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A Changing Working World
Conditions of work have changed dramatically in the past 25 years. I remember how thrilled I was when in 1972 I landed
my first job out of college, with the whopping salary of $9,000 per year. I was a
budget analyst for a small city government, but we didn't have a computer. We
worked out the city budget with desktop calculators. In my next job the situation
was much the same. If we needed to make multiple copies of a document, we used a
mimeograph or ditto machine. We had to get written approval to use the xerox.
We didn't get word processors until the late '80's, and then only the clerical staff
were allowed to use them. It wasn't until the '90's that my employer issued
personal computers to all staff and set up an internal e-mail system.
Technology changed everything, of course. It made work easier and increased our
productivity by many times. Salaries got higher. But it brought about another
major change in work conditions that I and many others had never expected:
downsizing. Companies no longer needed in fact, couldn't afford so many
high-priced workers. So while in the past you would expect to take a job as a
permanent employee and spend all your working years with one employer, today you
have to plan on working in several different jobs during your career. You might
always be on renewable contracts without ever becoming a "permanent" employee of a
firm. Even in academia, the idea of tenure is becoming a thing of the past.
While this is a pain in the neck for the employee, it isn't bad for the economy.
If businesses are free to retool their staff to meet the needs of a rapidly changing
market, they'll be more competitive and the whole economy will do better which
translates into more jobs. Job insecurity does have benefits for the employee,
too. It forces you to keep on your toes and continue learning as technology and
needs change. It also requires that you plan ahead. You can't rely on your company
to give you a pension and good health insurance over the long term if you'll only be
with that company a few years. You need to start managing your finances so that you
have a nest egg to hold you over during periods, perhaps several months at a time,
when you're between jobs, as well as in your retirement years.
I worked for a government agency but, like private corporations, it went through its
own painful downsizing a few years back. Many folks like myself, who had expected
at least ten more years with the agency, suddenly found themselves on the job market
again, competing with people in their twenties and thirties. Lots of them still had
to worry about paying off mortgages and financing their children's college
education. Panic time.
Recently I interviewed a dozen or so colleagues who had been downsized out of their
jobs but successfully settled in satisfying new careers, to see if their experiences
offered any lessons. They had differing professional backgrounds and went into a
variety of second careers, from jobs very similar to those they had left behind to
forays into teaching and independent small business. But I did find some factors in
common.
Most of them did a great deal of self-examination before they started marketing
themselves. They figured out what they had really liked and really disliked about
the work they had been doing, then focused in on jobs that would let them to do the
things they liked and did well. The idea of doing something they really liked and
excelled at - and having more fun at it than they had at the jobs they left - gave
them enthusiasm and confidence to start their job searches. And that, of course,
made them come across better to new employers. One secretary friend, for example,
decided that she loved typing and shorthand but really hated the administrative
parts of the job. With the advent of the PC, typing and shorthand are no longer
sorely needed skills for many employers, but she found one market for them. She
learned to use the stenographic machine and became a court reporter, a field much in
demand in our litigious society.
Another common factor among these folks was their lack of concern about status.
Some of them had risen to responsible management positions with all the perks that
accompany them. In the jobs they sought, they would be contract employees with no
seniority, smaller offices, nobody to supervise, and more hands-on "grunt" work
than they had done in years. That didn't phase them. In fact, some of them found
it refreshing to be relieved of the headaches of managing and back to technical
work they found stimulating. I'm one of those. Though I'm earning less as a
business writer than I used to as a manager, I"m no longer losing sleep over
personnel issues.
A final factor was that they had taken pains to keep in touch with friends and
coworkers from over the years. This gave them a wide network of contacts who were
pleased to do what they could to help out a friend. And in many cases, it was
these friendships that opened up the new job opportunities.
Greatly as the job market has changed in the past 25 years, it's likely to change
even faster in the future with the astounding technological advances we see all
around us. It pays to be prepared for the possibility of having to seek work not
just once but multiple times. In a growing economy, this isn't a fearful
proposition if you plan ahead. Keep learning, understand what kinds of work you
like and do well, maintain your friendships, and have an open mind about the
directions your career path might take.
Written By: Vivikka Molldrem