Post No. 954 - Reflections on work and several decades of change

I’m going to begin this with a cross-posting from my PGB website:

Qualifications and Hiring, and the New Life Cycle

We seem to be heading towards a situation where, soon, everyone will need a tertiary degree before they are allowed to sneeze, and I consider it has become excessive – particularly with regard to employment.

Now, when I have been in a position to hire people, it has been in relatively minor roles, but I have always felt comfortable backing myself – I read the applications that come in, talk to  few, and then hire the one I consider is best on the basis of my opinion, and that isn’t necessarily the person who is most qualified or has the most spectacular experience.

The problem with using application agencies is that they focus on who has the best, in a sense, “numbers”, and they miss the issue of what could perhaps be termed “soul”.

You may well find that hiring a PhD with years of experience works well for a while, but then the PhD decides your company is no longer good enough, or that there is a better offer elsewhere, and leaves – whereas the slightly less qualified person who has perhaps been battling for a while is likely to appreciate the opportunity and not only stick around for longer, but try harder.

So … how has this problem come about?

Well, in a word: fear – fear of being responsible for hiring someone who doesn’t turn out to be a “good fit”, fear of repeating the mistake of a bad hire, fear of not getting the boss what she/he/ze really wanted (which, if it happens, is the boss’ fault for communicating poorly).

It needs to acknowledged here, too, that accountability – and thus fear – goes all the way up the chain: the boss may also have the same sort of fears.

What is the solution?

Well, whoever is at the top needs to make it clear that they would prefer to see some courage, decency and avoidance of the shackles of fear.

I have known – worked for - such bosses, incidentally.

I’d like to finish with a couple of thoughts.

First, the new “life cycle” with regard to work.

It has been known for at least 15 years – to those who have been paying attention – that people may have to go through a series of jobs, rather than a single career. Finally, however, someone has come out with some useful comments about this.

The “Foundation for Young Australians” has released a new report, “A New Mindset”, about thinking in terms of clusters of jobs, based on skill sets, rather than picking a job and going through life in that one job. This report found that learning the skills for one job would typically give you the skills for about 13 other jobs (on average).

Now, all we need is for them to release the jobs in each cluster, and the 13 or so jobs that are related to each job … (I’ve sent them an email)

Final point: starting your own business. I’ve heard quite a few people arguing for this, but:

(1) most businesses go broke in the first few years;

(2) you probably won’t have an income for the first two years at least – which makes it an utterly useless option if you have financial dependents;

(3) it is a lot of hard work, and you probably won’t be able to take holidays for a long time.

In short: be wary of going down that path by diving in – do it as a paying hobby first, and only dive in when you have some track record under you.

So, it is now very important to think in terms of portable skill sets. It’s a ****** pity no-one thought to tell me that back in the 70s :) (Oh, incidentally: I note that the people who are now telling us that disruption [or whatever the latest fad buzzword has become when you, Dear Reader, read this] is good, are the people who predicted flying cars by now … )

Some changes, however, are wrong, and are clearly wrong to some clear-sighted people.

In the 1980s I – and others - fought against the drive towards privatisation and “flexibility” in hiring workers. Obviously, we lost, and the neoliberalism movement was introduced by economic rationalism. Now, we are starting to become aware of the price that has been paid.

Some of that can be undone (e.g., putting utilities back where they belong, in public ownership), but some cannot be as easily undone (e.g., worker security). As a civilisation, weed to do what can, without going back to the stage that triggered this - some change was needed, but the vigorous change that actually did happen “threw the baby out with the bathwater”.

As an example, voluntary combinations of Councils – or sharing their work skills – can be good, but don’t rush to force larger mergers or to develop one’s own skills that you could just as easily get in the Council next door. That latter is a problem of ego – wanting to have something that is good oneself and, as a result, destroying both that and the copy you tried to create (which is a particular problem in business –within companies, as much as between companies, or perhaps more, even).

Above all else, we need to remember that all this started because of the ideology of “private good, public bad” (shades of "four legs good, two legs bad" becoming "four legs good, two legs better" in George Orwell's "Animal Farm"), which is just as stupid as some of the extremist Marxist stuff.

For the sake of the future of our species and the wellbeing of our planet, we need to meet in the middle, at a point of nuanced, sensible balance.

PS – as another of the sort of small or simple minded thinking problem, I’d like to give you the example of the office cake. In the 80s, we had a woman who was a generous soul, and a great cook, and in a moment of spontaneity, brought in some cake to share on her birthday. Our boss looked at this superficially, and said “why don’t we get everyone to bring in cake on their birthday” – which turns what is supposed to be a celebration of and by the person into a compulsory chore, and showed that person’s limited understanding of what builds team cohesion and unity. Furthermore, as we grew and hired more people, it became very expensive. I was so annoyed by the thing that I would buy the three cakes, cut them up, go and tell everyone there was cake, and then go for a nice relaxing walk. Eventually, when it had got to needing four cakes, the boss retracted his “informal” directive – to the relief of the woman who had started this, and had got quite distressed at how her act of generosity had been, in effect, warped by clumsiness.

I apologise for publishing these posts twice, but Blogger keeps changing my formatting. I can either publish it and then correct it, or save and close the post and correct it when I reopen it, but that leaves an extra copy in my "drafts" folder ...

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr, Pagan Energy Worker, Wéofodthegn

I am revamping my former website, and getting at least one other underway (pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index is here. The reasons for my caution when using Wikipedia are here.

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour, and see also here and be flexible. 

May the best in me, my Higher Self,
and those of the Clear Light who assist me,
help me to keep myself grounded, centred and shielded,
to be Balanced and a Fulcrum of Balance,
a centre of Balanced Positivity and Spiritual Maturity,
with my aura continuously cleansed, cleared and closed,
repelling all negative or unwanted energies,
whilst allowing positive, balancing and healing energies in and through.

The real dividing line is not between Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.

Tom Fletcher, Former UK Ambassador to Lebanon

• All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Tags: about me, activism, change, commercialism, courage, daily life, economy, fear, history, peer pressure, perspective, society, vision,

First published: Fryrsdagr, 25^th November, 2016

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's, Blogger's change of my formatting and other minor matters): Friday, 25^th November, 2016