Corporate Coasting
If you want to get big-time rich in America, you likely need to invent something that scales massively — or inherit said wealth, or receive it in a divorce of some kind. If you want to get big-time rich but not “fuck you” rich, you need to be really good at something like lawn care or HVAC in a large city that still has room to grow, and you need to be tireless about promoting yourself and your services, while also (usually) not paying your guys that fairly. And if you want to be comfortable and struggling in times of inflation, but still comfortable enough that you can bomb people with vacation photos twice a year, you usually need to work in pre-automation corporate. That window maybe has 2–3 decades left, but hey, it’s still churning right now. We are so back, baby!
If you have ever worked 15 seconds in corporate, you know that corporate is over-populated with (mostly) guys and (some) women who do literally nothing all week except tell you how slammed they are and how it’s their “busy season.” Their bosses barely know what they do, but they are usually good scapegoats in a pinch, and/or they can be thrown into an urgent deliverable if need be. We call this “Management By Warm Body.” It is very popular in corporate.
If you are good at “playing the game” of corporate, which is a mix of —
— then you can easily stay in corporate 30 or so years (maybe not right now re: automation) and make good salaries some years. You will probably get laid off here and there, because corporate does like to cut heads, but you can bounce back to another equally meaningless widget company within about 4–6 stressful months of being laid off/fired.
In it, he quotes this other Substack about “new ways of working.”
In that second Substack, the author comes to this conclusion:
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This mindset is not unusual. These folks are not outliers. Most organisations are full of people just like them — not because they’re incapable, but because work, for many, is a means to an end. People have families, responsibilities, and lives outside the office/spare room. So, why put in more effort than needed? Sure it might be unfulfilling, yet to many, this just isn’t too much of a problem.
This isn’t about passing judgement. It’s about recognising the reality of modern work. Most people aren’t trying to change the world in their 9-to-5 — they’re just trying to make it through the day with as little stress as possible. And really, who can blame them? We weren’t supposed to spend our days alone in our spare room/kitchen staring at a screen for 8 hours.
Absolutely to all of that. And honestly, most of the American model is really rooted in appearing successful to others, I.e. “Joneses.” Corporate is a great way to appear successful if you know how to play the game. If you don’t, it’s just a sea of layoffs for you. I had this happen to me a couple of times.
A good example for me is TCU. While not officially a corporate job, bigger universities are still run in corporate ways. My job was incredibly boring, but because of how universities make money, I likely wouldn’t have been laid off for a while there. I had trouble playing the game, though, which was a mix of my own issues with authority (have gotten better since), my desire to day-drink (ditto), and a hatred of boredom (that’s still in play). As such, the job became untenable and I ultimately resigned, although I am sure I would have been fired eventually. Had I known how to play the specific game they wanted, though, I could have probably been there for six or seven years making a mostly-good, stable-to-rising income.
I wouldn’t say I “fucked that up” because the job and I were never a fit, but it’s an example of playing the game for stability and growth vs. falling flat. In that way, I did fuck it up.
Normalizing work as a “means to an end” is a good start — and honestly, I think in 10–15 years, we will consider that to be the biggest work-related lesson of COVID. More people realized that the big dogs could care less about you (they’re trying to satiate investors and shareholders), so they just found a job and grinded along until the layoff wheels fell off. COVID probably reduced “passion” discussions around work by a factor of 10x.
Your take on corporate coasting?
Student at Martin College
4 周The US, like many developed nations, is a services economy and will continue to de-industrialize (except in Trump-world). This process gives rise to many of what David Graeber termed, "bullshit jobs". Middle to large corporations have seen the growth of pointless and very procedural jobs. If you need to coast, then these are perfect. Join middle management, hr, internal comms, qa, coaching, pa and on and on. The age of meetings, nonsense speak, predictable emails and defining everything as "process" is well and truly here. AI will give the truth to corporatism and the rise of coasting.
Financial Operations Manager at Juniper Accounting Services (former franchisee of Supporting Strategies)
1 个月I once worked on a project where they wanted me to start as I was available, but they werent ready. No login, no badge, no team. The manager told me to spend time reading manuals about the company. What a boring gig. Two weeks later, we hit the ground running and it became a very satisfying project. Not going to say who it was so don't ask!!
It's just me
1 个月Yeah, I think CEOs have figured out if they automate and overseas things, they can cut staff 33%. The sad part is a lot of folks are on the beach for a while or end up at half salary. Not the executives, they get raises and bonuses, nothing new there. I Saw similar things happening where I used to work, although at a slower pace because of the culture, but in either case, I see upper and executive management growing, which is counter intuitive, but some of that savings is going to family and friends of that group/class. My question is, at what point will extending credit stop to buttress the salaries lost in this process? As it is, a lot of companies give sub inflation raises even to star performers, so people are losing money even if they keep their jobs. It seems like a high tech plantation/company town. Even Henry Ford realized that it's not a good thing if employees can't afford and enjoy the products they make and went to 5 days and an increase in pay. What I see in the executive class is what we saw in the first industrial revolution in this country: Taking to the point of gluttony and mammon. El Cheeto isn't making that better for the rest of us. More likely make it better for his class. Trickle down is a fantasy.