There seems to be a divide in the United States, more or less down the middle, that flies under the radar. It’s not out in the open like the much-touted red-blue divide of this decade. It’s not about marriage or choice or any other hotly debated values-based topic. It’s not even something simple and fun, like Ford vs. Chevy or Pepsi vs. Coke. It’s insidious, and it defines some people very deeply.
The division I notice regularly is between people who trust institutions to provide them with jobs and those who prefer working for small businesses or being self-employed. The former focus on fitting in to a bureaucratic culture for security, probably heedless of the many compromises they make to their integrity along the way.
The latter prefer a straightforward, low nonsense, less political approach to making a living. They believe that learning new skills and gaining experiences make them better at what they do, so they are willing to conform to those sorts of requirements. But they cannot tolerate the illogical checklists of requirements for fitting in to an institution.
This, I believe, is why so many people who are drawn to the idea of making a living doing something they love describe their experience in a corporate job as suffocating or feeling like their souls are being sucked out of them. We can all do things contrary to our nature for a good purpose, especially if it’s for a limited time. But violating one’s true nature for no good reason with no end in sight does feel like the death of the soul, because it results in atrophy of the soul.
One of the members of the Outside The Job Box Career Expert And Small Business Idea Consultant © self-study course mentioned in a message on our community forum recently that she is having a hard time explaining the program to people in her circle of family and friends. They think in job-boxes. They think that if you don’t like your job you suck it up until you can find another one. They don’t think anyone should really expect to like his job. They think having a job you like is a bonus, and a completely random act of fate.
That obviously works for a lot of people. They get trained in a skill set and look for a stable company, non-profit agency, or government agency to hire them. They read the currents to guess when it’s time to leave one institution and move to another. They move from job to job to get higher pay, more benefits, or both. They think people who work for themselves or work for small businesses are taking a lot of risks, believing institutional jobs are more secure. They don’t see the instability in institutional jobs, and they don’t see the risk in compromising who they are to mold themselves into the institutional persona.
I had lunch recently with a friend I have known for many years. He grew up in a corporate culture and so was certain from an early age he would focus his college education on preparing for a corporate management position. He was full of creative and innovative ideas and understood more things about production and delivery systems around the world, before he even started college, than anyone else I’ve ever talked to.
When he graduated college he was hired into a huge corporation in a position very close to what he wanted. He was excited and raring to go. Over time, as he slammed into the wall of corporate culture, he became frustrated, and then disillusioned. They set aside innovation and obvious improvements in the name of continuity. Eventually he moved to another corporation, where he expected more openness to innovation.
As I talked with him I saw that he’s undergone an enormous change. The smiling, cheerful idea factory has become coarser and more cynical. He was talking about lists of things I could recommend to my son, who just graduated high school, to make him a better candidate for a corporate position when he finishes college. He told me about expectations put on corporate employees in terms of skill sets that seem to have nothing to do with their job performance and everything to do with a mindless checklist of accomplishments to sort through the drones and find those most compatible with the institutional culture. His entire focus was on conforming more and more to a corporate model to get higher in the company.
I remember when he was in college and talking about getting some corporate experience before starting his own company. That’s faded now, with his cynical belief that it’s better to do the “safe” thing and play by institutional rules in the race to the top of the dung pile. When I mentioned that I will be spending time writing a couple of books in the coming months, he looked shocked and asked, “Isn’t that risky?”
Of course it’s risky. Writing is speculative until you have a contract. If I submit a book for publication, chances are it won’t be published. If I self-publish or publish digitally, I have to market my book, and there are no guarantees I can sell a single copy. Well, Mom will buy one, so let’s say more than a single copy.
When my friend had the entrepreneurial fire he wouldn’t have been bothered by risk. Sadly, his resignation to being a corporate person seems to be generating a lot of cynical frustration with the difficulty of those demands. Maybe some day he will again find the spark to trust that he can take charge of his career any time he chooses to do so.
The people who want to conform to the roles of institutional bureaucracies are welcome to do it. But we don’t have to let them impose their roles on those of us who want to breathe.
I decided to point my Outside The Job Box © colleague to another point of view. She was wondering how to find the stamina to move forward with a program so few people in her world understand. And she worries that, if the people in her world can’t relate to those who want to express their true selves in their work, then maybe she won’t be able to find any clients.
I pointed out that the hundreds of thousands seeking information on finding your calling, working at what you love, and making a living without a job from the Dream Trio have a deep yearning. Like her, they feel isolated from the job-box inhabitants around them. They are longing to know they aren’t alone. They are longing for proof there is another way, one that shows them a path to living an authentic life that includes feeling good about work. I told her they need us, with our skills for creative brainstorming and identifying opportunities, unlocking the doors of possibility instead of narrowing options.
I don’t know if the division is actually 50/50. I remember hearing from time to time that 50% or more of the jobs created in our country are created by small businesses. Some of those small businesses still have a corporate attitude and conformist culture so we’re likely a minority. But we have in our midst, under the radar, people like plumbers and electricians and dental hygienists and graphic artists and marketing consultants. They might not be following their true calling or living the Joyfully Jobless life, but they know they prefer the freedom of being self-employed or working for a small business over the institutional culture.
May You Know the Joy of Sharing Your Gifts,
Steve Coxsey
Authentic Life Work & Self-Employment Coach