initiative as a masked layoff device. Talent could quit rather than cave to the mandate. In this era of cost-efficiency that saves the corporation mega bucks in severance. Too ma...

Recently, among 68 million knowledge workers, only 1.3% percent received a promotion , the lowest number in five years. Personal anonymous networks Glassdoor, Reddit and Fishbowl chronicle the disappointment and frustration.  One reason is the uncertainy. It is difficult to figure out where the economy is going. That difficulty is enhanced during a general election year.  This is also the era of cost-efficiency. Bumping up an employee to manager or team leader means paying out added compensation.  Meanwhile high interest rates have been making the cost of business more expensive.  Overall, after the pandemic shift of power to the worker, the employer has regained much of that in white collar sectors. Pandemic over-hiring has created a glut of talent in organizations. The focus is on reduction of a lot of that, not motivating hanging around through promotions.  However, in the distressed consulting business, there is a notice that there will be promotions. The w...

  The work world will pound you hard. So much of it is political. There are promotions you sacrifice so hard for and somone else gets them. Recessions and changes in organizational strategy - and you are out on the street. No we were not special.  That's something those re-engineering the national ethos after the big war never told us baby boomers. The bill of goods the "they" sold us was to go to college, obey the rules, love America and for females, don't get pregnant before marriage. And all will be well. Mickey Mouse guaranteed that.  Sure, we bought in, for maybe a decade. Maybe a bit longer. And, sure, during the post-war boom there was plenty of opportunity. But, shocker, we really did start daydreaming about, yes, retiring. But too many of us didn't. And that's why Peter Coy brings up the subject in The New York Times that younger generations resent us for supposedly clogging up the paths to upward mobility in organizations.  Me? Over-75 and onto my t...

"Anyone else get bad anxiety when they are slow?" -  Fishbowl, September 16, 2024  Whether you're a law-firm associate, a car salesperson or an intuitive coach like myself, slow knocks us for a loop. Confidence plummets. There are all those escape fantasies about hopping on another career path. And we compulsively compare ourselves to colleagues who seemingly are quite busy. The worst part, though, is the assumption that we shouldn't feel that way. America is the nation demanding perfection. That includes how we perceive ourselves. And that perception is that we be totally self-assured, resilient and problem-solving all the time. Slow? The expectation is that we will do something about that and fast. During this typical general election year filled with uncertainty most of my clients are experiencing a pause in their business. Of course, they are uneasy. The ones practiced in how to navigate this kind of ordeal develop other sources of income and satisfaction. No, it ...

" Donald Trump  was the target of a second apparent assassination attempt Sunday when Secret Service agents opened fire on a gunman at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., where the former president was golfing just a few holes away." -  The Wall Street Journal , September 15, 2024 The former president is safe.  The alleged potential shooter - Ryan Wesley Routh - initially fled but was arrested soon afterward. He faces criminal charges. At this time it is unknown if he took any shots. Of course, this development has unleashed condemnation of what seems to be political violence. Also, there will be scrutiny how Routh came to possess a military-type weapon. Since he had video recording equipment there could be an outcry about how easy it is for violence to catapult a miscreant into stardom.  But there is also the very immediate issue of how this could could affect the Harris-Walz positioning in what is turning out to be a volatile and tough campaign. It is not insen...

  Two days ago, a poster on Fishbowl Big Law noted that Milbank paid its summer bonus ahead of time. Implicitly that posting is a statement about the reality that no other law firm has matched Milbank, at least not yet. A sign of such a long delay is that there are fewer mentions of that bonus on professional anonymous networks. So, it's overdue to look under the hood on this lack of a match or, remember the old days, a topper.  One thing we might find is the play out of Kirklandization. As many know so well, Kirkand & Ellis is the most successful law firm in the world.  No fools, as competition keeps ramping up globally for getting and holding both business and star talent, more law firms are embracing the Kirkland & Ellis model. And pulling away from lockstep. Without lockstep firms can ignore what supposed market-makers do. Milbank is increasingly classifed as an outlier. Part of Kirklandization has been to establish the non-equity partner tier. Recently Paul W...

  Glam sector Hollywood, ranging from production to scripting, has always been 1) Hard to break into and 2) Even harder to sustain one's reputation and keep getting assignments. Now, corporate consolidation and technology , all driven by cost-efficiency, is restructuring every aspect of the Hollywood labor market. There is not only less work. That work tends to be paying less and taking more time for the payment to be made. A big brandname, with a list of awards, no longer ensures making a good living.  What's has been called the "White Collar Recession" has made its way into America's loved entertainment business. That downturn seems to be mutating into an actual "wasteland" across a growing number of sectors. They include tech, human resources, management consulting, graphic arts, marketing, content-creation and some practice areas in law.  Consequently more knowledge workers and creatives have to let go of the hope of a turnaround - at least soon eno...