We don't have a talent crisis in the US. We have an opportunity crisis.

Do you know why people quiet quit??Their job sucks. Do you know why people Great Resignated? Their job sucked. Do you know why workers don't want to go back to the office? Because it sucks there. It's time we face the elephant in the room in the American office. American work culture sucks.

American work culture sucks.

Are we really that surprised? Let's look at American work culture objectively.

We work while we're on vacation. We work after we put the kids to bed. We work in airports. We make work calls on our commute home. We work at the gym. We read emails on the commode. And what about while we're at work? How many useless meetings do you attend each week? How many useless emails do you get? How much time have you spent on office gossip, griping (and listening to others gripe) backstabbing, verbal abuse, and general workplace toxicity? Because our work culture is what it is, millions of well-intentioned people are hardly able to work while they're at work. We're not "working hard." We're way past that. We're addicted to work.

We're addicted to work.

The fact is there is a big difference between being at work and working. Productivity numbers post-pandemic proved that in spades. It turns out we don't need the office as we knew it to be productive. It also turns out we like our personal lives more than our professional lives. Go figure. In our community of fractional pros, (Voyageur U, you should check it out) dozens of our members have told me that before they went out on their own they estimated that they only did the actual work they were hired for one out of five days per week. That's crazy.

There's a big difference between

working and being at work.

Objectively speaking, nothing about what I wrote here is untrue. Or rare. Or episodic. Or in just a few places. To be fair, this isn't the case for everyone. Your work situation may be rosy. But that's not the case for millions and millions of workers. That's millions with an m. There's an elephant in the conference room.

There's an elephant in the conference room.

It's really no surprise people are disenfranchised with the American workplace as we know it. Just ask Dan Price about that. He bitches about or work culture constantly. And he was a CEO.

Now maybe, just maybe, putting up with our shitty work culture is fine if there's a win somewhere. Some return that is worthy of the effort. Something like at least it's good for your mental health. (Turns out no, half of America reports work is hurting their mental health) Something like at least it's good for your physical health. (Um, no, not according to the Surgeon General ) Something like you're going to get really wealthy from it. (Fat chance, while we all toiled during the pandemic, the richest billionaires got billionaire-y-er.) Something like a fair paycheck. (Nope. We actually work more for less as compared to workers pre-1980.) Donut Mondays. That's your reward.

Donut Mondays. That's your reward.

Believe it or not, people call me an optimistic person. I swear I am. This is where the narrative is going to shift from me jawing about the crappy reality we live in now to the trillions of dollars in prosperity I see coming in the next 20 years- all destined for the American middle. And all because American work culture sucks today.

Mankind's natural state is to put up with crap for only so long before mankind finds a better way. In the context of how we work, that better way is the emerging Fractional workforce. Follow me on this happy little trail.

That better way is Fractional.

In the emerging Fractional economy two huge phenomenon are happening. One: people are packaging up their talent and selling it to several small and growing businesses rather than putting all of their eggs in one corporate basket, allowing them to do their best work 100% of the time and being respected, loved and appreciated for it. Two, small and growing businesses are accessing amazing talent they didn't have access to before because it used to cost too much to hire top level talent. One plus two equals prosperity in the middle.

And thus the prosperity in the middle begins.

What happens when growing businesses, eager but cash-strapped, can access talent that has decades of skills-making and wisdom in areas their business is weak? Sales. Growth. Innovation. Efficiency. All at a rate they couldn't reach before. What happens when people who are stuck, laid off or just hungry for a better next chapter in their career find a way to unleash all of their talent with no holds barred? They make more money. They find purpose. They have time for family, health and wellness. Rather than rolling in to a tired workplace, they attack their career like a dog let loose at a dog park. It gets better. Guess where all of that prosperity goes? The money, the innovation, the growth, the opportunity the American dream for heavens sake, goes right to the middle. Thirty million small and growing businesses in America can now access top talent, and grow. Top talent can now choose a path of self-determination as they lend their skills to those thirty million growing businesses. It sounds too good to be true. But it is. We have nearly 300 fractional professionals in our community, and we grow each day. Each of them are serving their clients on their own terms for the success of their clients. Those clients are benefitting from a deeper well of skill they could never access before, and so they grow like they couldn't before. The Fractional phenomena is the best thing for American prosperity since the New Deal.

Fractional is the best thing for American prosperity since the New Deal.

Recently I was on a panel at Club E in Minneapolis (The Future is Fractional, you should watch it.) Our host Rick Brimacomb asked me what I think the future holds for fractional. I said I think it will be 50% of our workforce in five years. Why? Self-determination that's why. It's a core value in our country and we always gravitate towards it. There are just too many wins on the supply and demand side of Fractional for it not to overtake our current work culture. And just in case you think I mean full time work is going away, I don't. Imagine the relief people who prefer full time work will feel when they don't have to do three jobs at once because there's now a Fractional or two in the office. It's not fractional vs. full time, it's fractional in harmony with full time. Imagine how much better work culture will be by removing the very thing that makes it suck: too many people stuck in close quarters, cramping everyones' ability to flourish.

Just in case you ascribe to the paranoid theory that our country is controlled by a secret cabal of a few rich and powerful people who huddle and suppress anything that threatens their pile of gold, know this. You are reading this article. If they were that rich and powerful their bots and algorithms would have caught this and buried it at the very end of the internet. After all, didn't I just completely expose the cabal? There is no cabal. No suppression. The only thing that is holding anyone back from taking advantage of the prosperity fractional holds is fear of change. Fear of risk. Fear of trying something new. And isn't facing that fear and venturing out into new frontiers what America is all about?

As always, go fractional.

PS- cabal, in case you're listening. I live in a remote cabin in Canada. You'll never find me.