Careers Have Changed Forever

Go to school, get good grades, get into college, become a professional and work your way up the corporate ladder until you can retire with your savings or a pension. That’s the plan for a lot of people and despite what a lot of hustle bros on the internet might tell you, it’s a good plan if you can stick to it.

9-5 jobs are picked on a lot usually by people that need a way to sell a get rich quick scheme.

The standard 40-year professional career has let millions of people enjoy very comfortable lives free from the stress that comes with being in business for themselves, but that is all coming to an end.

In just the last 24 months we have experienced quiet quitting, quiet hiring, work shortages AND labor shortages, what a lot of people aren’t talking about though is how this is just the result of companies still trying to make outdated business models work in an age where workers can demand more from their employers.

The establishment of the 40-year career is crumbling and there are some employers and employees that are doing a great job taking advantage of it, and there are others that are suffering.

The first trend is that despite the pervasive stories about hustle culture and people making partner before the age of 30 while also building out a side business that drop ships physical NFT’s through the myspace storefront, the average worker is not grinding, they are getting less ambitious.

A wall street journal article surveyed a range of businesses in demanding fields that are usually staffed by ambitious workers like law, business consulting, and marketing.

The companies all reported challenges with getting their employees to go above and beyond which is really corporate speak for working late and coming in on weekends.

A law firm told the Wall Street Journal reporters that typically they would have no problem getting junior associates to do extra hours to make sure time sensitive work was completed for their demanding clients.

But now new associates have started saying no to working weekends and late nights which is forcing the partners to bring on more staff and do the extra hours themselves, which let me just say as a former banking associate that has put in my fair share of weekends to suck up to a partner, this is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.

This kind of thing would never usually happen at places like this because elite legal and financial firms have an up or out policy with new associates, which means that within their first two years they get promoted to senior associate or they get asked kindly but firmly to leave the firm.

Unfortunately for the partners, they can’t afford to get rid of new graduates because of workers shortages so they have lost the threat of termination, and the reward of a promotion isn’t as appealing as it once was either.

In the same article an insurance firm told the Wall Street Journal of the difficulties they had been having with getting people to accept promotions. Managers often had to coax their staff into accepting more senior positions because the staff were preferring to stay in their current roles where they could manage their work life balance.

When workers are more afraid of being promoted than being fired it’s a clear sign that things are changing.

So it’s time to learn How Money Works and see why the 40 year career is dead and why that might be a good thing.