One of the hardest concepts to get across to most people is that the world we live in today is not the same one that our parents or grandparents grew up in yet we are still held to the ideas and ideals from that era.
When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 it marked the change in era from the Industrial Age to the Information Age.
With that came a change in corporate structure and corporate strategy.
Where does that leave the employee? The company you work for has changed.
In the Industrial Age you started on the ground floor of a company and stayed with them for years, working your way up through the ranks and eventually you would retire at or near the top.
It was not uncommon for employees to be with a company for 30, 40 even 50 years.
Employees were loyal to the company and the company was loyal to them.
Downsizing wasn't a word and most companies provided their employees with pension plans and health care to aid and assist the employee through their "Golden Years".
It was a give-and-take relationship where both sides could prosper.
In 1979 we started to see a slight shift in the thinking relative to the question of, "who is responsible for taking care of the employee during retirement.
" What happened in 1979? Well a year earlier Congress amended the Internal Revenue Code to include section 401(k) and the first plans were introduced in 1979.
Don't get me wrong, I love the 401(k), it just marked the point where this burden became a shared effort.
As we have seen over the years companies have all but abolished the pension plan and more-and-more have reduced their employer contributions to the 401(k) leaving the full burden of retirement planning on the employee.
As we moved into the Information Age we began to see an even more disturbing change.
The employee was being viewed as an expense rather than an asset.
Everything, and I mean everything, became focused on the bottom line.
"Downsizing" and "Corporate Restructure" became everyday terminology.
It was no longer just the retirement years that the employee had to be concerned about but they now had to wonder if they would have their job next year, next month, next week - you get the picture.
It became rare to work your way up and more-and-more employees had to jump from company to company just to move up the ladder.
If you were lucky enough to keep your job during a downsizing, what did that mean for you? All of the same work needed to get done.
Yes, technology may have helped some, but those that remained now had to pick up the slack.
That meant longer hours to get the job done.
The employee became a slave to the trade and for the benefit of whom? It certainly wasn't the employee.
No, it was for the company and the investors.
The employee is left making a living but for what? What good is it if you have no time to live? The path to real success is a long and uncertain one when it is taken within the confines of Corporate America.
The bottom line is this: your company no longer cares about you.
It is sad to say but in most cases it is true.
All they want and expect is your input towards their bottom line and when push comes to shove and the investors get antsy..
...
guess who has to bear that load? That's right, the quickest way to improve a bottom line is to reduce expenses and the quickest way to do that is to cut salaries.
So after this long ramble, the point that I am getting at is that things have changed and if you want to position yourself in a situation where you are living a life that benefits you then you have to let go of those old beliefs.
You need to take care of yourself first and take control of your destiny.
I am not saying that you cannot benefit others along the way, I encourage that.
You just shouldn't work so hard only for the benefit of others.
Take control! Make your own decisions! Spend your time how you want, doing the things you want to do and with the people you want to be with! Live your life the way you want!