Improve or perish

Communication World, Feb, 1997 by Frank Winston Wylie

* Bill, director of public relations of an eastern U.S. charity for 17 years under five different executive directors, had enjoyed excellent personnel evaluations. Then, his boss called him in and said, "I've decided that as part of our reorganization, I'm going to let you go."

* Mark, who'd had a heart attack two years earlier and a bypass six months ago, got an even simpler message after 22 years of devoted service as a media relations manager for a major corporation. His boss said, "We've got to reduce costs and you're one of the ones to go."

These stories provide a reality orientation to the current world of work. Now is when things are better than they will be. We may expect that the U.S. role in the world market will continue to decline, and indeed that we shall have to negotiate just to slow the progress of decline. The days of simplistic and superpower-dictated ways of life are past. So is the job world as we have known or even now imagine it.

Let's look at the scenario for this totally different and erratically changing world:

* Sudden and lasting unemployment are no longer a blue-collar monopoly. They affect all levels of work and seniority.

* High-paying production jobs are being replaced by low-paying service sector jobs. (In 1993, the U.S. ranked tenth in production salaries, nine dollars per hour less than Germany.)

* Competition for all jobs is far more intense than ever before.

* Immigrants, who account for 30 percent of the U.S. population growth (1994), are earning an increasing number of jobs.

* Women are taking an increasing share of higher-paying jobs, but generally have yet to achieve equal pay for equal work.

* Many jobs have been, and are being, exported to cheaper labor markets.

* We live in a mine field of racial, ethnic and sexual discrimination that must change or we will face a real revolution.

* Work will be divided more equitably among men and women.

* The elderly, in increasing numbers, will postpone retirement and hold on to their jobs longer.

Bottom line: increased competition for every one of the fewer available (per person) jobs. No one who has only one-job skills will survive to enjoy the future.

Let's consider both the private and public work places. In private industry (1995), average employee compensation amounted to $17.10 per hour, $12.25 plus $4.85 in benefits. At the same time, the pay in the U.S. for local state and federal government employees was $17.31 in pay and $7.56 in benefits. Private total: $17.10/hour. Public total: $24.87. One you pay for in product, the other in taxes.

The battle for survival is real for nations and for individuals. The minimal, ethical ground rules of the past are now forgotten. We have "open marriage employment," and the policies of decency and accommodation have given way to bottom-line profitability. The new ethic is momentary in nature, ruleless, and often ruthless in practice. It's "dog eat dog."

While it is popular to bemoan adversity, it is more beneficial to consider ways in which we each can, indeed must, improve our future. And, we really must seek two solutions at the same time: (1) We must improve our own potential to deal with change and adversity, recognizing that change is really the only constant. (2) We must improve the society in which we live before it disintegrates in succeeding waves of violence. If we do less than a good job at both, we sacrifice our future.

Let us return to the stories of Bill and Mark. Both lost their jobs suddenly and perhaps through no fault of their own. One could say that they were victims of change. Or, one could say that they were obsolescent workers from another age. Regardless of the cause, they were suddenly unemployed. They had allowed themselves to become dispensable, and they had not prepared for either disaster or new opportunities.

Perhaps it was that their jobs just did not need to exist anymore. Perhaps it was because they had atrophied into disrepute. Or, maybe, it was just that a new boss chose to make changes to improve his or her own immediate future. Whatever the cause, their cases define our problem: They were suddenly out of work, only qualified for the one job that they had held. They were relics from a past that will not return.

So, face the facts as they are, and plan for your future as best you can define it. First, you must devote more time and better creative and persuasive efforts to improving the society in which we live, the society which determines, to a great extent, how we shall be allowed to prosper. There is an extra, personal benefit in active community service: You build a larger network of good contacts.

Second, let's review what education means in the marketplace and then consider the urgency of our own professional development. We must realize the inordinate disadvantage that poor education ensures.

The messages are clear. Those who have the advantage of education have a greater chance of succeeding. They earn more, but the rewards for men and women remain disparate and unfortunate, especially as women head 22 percent of all U.S. households with children. Also, some 60 percent of women over 16 are now in the work force. And, in 1993, over 39 million Americans were below the poverty level.