Comments on: Yahoo column: 4 Ways to sidestep corporate hierarchy

By: Quasar9

Quasar9 — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:27:14 +0000

Hi Penelope
here’s wishing you and your close ones much merry making and all the best for the festive season

By: Moving From Me To We.com » Blog Archive » Be an Alpha Swarmer? Attract fans. Start movements

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 20:49:44 +0000

[…] teams and mastermind groups. I found his post via one of my heroines, Penelope Trunk who thinks us boomers stink at being team members. Standard Podcast [35:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download […]

By: Ernie

Ernie — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:34:57 +0000

PT,
Oops. Once again, your generational bias missed the mark. TEAMS require competition. As a communications instructor in college, this is probably the strongest bond between Baby Boomers and Gen Y. Both generations mistrust the Gen X self esteem model, i.e, “everyone gets a trophy at the soccer game”. TQM was invented by Baby Boomers and Gen X/Gen Y electronic customer service has effectively derailed any advances made in corporate team work. The NY Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, LA Lakers, three mighty teams are very competitive. It’s called Capitalism”. Your advice is sound, however the Gen X inferiority complex manifests itself in your writing.

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:58:18 +0000

I agree with the part about starting your own business. I know lots of people who are unwilling to work within a corporate hierarchy, or are unwilling to start at the bottom who instead go on to head up their own businesses. Most of them make lots of money now. Which makes me wonder whether the whole law school thing I went into was such a good idea in the first place…

By: Dale

Dale — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:39:26 +0000

Penny,

I agree with the first three, getting on an important team project, job hopping, and starting one’s own business - sought of, this one can be difficult. But I have my doubts about the being nice suggestion. I think it is more important to be liked, but that differs from being nice.

Case in point, my current replacement at an old job is well liked, hence his rehire after leaving, and his subsequent promotion. But he is anything but nice, at least to those below him in position. Our superiors like him and I guess he is nice to them. But everyone else sees him as a hack, and complain to me about it.

Being liked is not the same as being nice, but I suppose on occasion we find people who exhibit both qualities.

On a side note, I’m off to visit home after 14 years. Leaving at the end of Dec and returning at the end of January.
Fight the good fight in the meantime:)

By: Chris L.

Chris L. — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:36:40 +0000

It’s funny that there is even a serious debate about the virtues of Gen Y versus Gen X versus the BB generation. It’s not the generation that matters, it’s the individual. Every generation has their share of low-aptitude people, lazy people, criminals, and low-lives. Every generation also has their share of talented, intelligent, gifted people who will make a serious contribution to the world. To make claims like “Gen Y are the best team players in history.” Well… at very least that’s debatable. There are a lot of people who think Gen Y are spoiled, self-centered people who were taught that they were overly special as children. Truth is, you’ll find both types of people in Gen Y as you will in Gen X, as you will in the Baby Boomer gen.

Since your posts do appear on Yahoo Finance, I think you should qualify your advice on frequent job hopping. If people are encouraged to switch jobs every 2 years, they’re basically leaving around 1/3 of the value of their 401k’s on the table when they do. Maybe that’s not important if you’re in Gen Y, after all, life does end at 30 right?

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:28:54 +0000

It’s funny. I was told that I was on an inter-departmental team at the beginning of this year. All masters-level people in my department (there’s 3 of us) would be on a “Vision Team”.

Now, 6 months later, I ask my supervisor, “When is our Vision Team going to meet?”

She replies, “We’ve been meeting. When we feel like we need input from the regular hall staff, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

It’s nice that my desire to be on a team started out to be expected, and then later, my position as a whole was deemed too inferior to be part of the glorious team.

By: HiTechDad

HiTechDad — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:53:03 +0000

Right on Penelope. Like one previous commenter I hoped all over in the mid 90’s early 2000’s then I co-founded a company that I have been at for 5 years now. Longest I have worked in any place in my entire life. Some days I feel I need to get out of the way because I have grown to stale and jaded. I have to continually remind myself to take risk, encourage new thinking and get things done.

By: JC

JC — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:26:50 +0000

Well I’m an X’er. And we’re known to be self sufficient, cynical, and like to slack off. We don’t need praise to feel good about ourselves like the Millennials (the coddled generation), but we need feedback to see how we’re doing.

Anyway enough about the generation stuff, this article is about how to sidestep corporate hierarchy.

I do like the idea of job hopping. That is probably the fastest way to work around the traditional, stuffy corporate hierarchy. You can also change job to a newer, smaller company that is started by an X’er or a Millennials. They probably won’t have that ridged hierarchy that traditional, big companies have.

Also you totally have to be nice and kiss ass. And you have to be seen by the higher ups so you can do that. So go to every company function, happy hour, meeting, etc. Getting your face out there and being buddies with your bosses is a good way to beat the system.

By: Will

Will — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:10:57 +0000

Great post as usual. You really touch a nerve with this stuff and I think you can measure the success of your articles by the nastiness-level of the comments on Yahoo!

I think this “loyalty” thing that some companies reward is largely overrated. It encourages people to stick around for decades and does not reward newcomers who come in with lots of energy and try to make things better and more efficient.