The current pandemic and its economic impact are triggering the rapid forward movement of a number of pre-existing trends in employment. Our approach to work must account for these shifts, and that may mean questioning much about what you thought you knew about the path to success.
Between 1978 and approximately 2012, the underlying supply and demand for lawyers was such that most lawyers did well financially and socially just by being competent. In the last eight years or so, having the ability to manage and lead or, alternatively, being affiliated with a firm that is capably managed has played an increasingly important role in impacting the arc of legal careers.
Similar trends have affected other professionals, such as doctors and CPAs, as well as corporate management in the U.S. All of these groups have seen the emergence of mega-sized organizations and, with it, growing income inequality between the top ten percent of earners in these occupations and everyone else.
Industries have consolidated, disintermediation has become the go-to cost-cutting strategy, and even professional services have been commoditized, leaving highly educated personnel with more obstacles to attaining what even average jobs provided ten to fifteen years ago. In short, many jobs, including those held by corporate managers and professionals, have seen a marked decline in quality. And that was before the pandemic.
When considering the impact of COVID-19 on one’s career, it is all too easy to overlook these ongoing trends and instead focus on the eye-popping number of people who have recently filed for unemployment compensation. Historically, however, except for those who are unfortunate enough to be working in particularly hard-hit industries, most professionals have bounced back rapidly from prior crises. To cite just one example, following the Great Recession, when the average duration of unemployment was a record thirty-nine weeks, the unemployment rate for those with college degrees or more went from two percent to five percent.
Thus, the primary question facing most professionals and corporate managers isn’t so much whether you will be employed. You very likely will. It’s more that your job and lifestyle have a good chance of deteriorating unless you make some changes.
And the first change you need to make involves your mindset. The old rules of career management told us that we could work up the ladder by staying loyal to an employer to make partner or reach the C-suite along a prescribed timeline. But in many service organizations, senior managers and owners are likely to respond to the current crisis by looking to reduce their single biggest and most regrettable expense – what they pay to everyone but the very highest performers. In other words, the coming months and years are going to see an acceleration of the trends that have made staying the course an increasingly risky way to manage your career.
Blindly assuming that loyalty and competence will be enough to avoid major career disruptions is likely to lead to a rude awakening when an employee’s loyalty is not returned. In a fast-moving environment, you need to focus more on what power you have and how to leverage it. And the best opportunities for power and leverage often lie in fostering our own strengths in service of the type of work we wish to pursue, the problems we wish to solve, and, perhaps most importantly, the people and causes we most want to serve.
If you are a professional or corporate manager, you will likely fare better in the next few years than many members of society. So, there is reason to be grateful. But if you want to excel and be less at the mercy of your boss and your employer, you will need to actively and strategically manage your career as never before.
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