Duals & Duets on the Subject of Work

Moi, A Star?

 

I should imagine my career the same way a movie star does, is that what you’re saying Straight Shooter?

That’s a fairly easy thing to do while I’m watching the Academy Awards. All those beautiful people, dressed in their best, living out their fairytale-like lives. I wish I could have even half of what’s in one of those swag bags.

But back to the metaphor, the Oscars’ stage reminds me of how people show up at professional conferences; the presentation-makers seem to become more and more important as they take the stage. The set up is right, their get-ups are perfect, and the introduction that the session manager makes, it elevates the presenter for days to come.

What if everyone walked into their workplaces with such fanfare, would more or less get done? Would your employer feel honored to be in your presence? Would your company push you to be the best you can be? Would your supporting cast members stand by encouraging you to give it your all?

If all this happened would many more of us be what Seth Godin calls remarkable? Is it nature or nurture that produces success in the workplace?

There are companies like Google where the campus, culture and compensation are set up to free workers to focus on their jobs. You don't have to leave to get a massage, a custom meal, or your clothes cleaned. The place is so comfortable that no one wants to (or needs to) leave. It’s a movie set like microcosm that works

But maybe it’s not at all about material externals like “the set” or “the get-ups” or even “the work”, maybe it’s about the people. Take, for example, Oceans Eleven, it’s a movie without much of a plot, yet it does present a great roster of stars who like to work with each other so they show up (for less than normal pay) to make the films again and again. Too bad the end result isn’t magnificent.

In business, I think it’s a little different. People might agree to work for a little less (although unless they have a stake in the endeavor I’m not sure they should) or even free but the end result they seek is something magnificent. My favorite example is of some fellows from the UK who came to New York to bring a new technology to market- they walked up and down Broadway looking up at the skyscrapers and said, “ Those buildings are filled with our soon to be customers- all of them need our products.”

The energy and enthusiasm and even arc of the story were so very Hollywood. These guys were sure they were remarkable and that they had something remarkable to offer. That’s the feeling we should all have when we come to work each day.

Why don’t most of us?

THIS IS A SPECIAL REPORT

Straight-Shooter filling-in for Ivory Towers.

Ivory’s busy facilitating peaceful transitions in an alternate workplace, so she’s asked me to intervene with a Guest Blog BEFORE …before… Gee Whiz Street,you’ve already likened a free-agent worker to a call girl.

Take a chill pill, dear. You know there is another way of looking at things. Listen to what Seth Godin once told me in an interview. He said that he always suggests that people imagine themselves working in Hollywood, specifically, on a movie set. It’s a given that filming will eventually end and that everyone will one day go home or move on to their next project, right?

Well Godin says that today’s jobs are like that …sooner or later production ends and even if you’ve played your role brilliantly, or especially if you’ve played your role brilliantly, your job disappears.

Not fair, you might be thinking.

Well, of course it’s fair, it’s a given. Your job exists for a finite period of time. It might be two months, it might be ten years, it’s a one day at a time deal.

Knowing this, what do you do? You give a stellar performance, of course. And you do what you can to make a good impression and to be loved by everyone. You want them to invite you to work on their next project, don’t you?

So Street, drop the call girl metaphor and become a movie star (or whatever the corresponding version is in your workplace.) Be the chic that everyone wants on their next flick. When the demand is there you can pick your part AND name your price.

Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places?

So Ivory, You say that “Today’s career seems to have evolved into a series of mutually informed contracts between those with talent and those with opportunities for work,” and I don’t disagree, but I’m also not sure that the average corporate worker has fully embraced the tentative nature of his/her

Employment.

My bet is that if you stood at the employee entrance of a Fortune 50 firm and asked people to initial the Employee at Will Clause ("If you accept our offer of employment, you will be an employee-at-will, meaning that either you or the company may terminate our relationship at any time for any reason, with or without cause") you’d cause quite a stir.

The average worker still believes that an employer intends to retain him/her over the long(er)-haul, and ideally, that’s true; after all, don’t companies hire contractors/consultants to do urgent or unique, short- term projects and employees for their “infrastructure” roles?

I liken the notion of employment to living together or some modern marriages (The agreement: “I dig you, you seem to dig me. We could make beautiful music together. Move in; we’ll share space and assets to build something great together over an extended period of time”) and contracting or free-agency to a callgirl/boy service (The agreement: “I need you. I need you now. I have no time for sweet-talk. I haven’t the bandwidth for commitment. I’ll pay you whatever you charge, let’s get on with it, NOW.”)

The expectations and remunerations are very different though the writing on the wall is not. I find this all kind of disturbing, but I do know what to do. I’m going to go to the gym and blast “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” over the sound system and see how many people I can get to sing along.