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Demystifying Resume Keywords
Many recruiters are now opting to scan applicant resumes into a computerized screening database system in their endeavors to simplify the screening and selection process. For a job seeker this means that when developing their resume they must not...
Education Needs to Emphasize Soft Skills that Translate into Hard Cold Cash
No Child Left Behind mandates have school systems scrambling to improve teaching, update curriculum, improve teacher quality and analyze data between different populations just to name a few of the many actions each school is facing. Yet, given...
Team Development and Learning
A tight knit team is a group of competent individuals who care deeply about each other and are fiercely committed to their mission. The members are highly motivated to combing their energy and expertise to achieve a common objective. From our...
The World's Best Ditch Digger! An Inspiration for Leadership Training
I would like to depart from my traditional articles to describe a great leader who was also a great friend. This departure is partly selfish, but I welcome an opportunity to describe a person from whom I learned many management and leadership...
Unemployment Blues: Are We Pre-Programmed To Be Productive?
Toiling away at our daily grind, we dream of running away to
Hawaii or the South Pacific where we can lie on the beach and do
absolutely nothing.
Some of us are lucky enough to take a vacation there and
temporarily cut ourselves off...
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Fire Your Boss! It's the Only Responsible Thing to Do
You may have been raised to think that firing your boss and becoming your own boss is an irresponsible, impulsive, and selfish thing to do. Think again.
Firing your boss may be the only responsible action to take if you want to build financial security for your family and provide the emotional security to your children that having parents involved in their daily lives provides.
Most companies are not family-friendly. Here are some enlightening statistics provided by mothersandmore.org.
• 70% of working fathers and mothers report they don’t have enough time with their children.
• 59% of women and 38% of men report they have no flexibility in determining the start and end times of their workday.
• 63% of all employees would like to reduce their current total work week if they could.
• 88% of women working part time are NOT likely to receive health insurance or pension benefits from their employers.
• Wage penalty for motherhood: 5% per child.
We are all brainwashed and trained at an early age by parents, teachers, and society that getting a job is what we are supposed to do. Maybe this was a good thing to do in the 1950s, 60s, and even 70s. I’m not sure. But things started changing rapidly in the 1980s with technological advances and the first big wave of corporate downsizing.
Before I go any further, I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I think all companies or organizations are bad. There are many organizations that have transcended the industrial-age command-and-control type mentality and offer team members opportunities to learn, grow, play, evolve as people, and have a fulfilling family life. These entities are to be applauded and celebrated. They have gone Cubeless. If you are lucky enough to work for one of these enlightened organizations, you may not need to read any further. (Please send me an email so that I can recommend your organization on my website: coach@corporaterebels.com).
If, however, you find yourself in a work environment that does not support your higher good, that prohibits emotions and passion, that requires you to wear the Corporate Cubeface, that punishes you for having a life outside of work, that has illogical rules for success like “work 70 hours a week and look and act like the CEO”, then it may be time for you to considering firing your boss. (I call these work environments the Corporate Cubeworld. Please visit www.culturebuilders.com for a detailed description of the Corporate Cubeworld.)
The Corporate Cubeworld no longer provides lifetime employment. The Corporate Cubeworld does not value family life. And technology has enabled anyone to start a business from anywhere.
The Conference Board released a report on February 28, 2005 stating that “Americans are increasingly unhappy with their jobs. The decline in job satisfaction is widespread among workers of all ages and across all income brackets.” The report showed that:
• 25% of American workers are just “showing up to collect a paycheck”
• 40% of workers feel disconnected from their employers
• Two out of every three workers do not identify with or feel motivated to drive their employers’ business goals and objectives.
They also found that money cannot buy satisfaction. Job satisfaction has declined across all income levels and only 14% of workers earning $50,000 or more are “very satisfied” with their jobs. The report says that “Rapid technological changes, rising productivity demands and changing employee expectations have all contributed to the decline in job satisfaction.”
My interpretation of this: the Corporate Cubeworld is inherently rigid and inflexible and demands more and more from workers who are less and less willing to surrender their lives to their jobs.
This report shows is that there is a LOT of unhappy workers in America today. Is there something wrong with all of these people or is it more plausible that there is something inherently broken in the Corporate world?
I would like to point you to a vision of an alternative work world. One in which you build a life while you build your business. One in which you build
multiple revenue streams, some active and some passive. One that is integrated with the life you want to be living.
A Vision of Life After You Fire Your Boss
and Step Outside of the Cubeworld
1)You feel passionate about the work you do.
2)Your work is an expression of your true self.
3)You are free to express your passion and all of your other natural, human emotions.
4)Cooperation is valued over competition.
5)Mindful parenting is viewed as important and challenging work that adds to your value as a worker.
6)Personalized vision and purpose statements replace titles.
7)Office spaces are wherever you work most effectively and efficiently (i.e. park bench, coffee shop, home office).
8)Work hours are flexible and determined by your body clock, lifestyle, and inspiration.
9)You are free to pursue many vocations simultaneously.
10)The point is not to climb a linear, vertical career ladder, but to try on different works, fail joyously and repeatedly, while building wealth, having fun, and learning.
My vision for the future is one in which Corporate Cubeworlds are rare. They become extinct because people are no longer willing to work in Cubeworlds. The Corporate Cubeworld comes down like the Berlin Wall. In order to attract workers, companies find that they must go Cubeless.
Do I seem idealistic to you? Do you think that my vision is impossible?
I know that it is possible because I have coached hundreds of people out of the Cubeworld and into lives that are fun and that work for them.
The real key is not to trade one boss for another boss. Stop trading your time for dollars. Stop being a wage slave.
All Corporate Cubejobs are earned income jobs. You trade your time for dollars. If you stop trading your time, the dollars stop coming. This is a huge problem if you decide to have a baby, or you get sick, you want to take an extended vacation, or are ready to retire, etc.
Often people go from a salaried earned income situation to a self-employed earned income situation and not a whole lot changes. Maybe they work from home. Maybe they now answer to clients instead of a direct boss. Maybe they work less. Maybe they work more.
But often the self-employed need to work ON the business and IN the business. Many people find themselves working MORE to make the same money or working less and making a lot less money. And the self-employed often think about work 24/7 even if they aren’t working 24/7. As a self-employed person, you become responsible for marketing, sales, bookkeeping, operations, and fulfillment.
So, how do you build a company and life that works? I believe that the best situation is one in which you pursue your passion as directed by your heart and that you build a business that offers multiple streams of passive income in addition to your earned income.
Passive (or residual income) is income that you collect from your indirect or past action. For example, I can coach a person on the phone and charge them $150 per hour and trade my time for dollars. This is earned income. I can also offer a tele-class and charge $49 for each participant (earned). But I can also record the class and continue to offer the recording to others (passive).
There are so many exciting ways to combine earned and passive income. It requires imagination, courage and planning.
Are you ready to Fire Your Boss and start creating work that you love, that gives you energy, and that feeds your soul? Are you ready to secure your retirement by creating passive revenue streams in addition to your earned income streams?
Are you ready to evaluate work, relationships, and opportunities by the amount of joy they give you?
About the Author
©Debra Thorsen. Debra can help you achieve success, happiness, and wealth outside of the corporate world. Debra is a certified coach of the Newfield Network, has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon, and a BA in Cultural Anthropology. Debra has been guiding people out of the corporate world to find their bliss for over 8 years. Join the Fire Your Boss 12-week coaching program at http://www.corporaterebels.com
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