Today’s new, transformational workplace offers:
- No jobs or careers for life
- No long (or short) term job security
- No guaranteed benefits
- No guaranteed sick pay, vacation pay, or pension plans
- A workplace where industries are here today and gone tomorrow
- A global workplace where companies outsource jobs just to survive
- A workplace where technology is replacing jobs
- A workplace where less than 9% of all workers work in manufacturing-related jobs (33% of all workers worked in manufacturing-related jobs in the prime of the Industrial Age)
Today’s workplace is called the PROTEAN WORKPLACE
Google the term Protean Workplace or Protean Careers. It means that individuals can no longer depend on companies (employers) to take care of them. It means that businesses can no longer rest of their laurels (Blockbuster Video, Borders, Netflix, etc.) given unprecedented global competition. It means that individuals must take personal responsibility for the management of their livelihoods and careers.
The shift from the Industrial Age to the Protean workplace is creating societal upheaval and anxiety unlike anytime in history; and goes well beyond “cyclical.” Just look around – there are no “labor intensive” industries on the horizon that will create the 20+ million jobs needed in America and 1.8 billion needed worldwide (Source: Gallup Corp., 2012).
A SHIFT to a new transformational workplace
The American workplace has seen, and will continue to see, a monumental SHIFT where employers will no longer take care of employees or be responsible for the livelihood of individuals. Today, and for the foreseeable future, individuals must assume full responsibility for the management of their own careers and sources of income. And many are turning to career coaches for help!
Many factors have contributed to this workplace shift led by technology and outsourcing. Technology, automation, and robotics are eliminating jobs. Freed from the shackles of communism in the early 1990’s, 1.8 billion new inductees have delved into the free market system from all the countries once dominated by the Soviet Union. It’s not just India and China that US businesses are outsourcing work to.
The Good News?
Though there may be limited jobs, for the first time in history there are unlimited opportunities. Almost everyone can reach out and touch 7+ billion people around the globe for new jobs, new opportunities, new markets, and new market opportunities… for FREE! Doing so however requires a complete shift in the way we think.
8 Success Principles of the Protean Workplace
- Assume Personal Responsibility
- Direct Your “Thoughts” and RETHINK What You Know
- Anticipate and Rapidly Adapt to Change
- Build and Maintain a Positive Circle of Influence
- Continually Increase Your Market Value
- Generate Financial Well-Being – Live Within Your Means
- Safeguard Your Physical and Emotional Health
- Act Deliberately; React Appropriately; Adapt as Necessary
Job seekers must become opportunity seekers; the entrepreneurial spirit must be reignited throughout our society; and our educational system, the Workforce System, career coaches, and employment professionals / authors must acknowledge this shift and better prepare students and customers for what has already arrived… the new, global, and perplexing workplace.
6 initial strategies for thriving in this transformational workplace
- Reduce television time and spend an hour a day contemplating the future and where you fit in. You can’t change anything tomorrow with the same thoughts you have today.
- Don’t put all your financial eggs in one basket; consider multiple sources of income.
- Bring more value to the marketplace tomorrow than you did today; invest in lifelong education and increase your worth, so you are compensated accordingly.
- Create your own job. You don’t have to invest big bucks to start a business. Just seek out opportunities and go for it! Become a painter, a cook, an electrician, a subcontractor, or form a web-based business. Be resourceful and identify ways to self-generate income.
- Downsize your life and live within your means. The federal government is broke and most states are as well. All of society must become fiscally responsible.
- Invest in good health. No one can build a thriving future with poor health, no energy, and a negative mindset. We all must work as hard on ourselves as we do on our careers.