Are You Feeling the Challenge?

Is your job getting harder?

Are you challenged by remote work? Work-life balance out of wack? Do you feel like you are more loyal to your company than your company is to you?

You may be feeling the challenge in your job that Nat and Pete talk to people about every day. See if you have one of the symptoms that might mean it's time to move on.

Transcript

Pete: Good morning, Nat. Good morning, Pete. Woo. I'm excited. 

Nat: Excellent. What are we talking about today? Oh, 

Pete: well, I got to tell you, I was at a wedding last week. Thanks for asking. And this wedding, it was, I hadn't been in a wedding in like eight years and the wedding my wife tells me you got to wear a tie.

I'm like, I don't wear ties anymore, you know, but she's like, you got to wear a tie. So I'm going to tie in a sport coat and that kind of stuff. But we're, it was an outdoor wedding. It was a really cool venue. So they got married in the woods and that kind of stuff. Yeah. And so it was really well done. And the, the, I guess it would be the person that's doing the.

the I guess it was the facilitator. I guess they call him now instead of the priest, the facilitator, she was, she was a dynamo and she was giving them advice about, as they form this marriage from that standpoint. And one of the things that you said is that you're going to face challenges and you just, you have to kind of[00:01:00] understand that challenges are going to come and you just, You have to be prepared for those.

Yeah. And, and I thought to myself, you know what, maybe we tie this into a podcast of get this 10 reasons why the traditional corporate career is facing challenges. What do you think? Huh? 

Nat: That sounds good. Yeah. Was this a younger couple? Yeah. Yeah. It was so, it's so much fun. 

Pete: Right. And a great wedding, wedding reception, all that kind of dancing and all that kind of stuff.

So, but you know, it's, it's funny because they're young. And you remember when you were young and married, where you're very opinionated and you know, you pick, you kind of pick positions and all that kind of stuff. And I think that's where they're at, right, is that you're just, you're, and stuff like that.

And so I think as we try to hold on to the corporate careers, there, there's a lot of stuff, the world is changing, where maybe the traditional corporate [00:02:00] career is. Is dying or it's almost dead. So let's talk about what's the first reason we think that the, you know, they've got challenges to the traditional work.

Well, we're kind of like 

Nat: Literally right now, we're, we're, we're, you and I, we're doing remote work, right? So we're like on zoom doing a podcast. So, I think a lot of channel, you know, part of the challenge is, you know, people working from their bedrooms or their home office on zoom, which is a lot different than being with people and collaborating.

Pete: Oh, absolutely. Well, when I was at Ford, I mean, it was FaceTime, right? So, I mean, literally, you, you had to be there early, you had to be there late, and, and, you know, people watched. Yeah, and let's just 

Nat: get, let's just clarify, when you say FaceTime, you're not talking about on the iPhone. 

Pete: No, no, no, it's literally, you, you had to have butts in the seat, in the 

Nat: office, that kind of stuff.

First one to leave type thing, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, for sure. I can't imagine that you were ever competitive with that. No, no, I was always the first one in the 

Pete: office. So, [00:03:00] although I had one boss that I could never beat in there, that guy would get in there like four in the morning. I'm like, you're killing me here.

So so for that's the point, but you know, so that remote work, what would be a second reason why kind of the traditional corporate careers is fading away? 

Nat: I think you know, the rise of the gig academy. So you think, you know, people are kind of more you know, want to be like Uber driver or deliver food.

 Or even, you know, you can get, you know, whatever your specialty is, whether it's, you know, writing or designing, you can get jabs on the website, you know, on the Internet, the gig Academy, I think, is giving people more independence which.

You know, because it competes with corporate, which could be 

Pete: perceived as corporations are now competing for this young talent that have other options. Like, when you and I graduated from college, you pretty much just got a job and. You want to work, right? Now, these young young people, [00:04:00] they have the ability to go.

I can do a corporate job, or I can go start my own gig because it's pretty. I could start out of my house with technology now. Pretty easy to 

Nat: do that, and they have the nerve to actually want to have some work life balance. 

Pete: Well, yeah, that's probably one of the 10 here. We'll get to that one for sure. Yeah.

But that is that the work life balance is a, is a big one. And you know, they, they, I mean, like at Ford, you just didn't have a lot of work life balance. And now I think people are demanding that to that's, that's just not an option to give up their whole life for their work. Right. 

Nat: Yeah, they're, they want to clarify like, so when you say, you know, I'm on salary, are we talking like, you know, nine to five?

Yeah. Dear God, you wouldn't want to ask them to, you know, work 50 hours a week. 

Pete: No, but it, but that, that balances, that is right. So. But yeah, well, that's interesting. You say that, right? So did [00:05:00] you you've been watching the UAW strike, right? A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So what, what are they looking for? They want money less, less hours, right?

Right. They want to work 32 hours and be paid for 40. Right. So that's example 

Nat: where there's a pretty good raise. That's like a 25 percent plus. They want more money on top of that, 

Pete: right? Absolutely. And I think it's, you know, part is that they're, they're working a lot of overtime. So although it says the 40 hour work week, they're working overtime and maybe a 60 hour work week.

And so I think they're trying to figure out how they get a little bit more balance, which I understand. All right. What would be another one? 

Nat: I think technology is key. You know, disrupting a lot of things. And so some companies are struggling to keep up with that, you know, whether that's art, you know, AI or, you know, literally kind of your job is changing or evolving and, you know, people are having a hard time keeping up.

Pete: Yeah. And I [00:06:00] think the AI is, we've talked about this before in podcasts, it's going to eliminate positions. I mean, you don't need four writers. You need one writer that can prompt GTP and basically proof. And so AI and technology is going to change the corporate career. We're just, they're going to need less managers.

They're going to need less people from a standpoint. And then not even to mention automated factories. Right? You know, I was just reading about Tesla, how they're building cars with these, these unibodies, where there's just less parts. So they need less people to put them together, less tech, it's just, it's very cool, the technology, but it is going to impact the traditional corporate career, for sure.

What would be another one? 

Nat: I think entrepreneur, like a lot of people, you know, obviously you and I are in franchising. So a lot of people are looking at entrepreneurial things. So you know, hey, how can I, you know, jump on the service economy, something that's Amazon proof and AI proof. And so, you know, that's [00:07:00] sucking people out of corporate America too.

Pete: It's like somebody that's investing in a service franchise. Yeah, right where they go and they you know, ai is not going to paint your house anytime soon Right. Nope. I don't think all right, you know, you may be able to build a house through a 3d printer But but you know painting I don't see that yet. But but who knows?

 But I think that's those are services that people can you know go do i'm sick of the corporate world I want to go invest in a franchise i'll go invest in something that You know, bottom line is it isn't going to be impacted by by all this kind of stuff. Perfect. All right. What would be another one?

Nat: I think people are not as loyal maybe as they used to be, you know, when we were growing up, you know, we would have like the uncle. Or, you know, we'd always know these guys that have been at the same place for 40 years. You know, and to their credit, they actually retired well and had a great pension and everything.

 But just none of that seems to [00:08:00] really, I mean, that's pretty rare when you come across somebody that's been at a company for more than seven years, I would say. 

Pete: Yeah, well, if the average person changes jobs four years, but you're right. It's that, but I think the loyalty is, is diminished on both sides.

Corporations are quick to cut people. And I mean, I talked to a guy that had been with the company for like 35 years and they just. Basically walked him out of the building and you're like, the guy just guy or gal just gave you a 35 years of their life and you don't give many dignity. You just literally walk them out of the place.

And so there just isn't loyalty out there. And that's that was one of the backbones of the corporate job, right? Is that I give you my life. You give me a great living. And in those days, I think are going away quickly for sure. Yeah. 

Nat: Yeah, that could contribute to a corporate, you know, the [00:09:00] traditional corporate career path having challenges.

Yeah, 

Pete: you think like an understatement, right? And again, we've talked about this, the fighting for the talent. So what would be so what would be another reason why the corporate career is facing challenges? I've seen a lot of companies are just kind of like flattening out the org chart, so they're you know, trying to move faster, be more nimble, but, you know, you've taken out a lot of middle management, so that's, you know, it just eliminating a lot of jobs right there, right?

Yeah, and we learned that in COVID, right? They figured out how we need less, less managers, less executives and stuff like that. So it is flattening out, and I think it's going to continue to flatten out even more. Yeah. The AI will just tell us what to do. . Yeah. 

that or my AI will be our that or my wife, one of the two AI or my wife is gonna tell me what to do.

So, yeah, for sure. Okay. What else? What, what would be another reason? I think the, [00:10:00] you know, I've been experiencing this even myself, just, you know, the pace of technological change. And having to always be adapting. So I think, you know, if people aren't willing to do that, acquire new skills, then, you know, they're going to kind of get left behind.

Yeah, and I'm a, I mean, I probably need to do better adapting to technology, right? So, right, right. You did pretty good. You did pretty good. So, but it would need to do more, right? But that's a big thing is that this, this idea of getting in there and, and acquiring new skills. And, and so if people aren't acquiring new skills, certainly that, that's gonna, that's gonna hurt the corporate career for sure.

All right. Won't be another reason. I 

Nat: think a lot of up and coming professionals, you know, they're looking to make a positive impact and have a sense of purpose. We talked about that a little bit before. And maybe sometimes they don't, they feel like that's lacking at corporate. So if, you know, corporate [00:11:00] isn't able to offer jobs or attract people that want to make an impact, then that's going to definitely make it more difficult.

Pete: Yeah, no question about it. And you always kind of say with the business, you're hyper local, right? Yeah. And you don't get that ability to be connected community if you're on a plane going somewhere every week or, you know, that kind of stuff. And so I do think that as people want to make more of an impact that does impact.

The corporate career, for sure. And what would be lucky number 10? I think 

Nat: it's something that's getting a lot of PR lately, is diversity and inclusion. So, you know, companies are prioritizing that and so everything, you know, a lot of corporation culture is getting reshaped and, you know, I think that that can be good.

 But it also can, you know, be challenging too. 

Pete: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that's, that's important. It's important stuff. And it is changing the face of the, the corporate corporate career [00:12:00] path for sure. Well, Nat we got to get going here because bottom line is that things are changing. And a good thing you and I escaped the corporate world.

But, but the idea is, is that it's just, it's, it's coming and it's changing that traditional corporate career is not going to be It's not going to be the same going forward, for sure. We know that. And that's why you always explore different opportunities. You go, do I start my own business? Do I start a consulting gig?

Do I have stuff? Because the traditional way, it's, it's it's going away. I think quickly. Yeah, these are 

Nat: exciting times to be alive. You know, so much has happened. It's almost like a hundred years of change is happening, you know, right now. And so I do think it's. You know, it's just time to kind of gut it up and, and embrace it.

Pete: Yeah, absolutely. All right, man. Well, have an awesome day. Thanks, Pete.