I was reading a book recently and one chapter entitled the Price of Freedom and the Price of Security caught my eye because it discussed a shift in our society dynamics here in the United States and made me wonder if it was happening elsewhere in the world. The chapter discussed the commonly accepted belief that; a job provides security, but the price is freedom. The second part of that belief is that a business provides freedom, but at the cost of security. I think this belief has been repeated so many time in my lifetime in various books and magazines that it generally accepted to be true. But this chapter suggested that it is no longer true. The main point of the chapter was that while since the early 1900’s a job traditionally provides security, in exchange for freedom, but the modern job doesn’t deliver on its promise.
Recent polls of employees in various industries reveal that job security is actually rare and many employees live in fear of job elimination or their termination with a business downturn. I believe that employee termination use to be remedy of last resort during a business downturn, but that appears to have changed. It seems that the first reaction to slowing sales or missed quarterly earnings estimates seems to a lay-off of employees. Many young people report changing jobs twice in their first four years out of college. Add to this the added stress if your not laid off, mandatory overtime Because there aren’t enough employees to do the work. Or worse management insists you increase your productivity to that of two people to keep your job.
In addition to this job insecurity of regular employees, I have seen the rise of contract workers. People who don’t actually work for the company as employees, they technically work for an employment agency, who loans them to companies as workers via a contract they have with the employer. This is a very insecure arrangement where the employer can terminate the contract or ask the agency to stop sending a particular worker to their company, plus you often get few if any employee benefits. This arrangements effectively allows companies to employ people at will, save money on benefits and terminate them quickly at any downturn. I feel the secure 20 year job with retirement pension Is as community as an endangered animal; sighted by some in the wild, but unknown to most common folk. I think that the traditional bargain of giving up your freedom for job security by being an employee has been abandoned by many employers. I think that modern employees surrender their freedom, but then are forced to live with job insecurity due to modern hiring and firing processes. It is based on these observations and readings that I concluded that the uptick in entrepreneurship of the last 20 years followed a logical thought process where people who traditionally trade their personal freedom for job security feel that since businesses no longer uphold their end of the bargain, the prospect of obtaining personal freedom by giving up this practically non-existent of job security, no longer seems like a high price to pay and more like a trick question.
In his book, Mr. Kiyosaki sees this as part of Newtonian physics; for every action there is an equal reaction. I think he’s right. The employers “action” of providing real job security to previous generations resulted in the “reaction” of everyone going to school to learn to be a good employee. The employers action of providing secure jobs, retirement pensions and rare layoffs made employees loyal. I think that employers current new actions are leading to the current new reaction. Employees change jobs frequently due to layoffs, terminations and insecure contract positions. More and more people figure out they could have this same level of insecurity working for themselves, but have greater control over their lives and in a sense their destiny. I think we are talking about a revolution.
Whenever the rules in society change you must adapt and change, and not just to survive but thrive.
Stay thirsty for knowledge, it is the path to personal freedom.
✍️ Shortsegments.