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Archive for August, 2010
Maybe You Should Quit Your Job Pt. 3 Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
So I was sitting at my home pulling up my e-mail and enjoying my weekend recently when I ran across yet another article on the state of the American worker. Newsweek is the most recent commenter on how American workers are fed up with the treatment they are receiving at work. Instead of trying to bend your large and inflexible corporation to your will, try this instead….quit.
That’s right the economy is apparently shit and I just told you to quit. Why would I do that? The reason for it is right in this article that Newsweek put out.
The article says that workers are becoming disillusioned with the state of the workforce. Here are some of the inspiration stats that the article has blessed us with:
- companies cut a higher-than-expected 131,000 jobs in July
- Much of the workforce has endured pay cuts, furloughs, and a loss of benefits.
- Eighteen percent of large companies recently surveyed by Towers Watson said they had cut or eliminated the matching money they contributed to employees’ retirement plans
- Companies have been slow to hire new workers, even though corporations, apart from financial firms, have $837 billion in cash, an increase of 26 percent since last year.
- Nearly 48 percent of Americans say they planned to look for a new job once the economy stabilizes.
- Roughly half of those surveyed say they no longer trust their companies or feel like they treat workers fairly
Doesn’t that sound great? I don’t think so either. The reality is that it is looking a whole lot better for large companies than it is for the average worker.
If you want more pay, benefits and respect then go where you are going to get it, on your own. The economy has changed the way the job market works and it’s never going to be the same. The article from Newsweek does in fact correctly state that the employment rate isn’t going to be coming down anytime soon.
The concept of quitting your job may cause you some anxiety but you don’t have to quit your job right away. You can start building your platform on the side and start telling the world who you are and how you create value for them to help your transition. Start thinking about what kind of products and services you could offer. Take a look at the kind of job you have and the company you work for and ask yourself what you would do differently with the company that would be better than what they are currently doing.
There is a work revolution going on out there and it’s time for you to look at how you can grow and do the work you were meant to do because chances are you aren’t doing it now and that’s a shame.
PS… In case you missed them here’s Pt 1 and Pt 2.
Information is Worthless, Filtered Information is Priceless Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Well, there is no stopping it… the fly wheel has enough momentum to carry us for a long time to come. Information and info-generation has exploded over the last 10 years and shows little signs of wear or slow down. The fact is user-generated content is just beginning to rear its sometimes ugly head. People, including myself at times, are starting to suffer from TMI (too much information) and it probably won’t be long before it is cataloged as some actual psychological disease! Well, I’m likely to be considered a chronic sufferer… Information overload is a daily occurrence for anyone “connected” to the ol’ inter-webs. With the robust and continual production of content and information, like any commodity, the price and value of this information rapidly approaches ZERO. Many on the web and in the marketplace strongly appose such movement and cry that it will cause us to lose quality for quantity but the fact is there is a lot of quality, free information as well (amidst all the crap of course…). (more…)