“Honor and money cannot fit in the same bag.” -Proverb So it is. When the goal is money, it is clear that you must renounce honor. This is the purpose of workplace culture displacing normal standards. In the office you are asked to remain silent about your values, preferences, or beliefs while complying with orders…
Tag: Jobs
Money Left On The Table
Some people in IT obviously earned good money, but how they earned it was unclear. Top talent was often well paid, but not rich, while those who received millions in stock were often mediocre and seemed to be lucky to get free money because their company was acquired. An organized approach for using talent to…
Antiwork Censorship
I’m all for reforming jobs, offices, and workplace practices. It seemed r/antiwork would be the perfect place to discuss ideas about that and organize with similar minded people. It only took a few days to be banned from r/antiwork. Nothing I said was hostile or inflammatory. My thoughts slightly deviated from their narratives and that…
Living in Triplicate
Because of instability and chaotic reactivity throughout society, you have to operate in triplicate for resilience. In addition to your primary career, you need to keep a secondary career in case your specialty falls out of favor and is replaced. You’ll also need to develop a third career as a backup, one which is midrange…
Ask For What You Want
The best lesson for job discussions I ever got was from a prank phone call. The core advice is to simply ask for what you want rather than complying with established norms or accepting something you don’t want. Changing jobs is not a time to compromise and begin a new undertaking that focuses on what…
Being Fired is a Gift
Everyone should get fired at least once to experience what happens and to get comfortable with it to diminish fear. Getting fired keeps a job in perspective. A job is a temporary vessel, nothing to depend upon or expect longevity from. It might implode suddenly or gradually erode into instability. The best way to expect…
Hippie Career Obliviousness
I never considered the idea of a career because I lived as a hippie. There was always some job that paid enough so I had food and a place to live. Modern life seemed to make a wife and kids improbable, so there was no pressure to have a complex job paying enough to support…
Defiance
When I was splitting my time between three clients, one of them persisted in offering me a full time job every few months. I politely refused each time because one of the purposes of consulting is to not be worn down by a job. The independence and use of focused time, as well as superior…