Employeeship

Some colleagues and I were discussing the pros and cons of being an employee these days. All of us had started as employees, had done so for 20+ years, and then had struck out on our own for one reason or another. A few common observations were noted:

• Being an employee these days was not as much fun as it used to be. Why so? Job insecurity, and work pressures all played a part but a troubling commonality was a perception was what I'll term the 'commoditization' of the work force. The 'people as parts' motif is probably a bit overused but seems applicable in this environment of layoffs and 'special assignments'. (The latter being a euphamism for a purgatory-like state prior to leaving the firm.) No longer were your coworkers people you chose to socialize with outside of work, work/life balance also ensured that you kept your relationships distinct.
  
• Managers were much better these days. Note that we all worked for Fortune 500 firms with vigilent HR groups and lots of leadership training. Shenanigans in the workplace were not tolerated. As always, of course, the higher one rose, the more latitude was given. (My classic memory was of a director giving a staffer a 'twin peaks' award. A reprimand later, he has since moved on, AND UP, into another IT group.) Nonetheless, people are people, and there still are plenty of managers to go around who wildly overestimate their capabilities and survive by staying one step ahead of their reputations.
• Regardless of what people say, 'overworked' is a relative term. Discounting contractors, who pretty much score the green for every minute worked, the amount of overhead work for employees just continues to soar. Special task forces, limited duration teams, leadership initiatives, and so on all seem to contribute to the dissipation of one's energies and focus. The reality is, we all agreed, that come 'review time', those things mattered not a whit if the employee couldn't excel at their primary assignment. People complained of long work days but a further analysis revealed that the balloon only contorted in a different direction when squeezed. A long Monday through Thursday meant a half day Friday or a work-from-home day. (We each could identify situations where 'remote workers' were seemingly inaccessible the whole day - clearly a management problem, of course.)

Of course these were all generalizations and wouldn't preclude this door being opened in the future, but doing so would be on our terms.