Pre-release Acclaim for Employment Rage
“Howard Adamsky’s new book is both a passionate call to arms for a better world of work and a no-nonsense manual for the individual who is prepared to get (back) into it.
“In a situation where many have either lost their jobs or been forced to see their career opportunities diminish radically, Howard comes out swinging, and for once, a book on job-getting truly feels like it’s on the side of the worker. Employment Rage can evoke many feelings—anger, passion, fighting spirit—but in the end it’s a book about hope and possibility. Read it, get enraged, and get working!”
—Professor Alf Rehn,
Chair of Management and Organization at Åbo Akademi University (Finland).www.alfrehn.com
“In the face of challenging economic times, Adamsky offers advice that is professional, practical, and personal. His insights offer hope for surviving and prospering in a new marketplace. A must read for all engaged in the world of work.”
—Kenny Moore, Author
The CEO and the Monk: One Company’s Journey to Profit and Purpose.
http://www.kennythemonk.typepad.com
“With all of his classical candor and down to earth style of writing, Howard Adamsky has done it again with Employment Rage. Perhaps it should be subtitled: Reality Therapy for the Unemployed.
“Unlike many of the career guidance pundits who perpetually publish advice on the ideal way to deal with job loss, Howard has lived from both sides of the desk. When someone speaks out who personally recruited and hired thousands, and who also fell victim to the ‘corporate axe’, you know it’s from well-tested experience. And while we’ve all heard of the classical ‘stages of shock’ one must go through when the unexpected happens, Howard brings theory down to a pragmatic and actionable level in a heart-felt and all too human manner, then offers solid advice and practical solutions.
“Employment Rage should be read by not just the unemployed, but by those who even today remain at work—in preparation for the changes that continue to wreak havoc on what we used to believe was ‘the world of work.’ ”
—Dan Kilgore
A Recruiting Professional with over 35 years’ experience in the field, and a Principal Consultant with Riviera Advisors, a global corporate employment process consulting firm.
Employment RAGE
What You’ve Lost and How to Win it Back
Howard Adamsky
Employment Rage
Howard Adamsky
Published by NorLightsPress at Smashwords
Copyright (C) 2011 by
Howard Adamsky
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-935254-49-2
~~~~
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To my brother Douglas, who still looks out for me. Many thanks.
To the memory of my father, my father-in-law, Judy and Shawn.
“Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow”
—Bob Dylan
I do not paint things. I only paint the difference between things.
—Henri Matisse
“Still, when I think of the
road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong”
—Paul Simon
Working Definitions
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: “A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed.” Black’s Law Dictionary page 471 (5th ed. 1979).
In a commercial setting, the employer conceives of a productive activity, generally with the intention of generating a profit, and the employee contributes labour to the enterprise, usually in return for payment of wages. Employment also exists in the public, non-profit and household sectors.
Source: Wikipedia
In psychiatry, rage is a mental state that is one extreme of the intensity spectrum of anger. When a person experiences rage it usually lasts until a threat is removed or the person under rage is incapacitated. The other end of the spectrum is annoyance (DiGiuseppe & Tafrate, 2006). Psycho-pathological problems such as depression increase the chances of experiencing feelings of rage (Painuly et al., 2005).
Source: Wikipedia
Employment Rage is the almost uncontrollable seething fury and frustration that arises in people who have been employed all of their lives and are simply unable to identify and secure the employment required to continue to lead meaningful lives due to circumstances that are often beyond their control.
Source: Howard Adamsky
Acknowledgement
So many people, events, and ideas make up the foundation of writing a book, and to these individuals I will always be grateful.
To my childhood friends Juicy Brucie, Honest John, Marty the K, Wayne, Freddie, Larry and all the Echo Mountain crew: heartfelt thanks for the memories and companionship we shared. To quote Tolkin, Elen sila lumenn’ omentielvo “A star shines on the hour of our meeting” (by Frodo to Gildor)
To John Amodeo, a dear friend and advisor on this book: your help was instrumental in every aspect of shaping, editing, and guiding me on the original manuscript. For your advice and council, I will be forever grateful.
To my friend Steve Levy who is always there to answer my questions. www.recruitinginferno.com and @levyrecruits on Twitter.
To Anthony Bordain who showed me one can write with anger and passion. http://blog.travelchannel.com/anthony-bourdain and @noreservations on Twitter.
To my dear friend Alf Rehn: I thank you for putting up with my manic and daily emails for over a month, telling you how many words I wrote each day. A lesser friend would have killed me.
www.alfrehn.com and @alfrehn on Twitter.
To my family, of whom I am very proud: Bill and Jake and Nick. I hope all of you go on to be happy and do great things. Also, do not ask for money because I won’t get rich from this book.
To the folks at ERE Media: my thanks for your commitment to create a great place for recruiters to visit, share, and learn.
To my friend Bill Berens who read the manuscript in hardcopy and made wonderful and enlightening comments on almost every page. I thank you so much.
Lastly to my wife, who inspires me with her courage every single day.
Contents
Chapter 1: I Know How You Feel
Chapter 2: You Are Not Guilty
Chapter 3: Assigning Blame is a Fool’s Delight
Chapter 4: Atrocities for Your Consideration
Chapter 5: The Underbelly of Corporate America
Chapter 6: Active and Passive Candidates Lord Help the Unemployed
Chapter 7: Ask Not What Networking Can Do For You
Chapter 8: Headhunters: A Crash Course
Chapter 9: You’re Working on Your Resume--Again?
Chapter 10: Got References?
Chapter 11: The Interview: Insights and Essential Thinking
Chapter 12: Go with Your Strengths
Chapter 13: Innovate for Professional Survival
Chapter 14: Who’s Managing YOUR Career?
Chapter 15: Animal House is Extinct
Chapter 16: The Recent Graduate
Chapter 17: Gornish
Chapter 18: My Story
Chapter 19: Social Media, Employment, and You
Chapter 20: Great Expectations: A Chapter for Recruiters
Chapter 21: What To Do Now
Chapter 22: Closing Thoughts
A Word to the Wise
“You can have anything in life you want, but you can’t have everything in life you want.”
—Kevin’s father
Success is a Push Business
On some days I can hardly drag myself out of bed. I’m tired or it’s raining—perhaps both. Some days my mind doesn’t want to engage, and I have no energy for the good fight. I imagine getting in my car and returning to Brooklyn, where I’ll slowly walk Franklin Avenue from President Street to Park Place and remember a life that was far less complex—far less dangerous. On those days, I find it more appealing to just sit and think than push the ball another few inches up the hill.
I suspect you have these days as well. I believe all of the above issues are good reasons to give ourselves a reprieve—take the day off and get lost in our wide screen television or continue reading to see if Lisbeth and Blomkvist wind up together in the end. But I don’t do this, and I suggest you don’t do it either.
The thin line between success and failure often rests upon our ability to push. Our brilliance, resources, support from others, or magnificent plans won’t make the difference; it depends upon our ability to press on through the pain, exhaustion, and frustration of life’s roadblocks. Unfortunately, exhaustion is not a good enough reason to take the day off.
Look around you. The light bulb, the airplane, and the book you’re reading. All this took hard, focused effort. Behind everything we take for granted is a hero—a person who didn’t rest for the rain, the moon, the stars, or the tears.
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Great things often happen through the driving force of one person who finds more reasons to press on than to rest—even when that rest is well deserved.
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I try to live this way and succeed much of the time, but certainly not every day.
I hope you can try hard as well. I hope you find the strength to persevere through all the pain, disappointment, and the distress of everything that doesn’t happen for you. I hope you can live through the unfairness of it all and continue with your mission. If you do, I can’t guarantee the universe will relent and give you what you seek. On the other hand, I can promise you a far greater chance of being successful if you continue to push on and persist in that effort every single day.
Introduction
“Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.”
—Lord Alfred Tennyson
My Mission and Purpose
As a rule, I dislike self-help books. To me, they usually offer a hope for change combined with a seductive sense of ease—an overly simple route to solving complex, multifaceted problems. I warn you now, this is not a typical self-help book. I believe the last thing the world needs is another book that tells you how to get a job, fix your career, or become the slim person who lives within you.
This book is a manuscript of concepts and ideas—a book filled with observations and new realities. It’s a book that looks at what has happened to you professionally, the effect it’s had on you, and real world opportunities for change and progress. We’ll consider the different and converging angles you can take as you move from survival to success.
I wrote Employment Rage from start to finish in 23 days. I mention this because writing a full manuscript in 23 days means you have a lot on your mind—content you strongly believe in and fingers that burn up the keyboard. It also means you have a passion for what you’re doing.
Here’s how to best use the four parts of this book:
The first section explores the pain we all feel since the economy collapsed. It deals with the frustration, anger, and helplessness so many of us live with every day. I hope you’ll see it as a reality check on all we’ve suffered and what we continue to endure.
The second part is advice and counsel: insights from an expert who deals with employment all day long. Here, you’ll gain perspective and opinions on how to identify and secure new opportunities. It even includes a chapter for people who are going off to college, those who just graduated, and those who are fortunate enough to be employed.
The third part is short and to the point—an overview of my life since the meltdown. Through reading this, I hope you’ll come to understand me as I believe I understand you.
The fourth part of the manuscript is future-oriented, dealing with what we must do as individuals to prepare ourselves and be successful in a world that has the potential to give us much, but will ask for much in return. This section deals with far more than what we must do. It outlines what we must become. It speaks to how we must evolve and shake off the ennui that robs us of our agility, imagination, and capacity to fly. I see it this way: the same old things will yield the same old you. The execution of the new and the different will create a shiny new you. Can you imagine the possibilities?
Micro to macro in scope, Employment Rage is deeply personal because it talks about you and about me. From the heart to the wallet, this book gives you an enhanced vantage point from which to consider and ultimately pursue your professional goals and regain a semblance of what you’ve lost: self-respect, ego, employment, and a sense of purpose.
This book is designed to help you understand, on a host of different levels, what happened to you and your career. It’s all here: the rage and helplessness, coupled with a deep sense of loss and pain over the meltdown of our economy.
Employment Rage deals with more than the economy’s effect on your daily life, including how it touches your family, your sense of worth, and all of the things you consider important. I wrote this book as an industry insider who wants to speak directly and honestly with you. I want to connect with as many people as I can, and therein lays the real value of my contribution.
Other authors could have written slices of this book, but it took an employment insider to write it all. It also took a fellow victim of this economy. My objective is to speak of my own personal pain right along with yours, because I do understand.
Tricks and tips? Sure, endless things contained within the pages will be of great value. For example, do you think you know all about headhunters? I’ll bet there’s much you can learn in that chapter, which contains ideas and commentary for working with these largely misunderstood employment professionals.
Have you worked on your resume again today? How about yesterday? Perhaps tomorrow? If so, you might be doing the “I’m working on my resume dance.” The resume chapter will certainly help you stop obsessing.
Do you approach networking because you need help? That’s the wrong orientation. How about the interview? Think you have that down cold? Look at the insights offered and you may reconsider your position. Do you believe you’re perfect for a specific job, and you’ll ace the interview? If so, you’ll have much to think about as you read the chapter on interviewing, because it doesn’t work that way.
How is Toastmaster’s going? Not an active member? I strongly suggest you read that chapter first and join a local group. Toastmasters may be the best move you can ever make for your career and professional life. Read the chapter and find out why.
Do you understand the fundamental concepts of Social Networking and how it relates to your career aspirations? Do you understand how it can supercharge your results and make things happen? If not, the chapter entitled “Social Media, Employment, and You” will open both your eyes as well as your mind.
Do you believe life inside corporate America is for you? Perhaps you’re right, but first read the chapter entitled “The Ugly Underbelly of Corporate America” and tell me if I’ve been there or not. Just be sure to hold your nose, because it’s an ugly business; a slaughterhouse with wing tips.
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This is not a book of pedagogy. It’s a book of ideas designed for people who are sick and tired of it all, but have little idea how to make a better life for themselves.
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It’s a book for those who want to know more about employment from the person who actually reads your resume; the person who confers with hiring managers on tactical decisions every day—a guy who’s a headhunter, a public speaker, and an author. From a person who attempts to look at his world of work with creativity and insight in order to create real value; a man who stubbornly refuses to repackage the old, tired ideas that worked when Clinton was president; a man who offers solutions to the entrenched problems we face in 2011.
I hope you’ll consider this book a tool for navigating the new world of work in this dysfunctional and stagnant economy. To use it in a way that will allow you to reflect upon and examine all that happened to your career and your life. To then take action to use that insight and information to redirect your efforts to sculpt a better and more satisfying existence. Part manifesto, part tell-all, and part road map for success, Employment Rage will put new possibilities into your hands and illuminate things you didn’t see—or worse, saw incorrectly. Self-help book? Let’s just say it will help you big time.
This book is the best thing going if you work it to your advantage. Will you agree with every single line? Perhaps not, because thinkers seldom do. I hope we can partner on this and create a better outcome for you and all of the people in your life.
Robert Frost said, “Very often, the only way out, is through.” Let’s get through this together, and then do what we can to get the hell out.
Howard Adamsky
Stow, MA
1-18-11
Chapter 1
I Know How You Feel
For many people a job is more than an income; it’s an important
part of who we are. So a career transition of any sort is one of
the most unsettling experiences you can face in your life.
—Paul Clitheroe
I Know What Your Day Is Like
For a person who’s unemployed, a typical day can be dismal. You awaken to a stark and jarring reality. You are unemployed and you must find a job. Soon. Money is tight, and hope is in short supply as well. With that realization, your first impulse it to turn over, shove your head under the pillow, and go back to sleep. Summoning the mental fortitude and willpower for job hunting is a huge challenge.
You procrastinate until you can no longer stand lying bed. You finally rise and head for the computer to check e-mail. Do you want Viagra or other pharmaceuticals? No problem. Need cheap fares on airlines and hotels, Facebook comments, or an occasional LinkedIn request? No problem. Looking for a special deal on a mortgage? It’s all there. Everything’s there except what you really need—an email from someone who’s responding to your job search. That, my friend, is what you really need to see.
How about an answer on where things stand from that interview you had five weeks ago? Eight weeks ago? Three months ago? Sadly, no emails addressing any of that.
Welcome to the new normal, because that e-mail won’t be arriving. You wonder what happened to the resumes you’ve sent. Have they been considered? Did a real person ever read them? Are they in a resume tracking system to be pulled up by a keyword search sometime in the next few months? Does anyone ever review them? Do they read your work history and compare your qualifications to the position for which you applied? How does resume submission work in today’s job market?
You’d like to call human resources and get yourself noticed, but you can’t get the name of a hiring manager. No one answers the phones and when you leave a message, they never return your call. Let me say that again for dramatic effect: Never. Most HRs check their messages at the beginning of the day and again at the end of day. They delete many calls without hearing the messages and usually don’t give the callers a second thought.
They don’t do this because they’re bad people. Most folks in HR try hard to do what’s right, but they’re forced to deal with endless hordes of job hunters. The sheer number of people looking to them for help is overwhelming. Please keep in mind that in most organizations, human resources departments have been downsized to the bone; sliced and diced and killed by layoffs and attrition. If the HR folks spent even a few moments on the phone with everyone who wanted to talk about a position or the status of a resume, they would never have time to do anything else.
Now, back to your day.
You look at the clock and it’s 11:38. Lunch is almost at hand, and you still haven’t showered. You decide to clean up, go out for a bite of lunch, get some coffee, and shake off the angst. You put on a smile and decide to hit it hard when you return. Sitting over a sandwich, you realize the mail has probably arrived by now, which means more bills. You mentally go over the money you owe; what can be floated and what can’t wait. Quarterly taxes? Condo fees? Your relationship with money is almost obsessive now, because you’re tired of being broke. You’re weary of figuring every angle until that next check arrives. Perhaps you’ll make some calls to buy time and avoid opening the mail.
You notice people in the fast food place who are on their lunch break, wolfing down food so they can return to the job. You feel the familiar stab of loneliness you’ve come to think of as Job Envy.
This can’t go on. Relief has to come sooner or later. A dinner out crosses your mind: a lovely thought. A glass of wine and quiet conversation would feel so civilized. But you’re broke now, and the money would be better spent elsewhere
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You take another bite of your sandwich, feeling powerless in a world that changed overnight—a world where you don’t have a safety net or an owner’s manual for survival.
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Lunch is done and it’s 1:27. Time to face the computer again. You get home and check for the blinking light on your phone that would indicate a message.
Nothing.
You tell yourself that’s no problem, because you’re about to hit the job boards and this could be your big day. Away you go: Monster, Careerbuilder, Craigslist, and other niche sites you’ve come to know. You read the requirements, fill in endless fields to apply for a job, and hit the submit button. You experience a small sense of accomplishment with each submission; a hollow and fleeting kind of hope; an ephemeral sense of possibility and opportunity. You know in your heart that few things offer more hope, yet less chance for success, than submitting a resume online. But you do it anyway, because the alternative of doing nothing is even worse.
By 3:45 you aren’t sure what to do next. You check LinkedIn for positions, look for connections, and then dial a few friends you’ve spoken with over the years. You leave voice mails and move on. You go directly to the websites of organizations you admire or think might be hiring. You apply for more positions. The quiet is deafening and you feel alone. By 4:45 your brain hurts, your mouth is dry, and your neck and shoulders are knotted with tension. You check e-mail again. Nothing important. You close up shop and the day is done. Now you can transition into the early evening.
What to do tonight? Should you go to a local Better Business Bureau or similar networking event so you can be with other people like yourself? Does misery love company that much? Do you want to spend two hours listening to people give well-rehearsed elevator speeches designed to sound natural and off the cuff, as they then say; “…and what do you do?”
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You try to relax, but life without work just doesn’t feel right. The fact that you aren’t working is always on your mind.
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You depend on no one and no one depends on you. For most of us, work gives our lives meaning: a stake in the earth; a place in society where we feel grounded. You need to work. You want to work. You have talent, ability, and experience—yet no one will hire you. You think about changing careers. Could you become a chef, a social worker, a teacher, or a writer? Could you become a carpenter? Open a bed and breakfast? Would life be better if you moved to the city? To the country? To a totally different country? How on earth can you fix this problem?
You watch television, read a bit, and perhaps spend time with your family. At 11 p.m. you fall asleep and awaken the next day to the same reality. This is not a fun time in your life. Let’s keep going and see how you can fix this cycle of pain and frustration.
Chapter 2
You Are Not Guilty
A great revolution is never the fault of the people but the fault of the government.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I find it interesting that when times are hard in some people’s lives, the first thing they do is blame themselves. I know this is true, because I’m one of those people. Only after many years have I learned to recognize when a situation isn’t my fault.
More than likely, if you’re looking for work, you did nothing to deserve this. Through horrific luck, the collective forces of confluence, the crash of world markets, and astounding corporate malfeasance, we are enduring a perfect storm. Hellish and deep…with no end in sight.
Why did it all happen? The answer depends on whom you ask and their orientation. Those in the know point to the concept of expanding markets that created a bubble. They also speak to the forces that exist when a bubble can no longer be supported by the economic conditions upon which it was built. This, to a degree, is capitalism at work. Sadly, if we expect to live with the good side of capitalism, we also have to endure the bad. We have little choice, because to expect anything else is, well, not capitalism.
You need to focus on one simple fact: where the blame lies doesn’t matter anymore. We’re long past that point. The objective now? Move on and look ahead, because blame won’t pay the bills.
We can learn a few lessons here. Might you have overspent on your mortgage? Bought stuff you didn’t need? Did you replace prudent thinking with expensive wines, using a sense of false optimism as a plan of action? Was that your go-to-market scheme? Was “Let’s just hope for the best” your new mantra? Perhaps you and I do share a splinter of culpability because we’re human, and we all make mistakes. But surely the punishment does not fit the crime.
The point to remember is, in the scheme of things, when all of the jobs went away, many of us were left feeling bad about ourselves. If you’re in that category, the time to stop is now. If you’ve been looking for a job for two years and still can’t land one, that doesn’t mean you’re a failure, a has-been, or you lack marketable skills. The problem is, at the moment the need for your talent is limited by the supply and demand system, a hallmark of capitalism. We must all persevere until we reach solid footing once again.
I recently met with a senior sales executive I’ll call Maria—a stellar person who, in better times, would have ten job offers, and people standing in line to hire her. She shared a bit of her story, which began with a sudden, unexpected layoff. She rebounded, quickly, landing a new job with a firm that was impressed by her ability to develop new business while maintaining relationships with existing customers. She’s a one-person selling machine—smooth, but not slick, with a strong work ethic. Yet, she struggled in her new position as the economy melted down around her.
Even for those with an optimistic mindset, we know that (to quote Ron Jenkins back in 1963), “Something is wrong here;
something is terribly wrong.”* (* In describing the first moments of JFK’s assassination, Dallas radio reporter Ron Jenkins said, “We cannot see who has been hit if anybody’s hit, but apparently something is wrong here. Something is terribly wrong.”)
Every month we hear about bailouts, plunging markets, rising unemployment, and rampant mortgage foreclosures. A sense of doom hangs in the air—an economic hurricane Katrina. On an individual level, there’s little one can do other than watch, wait, and wonder what effect it will have on you and your family. You stand quietly at the shore and brace yourself against the incoming tempest, hoping the tsunami will spare you. Nothing personal, but you hope it claims the other guy.
My sales friend Maria endured yet another layoff and watched her career evaporate. She found a new company, but their funding dried up and they closed their doors. She’s again searching for work, but even getting interviews in this climate is an epic struggle. You want a job? You’re lucky to get a phone screen. What now? She has custody of two children, ages three and seven. Her husband is gone, and he’s also unemployed, with no money for child support. Her car is held together by bubblegum and duct tape, and the condo she calls home is sliding into foreclosure. Maria has endured six months of chaos as she struggles to develop a plan with the bank to stay put until things get better. Until things normalize. Until something happens.
I was fascinated by Maria’s pilgrimage. Through all the misery, uncertainty, and fear, she told me that by far the single most dismal part of her plight was claiming her unemployment each week. Her lowest point wasn’t about needing money; it wasn’t about being in foreclosure; nor was it about struggling to live from week to week. The most depressing and miserable part of her new existence was the time she took every Monday to file that weekly unemployment claim. She told me she’d worked and supported herself all of her life, and at almost forty, having to ask the government for help made her feel helpless and miserable. The term she used was “wretched.”
I do understand Maria’s misery, and I know this woman desperately wants to work. She doesn’t even want to collect unemployment while she spends time looking for her next job. Nearly all the people I know who are out of work or grossly under-employed truly want to work. They have talent, drive, and passion. They have all the knowledge, skills, and abilities that propelled them to success in the past. As I sit here writing, I consider my friends and business associates. I honestly can’t think of a single person who wants to sit home and collect money from the state, burn through savings, or eat up retirement funds.
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This is not the America I know, and it’s frightfully far from the American dream to which so many of us aspire.
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Perhaps I hang with an ambitious crowd, but most people I know are obsessed with going back to work and putting this nightmare behind them. I believe most of us who continue to push hard will come out the other end a bit bruised, but intact and successful. Unfortunately, we don’t know when the end will come. To those who are suffering, I can only repeat that this situation isn’t your fault, and I sincerely hope you don’t blame yourself for the devastation we’re all attempting to survive.
Why did I mention Maria’s story? You may not be impressed by her plight because your own story could be far worse. At least she still has her condo and some cash coming in. You may have lost yours. Perhaps you and your spouse don’t talk all that much anymore because this pain is almost too much to bear. You both quietly pick up scratch tickets and hope against hope that something will happen to rock your world. You aren’t looking for riches; all you want in life, to quote Natalie Wood, is “yesterday.” This longing doesn’t seem unreasonable, because tomorrow seems awfully scary at the moment.
I tell Maria’s story because she touched my life, and I want you to know I understand your situation. I feel connected with you and I want to help.
With deep despair and anger, I read Barbara Ehrenreich’s seminal book entitled Bait and Switch The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream.(1) This is the single most accurate description of what’s happening to working people in this country. The author follows real people, like you and me, as they struggle to become reemployed. She shows how the rules of the employment game have drastically changed; our system of effort and reward has become broken, corrupt, and often devoid of the essential humanity we expect to find. We can live, to a degree, without prospects, money, jobs, and cars. We can live without many other things we once considered entitlements. What we cannot live without is hope. Living without hope is too much to bear.
Writer and speaker Les Brown speaks of misfortune in his life and always offers the same challenge: “It does not matter what happens to you. All that matters is, what are you going to do about it?”
I like this view of life, from a man who’s had his share of misery and grief. Les also tells us, “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” For him, loss of hope is not an option. He chooses hope.
I also choose hope, and that is my wish for you as well. I want you to continue this struggle with a sense of optimism and a belief that good things will happen.
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I want you to continue this struggle with a sense of optimism and a belief that good things will happen.
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The bottom line: most of the time you can’t control what happens to you. But you can learn to handle any situation with dignity, a bit of planning, and a lot of hope, despite difficult circumstances.
Chapter 3
Assigning Blame is a Fool’s Delight
“Blame is just a lazy person’s way of making sense of chaos.”
—Doug Couplad
Studying the media in an attempt to understand our current state of affairs can be an angry business. Even a cursory observation demonstrates that blame is the biggest game in town. We view it on television and read it in print. Internet forums smolder with anger. Twitter runs endlessly with every possible opinion, while the blogosphere is on fire with unending accusations. Finger pointing and stories of culpability and governmental incompetence abound. The blame game will only intensify as things become more difficult from a financial perspective. As the saying goes, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” All rage; all day long. Good to have information? Of course, but not when it distracts you from your goals.
This blame can be sliced and diced into many categories, so let’s simplify it into a couple of distinct groups. The first category is historical blame. We seek out those who caused our hurt and misery, our anger and fear. We point fingers, cite statistics, and hurl grenades in an attempt to respond and be heard. We want to stand up and be counted—and woe to those who disagree with us.
Was it Bush doctrine or the secret Skull and Bones crew? Was it the “vast right wing conspiracy” as alluded to by Hillary Clinton, or was it Obama and his secret pact with Israel that made us suffer? Was it Wall Street, or the mortgage guys? Was it the furniture makers and the skinheads who meet secretly in a bowling alley near Shobine every second Thursday who caused this catastrophe? Was it your boss? Tell me, who do you wish to blame? The responsibility for our misery must be assigned to someone.
The second category of blame relates to the future. This more dynamic category deals with what our government is allegedly doing, or not doing, to make our lives better or worse. This second category is endless, because instead of looking back to assign blame, we look forward to assign possibilities. This, my friends, is dicey stuff. This second category of blame is nonstop and maddening. The internal dialogue is often hateful, based upon your orientation and political viewpoint. We seek to uncover relevant facts, but please be advised that “facts” aren’t as hard-edged as you might think. Facts are almost always in flux. Facts can look different, depending upon your vantage point.
Folks, for all our sakes, let’s end the blame game now—right this minute. What’s done is done. Putting aside both personal politics and blame, I believe we need to shape an America that will work for everyone—a centrist America. If we truly want to stop the blaming and build a great country, we need to arrive at a point of moderation, with the realization that no one will get everything they want, because the needs, rights, and responsibilities of our population are vast and contradictory. Anything our administration undertakes will appear to hurt one constituency and help another. I suspect that we will, for endless reasons, never move to an Atlas Shrugged world where John Galt holds court and laissez-faire capitalism, coupled with limited government, rules the day. We will always have some degree of collectivism and social agenda. On the other hand, we are a capitalist society. As such, we must bear the slings and arrows of our misfortune as well as our riches and our inequity, because capitalism guarantees neither stability nor fairness.
The purpose of my comments on the blame game is simple and direct. Do not waste any of your valuable time playing it. It may seem interesting and seductive, but blame will become a major distraction that slows you down.
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I urge you to forget the blame game and get on with life. As a country, we have no choice but to do this. An America with so many people out of work is an America that is no longer working.
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Playing the blame game will leave you bitter instead of better. Endless reading and postings to online forums won’t get you where you want to go. Complaining that Obama is a socialist or every problem on the planet is the fault of Bush won’t bring you any closer to making the car payment or figuring out how to float the mortgage a few extra days. Sadly, these dollar and cents problems demand vigilant attention, and addressing your employment situation should be number one on your mind.
Chapter 4
Atrocities for Your Consideration
“Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.”
—Voltaire
From an economic and employment standpoint, our country is in a difficult place, and the last two years have been hell. As reported in August, 2010 by CNBC, “New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed to a nine-month high last week, yet another setback to the frail economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 500,000 in the week ending August 14, the highest since mid-November, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 476,000 from the previously reported 484,000 the prior week, which was revised up to 488,000 in Thursday’s report.”
This is not good news.
I could easily fill page after page with studies and statistics, but in the end it doesn’t matter how many people are unemployed. All that matters is your personal situation. If you, after endless struggles, reading self-help books, networking, and submitted resumes, still can’t land a suitable job—that’s the real problem. Nevertheless, let’s take a moment to look at what has happened to our country and where we stand today.
For openers, we are in the most brutal and protracted recession since the bottom dropped out of the stock market in 1929. We’ve lost jobs in such staggering numbers that it’s hard to even comprehend. But let’s give it a try. If you see the recession starting in roughly January of 2008, as most economists seem to agree, as a country we’ve lost over eight million more jobs than we gained. Add this to lower tax revenues and increased bankruptcies, both personal and business, then stir mortgage defaults into the mix, and you have a recipe for catastrophe. This problem is directly linked to job loss, which creates a Catch 22 situation. When people are cautious with their money, consumer spending tightens. The demand for goods and services is greatly reduced and jobs disappear. People who’ve lost their jobs stop spending money, which further reduces the need for goods and services. And so it goes…
The following scenarios highlight what has happened over the past two years.
Stores and businesses we’ve known all our lives are closing their doors. Near my home, a store selling high end leather cases managed to hang on during all of the economic ups and downs of the last thirty years, including the dot-com bust, but this latest crisis sank them. Other small businesses in the area have also gone under. Multiply this by thousands of towns across the country and you can see the devastation to our small businesses. Consider the sheer number of jobs that vanished, the vendors affected, and the psychological effect of seeing your favorite place closed—looking like a dead body on display, with the windows waxed to keep out the curious.
Businesses that were too big to fail have declared bankruptcy. Examples include Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers, and Worldcom, to name a few. These organizations hemorrhaged employees as tens of thousands of jobs disappeared. We’ve seen people being led out the front door by security guards, each employee clutching a box of personal belongings. It was ugly and humiliating. This was an American nightmare and the start of a new kind of a war. Each job lost represented a person who supported a family, had car payments, living expenses, and possibly a mortgage. Video clips showed displaced workers frozen in place along the curbside. Some embraced, while others sobbed. Those with microphones thrust in their faces said they had no clue about where to go, what to do, or who to call. My heart goes out to those people. One day on the job and the next day on the dole. Key cards disabled, badges deactivated, and identities stripped—because in the new normal no one cares what you used to be.
Our business elite robbed us blind and some went to jail. Others who deserved jail didn’t get their just desserts. Once upon a time, company CEOs felt a certain level of responsibility to their organization, along with a bond to the people who depended upon them. Those days are gone. Bernard Ebbers of WorldCom, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, Richard Scrushy of Healthsouth, Jeffrey Skilling of Enron, and Bernard Madoff of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities went to jail. These were the more egregious and unlucky fish. Can you imagine how many didn’t get caught? The ones who got lucky or had friends in higher places. Can you even conceive how much they collectively managed to steal? A billion here and billion there. As Everett Dirkson once said, “Sooner or later, it becomes real money.”
Our business elite robbed us blind and some did not go to jail. I’m talking about the CEOs who found loopholes and workarounds that allowed them to pilfer astonishing amounts of wealth as their companies collapsed around them. Equilar is a blue chip organization that benchmarks executive compensation. They revealed that Angelo Mozillo of Countrywide Financial had take-home pay for 2005-07 of $361.7 million. Richard Fuld pocketed 186.5 million in the last three years of Lehman Brothers’ existence. Kerry Killinger of Washington Mutual took home $36 million in 2005-07. The economy was literally melting all around us, while they took sweetheart deals and payouts with a level of greed that is almost unimaginable. I write this at one o’clock in the morning, sounding cool and clinical, but I feel purple with rage for what this did to you and me. To say I feel your pain is an understatement.
We have outsourced an astonishing number of jobs to other countries, thanks to the cheap labor that’s available overseas. Once our CEOs realized an organization’s most controllable expense is its workforce and every dollar saved there falls to the bottom line, they’ve become obsessed with cutting jobs for short term savings. As a result, we Americans manufacture little in the United States. Our technical support calls go to massive centers in India, and heaven knows where else, and every person who picks up your call represents a job that used to be here.
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Look around for a moment. Are you driving a foreign made vehicle? Where was your TV set manufactured? Check out your kids’ electronic games. Were they made in Chicago? I don’t think so—and that’s the tip of the iceberg. With the exception of a few pockets of local goods, we no longer make things here.
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General Motors declared bankruptcy. Who would ever believe General Motors would be forced to declare bankruptcy? Do you have any idea how big that is? Sadly, as General Motors goes, so goes Detroit. Quoting from a special report in Time Magazine, October 5, 2009: “By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit’s treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services. The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers’ union to reject a philanthropist’s offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans, unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11 percent. In Detroit, the unemployment rate is 28.9 percent. That’s worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent.”
Tell me, would your father even recognize this America?
Years ago, a bankrupt General Motors was unimaginable. They say GM at its worst was hemorrhaging almost $55,000 per minute. That’s the equivalent of one full size Chevy Suburban every 60 seconds. Every bad deal; every bad car; every million dollars wasted led to this monstrous debacle. The expense accounts, parties, booze, and waste were staggering. Make no mistake about it: we will pay the price of their bankruptcy for a long time.
Obama fired Rick Wagoner. “General Motors Corporation Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will step down immediately at the request of the White House.” I never met Rick Wagoner, but from a distance, as a car enthusiast and a Rick Wagoner watcher, I always liked him. I viewed him as the quintessential Boy Scout who would make a great neighbor and a trusted friend. Therefore, I took no glee in his departure. On the other hand, he wasn’t the right person for the job and hadn’t been for many years. GM made cars people didn’t want, and it hemorrhaged cash, including $50.7 billion in bailout money. Rumor has it that when GM unveiled the Aztek in 2001, there was only a gasp and then dead silence for this unspeakably ugly car, instantly hated by one and all. How in all that is holy could Wagoner allow a car like this to see the light of day? He should have laid his body in front of it before the image hit the press. Anyone who follows automobile engineering would look at that car and fall to the floor laughing. I remember seeing pictures of that thing at the unveiling and thinking one thing: We are dead.
As you can see, the poor leadership of Wagoner at GM devastated us all. What’s worse is the fact that he was forced out by the Obama administration. The president of the United States, in essence, fired a Fortune 500 CEO. That is not only absolutely unprecedented; it’s downright embarrassing. It took an act of government to do what a board of directors should have done a decade ago. The fact that his board didn’t remove this sadly ineffective CEO is a glaring example of failed leadership. This board had a moral and fiduciary responsibility to do what was in General Motors’ best interest. They proved to be absolutely worthless—cowards of the highest order—rich folks living in exclusive enclaves, conducting business on the golf course. If you think they give a damn about GM, I suggest you rethink your position. If you think they care one iota about your bailout money, or the fact that the U.S. government owns over 60 percent of General Motors as of June 1, 2009 , I suggest you rethink that position as well. Let me rephrase this:
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Our government owns nothing. We taxpayers are the owners. It was your money. That money is gone.
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U.S Government spends trillions to bail out private industry.
*As quoted from Newsweek, “The equity research division of financial firm Keefe, Bruyette & Wood estimates that the U.S. has spent $3.2 trillion and allocated $10.8 trillion. This includes bailouts financed by the Treasury, the Fed, the FDIC, and HUD.”
(* http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/wealth-of-nations/2009/04/27/ q-how-much-have-the-bailouts-cost-us-a-all-of-the-above.html)
The jury is still out on the government bailouts Obama provided to the mortgage, financial, automotive, and other sectors. No one is sure what negative financial consequences will result from this massive bailout move. My research shows the number will be somewhere in the trillions. In terms of effectiveness, who can say what life would be like without the bailouts, or how effectively the money was utilized? Ask eleven different economists and you’ll get fourteen different answers, so good luck with that. The US deficit just hit $1.4 trillion in September 2010. If you don’t find this frightening, you’re braver than I am.
I suspect much of our money went to prop up organizations that are doomed. Perhaps the funds saved a few companies and jobs here and there, but it’s a nice way to disguise business models that are no longer viable. Cash is a soothing balm for the dysfunctional and the broken. I believe the bailout money was, for the most part, spent in ways so inefficient and wasteful they’re beyond our comprehension.
In the world of high finance and big government, much has happened in a short time. Financially speaking, it’s all bad. Now is the time for us as a people to move on and look forward, because if we can adapt, change, and persevere, the best may be ahead of us. Creating a new and better world should be the personal objective of every one of us. The first step in doing this is to remain forward-thinking and hopeful.
Chapter 5
The Underbelly of Corporate America
And sometimes I actually start to think human life is just as cheap to corporate America as animal life, so long as there are big profits to be made.
—Tom Scholz
I want to be nice. I want to start out on the right foot, on a positive, uplifting note about life in corporate America. Let me struggle for civility in the hope of providing a fair and balanced commentary.
For openers, let me say I’m sure many corporate enclaves foster growth, creativity, and a sense of real purpose. They employ honest people pulling together for the common good; well-meaning people trying to do what’s right for their fellow employees inside the organization, as they attempt to be good corporate citizens in the community. If you keep your head down, do your job, and try to get along, things may work out fine for you in such a corporation. Perhaps you’ll land in a good, decent place to work. Fifteen to 20 percent of companies reflect this almost Utopian ideal. Don’t let me discourage you from pursuing a dream job in corporate America. Perhaps you can use your sphere of influence to change your corporation in some small way for the good. I applaud you for that.
There you have it. I’m done. I tried, but that’s the best I can do. Now let’s move on to the vast majority of corporations in America: ugly, brutish places where power struggles are more important than productivity, and who you know matters infinitely more than what you know. Understanding how to get along is critical here. Be careful of what you say, what you do, and who and what you endorse. Form the wrong loyalties and you’ll find swift punishment meted out by those whose sensibilities, monstrous egos, and political agendas you offended. Do you want to be in the loop about details of an important project? Do you want to ever attend another important meeting related to your career and your responsibilities? Yes, you say? Then be careful how you play the game. Let me give you a quick tip: if the day ever comes when eye contact is suddenly diminished and people stop talking with you, then you’re in big trouble.
Corporate America is a great place if you want to climb to the top of whatever pile happens to interest you. If you have no problem viewing going to work as going to war, there’s a place in corporate America just for you.
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If you fall into the category of angry bully, you’ll love corporate America. Possess a tendency toward malevolence, coupled with a Machiavellian outlook on life? Welcome home, baby!
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Hoping to show all those bastards from high school a thing or two? Looking for the opportunity to kick some serious ass? If you’re a proficient kicker with a title and a little talent, you’ll thrive in this environment. If you epitomize Napoleon, thrive on a diet of passive aggressive behavior, and love to win at any cost, you’ll flourish in corporate America. Show me an angry, short man with enough talent to get by, and I’ll show you a perfect player for this sad game. It’s like mother’s milk to them. Are you misogynistic and a big fan of buff guys with golf shirts? This job is for you. Are you good at holding a grudge based upon a perceived slight that was so unintentional, so long ago, and so devoid of meaning that you’re still angry but can’t remember why? Your cubicle is waiting. Welcome home to corporate America.
Angry women can also prosper in corporate America. Do you want to show all your friends their lives are no better than yours? Are you obsessed with being a mom, a wife, and an executive? Did you miss going to the prom? Been in a bad mood since college? Well, come on down, because the coffee’s hot and they’re waiting just for you.
If you don’t fall into any of the psychotic profiles above, life in these environs might be a problem for you. I suggest you carefully consider the following before you make your deal with the devil:
1. There’s an excellent chance you won’t enjoy your job if you’re reluctant to enter the game of down and dirty office politics and not willing to play it every single day.
2. You won’t even be a serious player if you think the job is about survival of the smartest as opposed to survival of the snarkiest. As an aside, this is exactly why so many corporate CEOs seem incompetent when they’re forced to speak publicly about whatever odious event has taken place within their ranks. Few know what to say; few know how to say it; and few should be CEOs in the first place.
3. If you’re looking for an organization where you can do good work, speak your mind in an honest and forthright manner, and let the pieces fall where they may, corporate America may not be the ideal place to ply your craft.
Do you think I’m exaggerating? Do some research and draw your own conclusions. If you want to go back a bit, read Up the Organization (2) by Robert Townsend and see what it was like back in the day. Want to see more recent information and opinion? Read Dominique Browning’s lovely memoir, Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas and Found Happiness. (3) For a different perspective, watch the movie “Up in the Air” for a sad, yet realistic, take on just how depressing this life can be.
One of the biggest issues for corporate workers is the endless pressure to keep the head count down and hire as few full time employees as possible. Who comes, who goes, and how much work is on everyone’s plate is just the tip of the iceberg. This downward pressure on head count exists because payroll always takes a large chunk of the corporate budget—a fixed overhead that must be paid every week. And, it’s the single most controllable expense in the organization. What manager could resist tinkering with it?
Corporate America always wants to save money to keep stock-holders happy. How could we achieve that end? Cut the electric bill or get cheaper computers? Probably not viable solutions. Stop giving away free coffee? That would only save a few pennies. Cut personal days and reduce benefits? You might save a few bucks here, but honestly these solutions aren’t big enough.
Wait! What about cutting jobs? We could stop replacing employees who leave. What about doing more work with fewer people? That seems fair. The salaried folks can move faster, come in earlier, and stay later. They will burn out, you say? No problem; they can be replaced.