The Falling-Down Professions
January 7th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
The most e-mailed article (registration required) on the Times website right now is a must-read for anyone who wants a snapshot of how much upheaval there is in the global workforce.
The gist of it is that those two time-honored jobs (doctor and lawyer) don’t have the luster they once had. As the piece notes, “pay is still good (sometimes very good), and the in-laws aren’t exactly complaining” but there isn’t the same level of social status that there used to be.
“Especially among young people, professional status is now inextricably linked to ideas of flexibility and creativity, concepts alien to seemingly everyone but art students even a generation ago.”
The story goes on to talk about tech billionaires and investment bankers as the new cool, but we’d argue that you could take the money and status elements out of this story and it would still hold up. Flexibility, creativity, autonomy. This is what everyone wants from work.
It’s not because people are spoiled. Or have a short attention span. The reason is that control has become a form of currency. Freedom is a form of compensation. And when you look at what a grind both the legal and medical professions have become, it makes you shudder. People would rather have a life and we don’t blame them.
what a great blog… great info and truly has a thumb on the heartbeat of the workforce.
Give the 50 and over a chance to contribute to the home or telecommute workforce as well. Some of us are very healthy and are in touch with the digital world. It would be nice to have a place to go andget a job in this telecommute world!
Cali and Jody,
The two of you have a fine balance and a fine blog. I appreciate you emailing me to let me know about your site. I will subscribe in bloglines right now and look forward to your future writing.
David
1/2 of Slacker Manager
You are absolutely right about that. Who cares about status if you don’t have time to live your life?
I really like your blog BTW!
We were with two lawyer friends at dinner on Friday night and this was the major source of conversation. There really is a better way, and I truly believe that ROWE IS THE ANSWER!
Carry on! Love the blog!
Great blog!
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