Not me, but this NY Times article is about men who are.
Before moving to Texas, I was out of work.. for 1 year and 3 months. At first, it was like a nice long vacation - and then you think "well, I better get working again", and then the ideal job isn't there, and then you start running out of money, and then you panic. At least I did. It's amazing how much you notice how fast the money goes out when you have none coming in.
Reading the Times article, I don't get the sense that these guys are panicking. I can understand their point of view in really not trying that hard to get a new job. Once you don't have to work anymore, it sure can grow on you in a huge hurry. But what I've seen, and what the article covers, is that the not many people get anything long term. Nobody is ever going to earn a retirement at a company any more. Employers are intentionally turning over employees to prevent that. The result is that most people are going to bounce around in jobs, with sizeable gaps in between them.
What happens to a person then is really a matter of pure luck. Some people can get stuck in a job that doesn't pay them what their worth, and they'd be better off getting laid off and forced to find another job. Invariably it will pay more. For others, that other job may not come along at all.
I'm probably underpaid by about 15 grand.. but you know.. that doesn't matter. Total luck helped me fall into a niche that I think is going to be financially productive for a really long time. It's government work after all.
The one thing I have noticed though.. is that men are not as ambitious as they used to be. I see a lot more women who are now, because the work world is friendly to that. It used to be only men had a chance at the "big job". Now men seem to have an pathetic attitude towards that, as we are no longer defined by our jobs. Women, on the other hand, can be evil cut-throat bitches from hell because they've now got an opportunity to crush everyone else beneath their four inch heals.. and they're taking it.
Me.. I used to think I would be defined by my job, and I'd need to be a CIO someplace, or manage projects and so on. It's odd, but most men really don't seem to want to do that anymore, and I don't either. The money isn't that much better, and it's nothing but stress.
My guess is that for most men these days, they want to make some sort of mark someplace outside of work.
1 comment:
Well observed: well said.
But don't you think that there are many women playing the career game and insist their job is the most important thing in their lives, that are ultimately fooling themselves?
Post a Comment