What we are and have been living through is a workplace revolution. I say this having just finished a book called "Fordlandia," which is the epic tale of Ford's attempt to create a rubber plantation roughly the size of Connecticut in the wilds of Brazil's Amazon. For all his anti-unionism, for all his vile anti-semitism, Ford paid workers $5/day when everyone else was paying less than half that. His thinking was that he was creating a mass product, he needed to create mass consumers.
Today's world works differently, antipodially. We squeeze all costs out of our production chain. Trying to build color tvs or banner ads at the least possible cost. Naturally, along with that it is necessary to look for lower-wage workers. So what we are seeing in the world is a destruction of the buying class--people who can afford to buy those cheap TVs we make.
This is happening around the world, in our industry and most others.
I found this cartoon this morning emblazoned on a coffee mug we bought some years ago. It seems appropriate. We all have to work really hard--harder than ever to escape the crowds. What we need to escape we probably already inherently have. Finally, once we flap hard enough, if we don't find a better place, at least we have the tools to look.
Come flap with me. The view is nice up here.
4 comments:
Thanks. That is indeed good advice and the spirit we all need right now.
Amen, Geo. I've been pondering at the apparent laziness of the up-and-coming generation (our new coordinator comes unprepared to every meeting--no brief, no background, just a plea to get things done so he doesn't et yelled at) and I remember back to coordinators who bent over backwards to impress.
Then again, getting paid zilch as a coordinator isn't much motivation.
Else I'm nearing that hill at 35...
I am struggling with walking away from a job I am so so at, people I dont like and culture that stinks, to a small, creative, young shop that I found low in the local ranks of established small town agencies. Will have to take a huge cut in pay, change some family lifestyles and comforts...but I have been dreaming of starting or joining a small shop, leaving operations...and I absolutely get giddy thinking about it throughout the day. I am ready to start flapping harder I guess too. Thank Geo
I look forward to seeing what unfolds for each of us.
Perfect.
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