Blog Post: Planning For Your Employment -- The Future Of Work

Time Magazine's May 14, 2009 issue covered "The Future Of Work."  In it, articles addressed such topics as: "The Way We'll Work," "The Search for the Next Perk," and "The Last Days of Cubicle Life."  Four months later, Time Magazine had "Out Of Work In America" emblazoned upon its cover.

This isn't a reflection of suddenly changing times, nor an acknowledgement of economic realities.  The Future Of Work acknowledged that unemployment was at a 25 year high.  Part of the May 14 message was that corporations will begin focusing on finding essential people and outsourcing the rest. The September issue showed the various faces of unemployed people, each seeking an employer who would find them essential.

Petti Van Rekom, guest speaker at ASTD-OC's Career Management Special Interest Group meeting this October, sees this as evidence of a cultural shift in the workplace. The last cultural shift happened in the 1970s, as employees started viewing work less as a means to an end and more of an opportunity to performing something meaningful.  The current shift isn't well defined yet, but Petti believes that the new work model should be something the employee addresses while corporations are figuring things out.

We often make plans for our career. These career plans tend to be linear outlines of where we see ourselves this year, next year, five years down the line.  The proposal in October's SIG Meeting was that each person should develop a Self Employment plan.  This is not to say that each person needs to become self employed, but that each Self is in charge of his (or her) employment.

A Self Employment plan is a holistic approach to one's career.  It addresses both the internal and external needs of the employee.  An analogy used by Petti:  a Career Plan is akin to MapQuest directions; a Self Employment Plan is akin to a Travel Guide.

Here in Southern California a tourist has all sorts of options: amusement parks, museums, the beach.  As a tourist, well armed with a book filled with options, would you go where someone tells you to go? 

Probably not. You would evaluate where you want to go based upon your like and dislikes, and plan accordingly. Even should you follow a tour guide, you would have chosen the specific tour that you wanted.

There is a chance that the answer to that question might be "yes."  For example, you may end up in an amusement park even though you wanted to go to the beach, because you travelled with family.  Even so, you PLAN to go to Laguna Beach during your travel, meander through the art shops in the late afternoon, dine in a restaurant overlooking the ocean at sunset.

We began work on our Self Employment Plan by assessing our purpose for working, an acknowledgement of our current search for meaningful work.  From there we addressed the expectations we had for work, both external and internal. We compared these expectations to what our workplace currently delivers.

Why consider all this if we're just looking for a job?  
Because you want to make sure that you work for an employer whose values match yours.  Once you identify that you don't like amusement park environments, you'll avoid positions in companies that seem like a bunch of clowns (I just HAD to work that into the analogy).

Why consider a Self Employment Plan if you're currently employed?
Because if your workplace doesn't match your internal and external expectations, why are you there?  The answer to that question seems as obvious as a magazine cover: you're lucky to land a job at all. And that's fine. However, assessing these expectations allows you to PLAN for your future should you find yourself in need of employment, or in a position to further your career elsewhere.  Because whether you are currently employed or no, you (not the person signing your paycheck) are in charge of your career.  As such, we all are Self Employed.