The Managerial/ Professional Class Is Burning Out

Written on March 30th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on Washington’s Blog, by Charles Hugh Smith, March 28, 2016.

If you work for Corporate America in a managerial or professional capacity, you know all about burnout, because you see it all around you or are experiencing it yourself. Readers describe what they are seeing in the top ranks of S&P 500 corporations, and the stories (anonymous because everyone knows the truth will get them fired/blacklisted) are all about the high personal costs of earning big paychecks by making the numbers–not just revenue but the all-important profits that power the multi-trillion-dollar valuations of U.S. corporations and the stock market that glories in their magnificent and ever-growing profits.

Corporate America depends on this class of workers to reap its stupendous profits: the attorneys, physicians and nurses who churn out the billable work; the CPAs who either cook the books or look the other way when others rig the books to make the company look more profitable than it actually is; the managers who squeeze the line workers to produce more; the software engineers and project managers who are always under deadline and always pressured to use cheaper temps; the Wall Street work-hounds who have to use uppers and other dangerous stimulants to function for 70-80 hours a week, week in and week out; the multitudes addicted to painkillers or other prescription drugs to manage their psychological and physical pain; the working parents whose family life is imploding under the demands of their employers; social workers burdened with ever-larger case loads–the examples are endless … //

… Though no one dares connect rising workloads and corporate profits, isn’t it more than coincidence that U.S. corporate profits soared not just when production was offshored and financialization took off, but when workloads increased and “work-life balance” became a buzzword for what was no longer possible? … //

… Many refugees from Corporate America would love to quit tomorrow but as they explore the alternatives, they find that their income will drop from $90,000 or $100,000 to $30,000 or less outside the fortresses of Corporate America and Government.

That means completely reworking the cost structure of one’s household: paying off all debt, downsizing expenses not by hundreds of dollars but by thousands, and figuring out ways to develop multiple income streams that the household owns and controls.

It can be done, but it requires a revolution in understanding and financial arrangements. Longtime readers know this is what I have written about for ten years in the blog and in books like Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy, which can also be read as a primer for those seeking self-employment … //

… (full text, charts, related links).

Links:

The Brexit Referendum: Provincial England Versus London …, on Social Europe, by Peter Kellner, March 29, 2016: for a great many voters, the side they will end up taking in the referendum will be a verdict on the kind of country we have become and how we got here;

Surviving on the Battlefield in the Information War, on New Eastern Outlook NEO, by Tony Cartalucci, March 29, 2016;

Turkey: Qatar Will Not Substitute Russian Gas, on New Eastern Outlook NEO, by Alexander Rogozhin, March 28, 2016;

New Zealand: we have to seriously consider a universal basic income — Reich, March 27;

Suisse: cela relève de la responsabilité de chacun, dans La Liberté.ch, par PHILIPPE GARDAZ, le 26 mars 2016;

The Brussels Attacks: What is True, What is Fake? Three Daesh Suspects at Brussels Airport, on Global Research.ca, by Prof Michel Chossudovsky (Archive), March 25, 2016;

Thai banks awash with cash spurring sovereign bond rally, on Times of Oman, March 25, 2016;

Wow: Billionaire Jim Rogers Is Plowing Money into This Investment, on Profit Confidential, by Mourad Haroutunian, March 25, 2016;

Chicago Teachers to Strike for Public Schools and Services, on LaborNotes, by Samantha Winslow, March 24, 2016; Samantha Winslow

Brexit’s Questions For The Rest Of Europe, on Social Europe, by Javier Solana, March 23, 2016;

Is the ISIS Behind the Brussels Attacks? Who is Behind the ISIS? on Global Research.ca, by Prof Michel Chossudovsky, March 22, 2016;

Brussels Attack: The True Implications of ISIS Links, on New Eastern Outlook NEO, by Tony Cartalucci, March 22, 2016;

Labor for Bernie Activists Take the Political Revolution into Their Unions, on LaborNotes.org, by Rand Wilson and Dan DiMaggio, March 17, 2016;

Central States Retirees: A Wave of Organized Wrath, on LaborNotes, by Jane Slaughter, March 14, 2016;

… and this:

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