Thank you for this post it hit on something I've been thinking about for a long time - the role that companies are actually able to play in helping people develop.
As the over simplification goes: "there was a time when companies took care of you until retirement so long as you did what you were told. ". Yet now the world is different, dynamic, fast so we have to own our own development... Except that's also not really true. Companies often have the best understanding (in aggregate) of their needs and rough direction.
I sometimes think the dynamics today are more driven by a cultural desire to change easily and avoid conflict rather than inability. Companies could offer long-term employment and well structured development. It's much easier to have a culture where employees own their development - when things do change it makes the conversations easier and limits the complexity. I also think it doesn't help the company's long term success.
Companies succeed in the long term by doing things better than others in their space. Task focused employees rotating in and out, don't help that.
The future likely holds more of the same - lots of jobs which are task focused yet with a lot of underlying complexity. When allowed I would expect these AI tools to dominate in screening and selection of the "best" candidates from a mass of applicants.
Yet most employers for most roles struggle to get enough qualified candidates - depressed or otherwise.
I think the identity thing is important. However it’s mostly theoretical educated people that it’s important to. For blue collar jobs identity is less important. So be sure to avoid the bias from our lens through which we look at work.
From my experience blue collar workers are often the most strongly aligned with their roles - a lot of pride in their professions and loyalty to their brands, factories or teams. Identity is critical. And I think that's also why it's hard for blue-collar workers to shift industry or skills when retrenched, their profession is such a strong part of their identity.
I see more identity-confusion in white-collar workers as they struggle to figure out what is the value that they really create in jobs that often seem abstract or distant to the actual creation of "stuff".
True I think we are saying the same thing. For blue collar identity is less of an issue because their work is so clear. 😬 so identity IS very important it’s just not so much of a problem for them to see the value of their work
Thank you for this post it hit on something I've been thinking about for a long time - the role that companies are actually able to play in helping people develop.
As the over simplification goes: "there was a time when companies took care of you until retirement so long as you did what you were told. ". Yet now the world is different, dynamic, fast so we have to own our own development... Except that's also not really true. Companies often have the best understanding (in aggregate) of their needs and rough direction.
I sometimes think the dynamics today are more driven by a cultural desire to change easily and avoid conflict rather than inability. Companies could offer long-term employment and well structured development. It's much easier to have a culture where employees own their development - when things do change it makes the conversations easier and limits the complexity. I also think it doesn't help the company's long term success.
Companies succeed in the long term by doing things better than others in their space. Task focused employees rotating in and out, don't help that.
The future likely holds more of the same - lots of jobs which are task focused yet with a lot of underlying complexity. When allowed I would expect these AI tools to dominate in screening and selection of the "best" candidates from a mass of applicants.
Yet most employers for most roles struggle to get enough qualified candidates - depressed or otherwise.
I think the identity thing is important. However it’s mostly theoretical educated people that it’s important to. For blue collar jobs identity is less important. So be sure to avoid the bias from our lens through which we look at work.
From my experience blue collar workers are often the most strongly aligned with their roles - a lot of pride in their professions and loyalty to their brands, factories or teams. Identity is critical. And I think that's also why it's hard for blue-collar workers to shift industry or skills when retrenched, their profession is such a strong part of their identity.
I see more identity-confusion in white-collar workers as they struggle to figure out what is the value that they really create in jobs that often seem abstract or distant to the actual creation of "stuff".
True I think we are saying the same thing. For blue collar identity is less of an issue because their work is so clear. 😬 so identity IS very important it’s just not so much of a problem for them to see the value of their work
Agreed! 😊