What is the biggest lesson that employment has taught you?

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There is no ideal place to work where they "do it right", whatever kind of "right" you care about right now. When you change jobs, you merely exchange one set of problems for another.
- Having worked 7 different jobs that all were in the same field made me have some backbone of standards that nobody else could have built without going through that, though. It's a blessing and a curse, so be warned. The things I picked up on that I never realized I would care so much about in the healthcare field is good office administration and Director of Care leadership. The morale is just as important as the pay rate.
  
  i worked at all the pizza chains delivering ---- the absolute shittiest ones were a nightmare, for the same 3 reasons:
  not letting employees make food themselves. it's a restaurant, you have abundant food, it's cheap, we all know it's cheap, we work long shifts, come on. the cobbler's son should have good shoes.
  overemphasis on dress code -- if you genuinely give a shit if the pizza guy has his hat backwards, you should literally be sent to the gulags.
  being overworked for low pay, especially being made to drive when exhausted [literally dangerous and life threatening!!]
  
  As a consultant, I now feel grateful to the variety of dysfunctions that I experienced, because they provided me with some of the credibility that I use in advising others. That's the blessing part.
  That, and comedy equals tragedy plus distance.
- That said some companies do it more right than others. The problems at the current company are ones I can live with. Which is why I'm still there after way more years than expected.
  
  Indeed, that's what I mean: you're always exchanging one set of problems for another, until you find the set of problems that you can accept (enough (for now)).
- Is this still true if you're self-employed?
  
  Absolutely. There is no business yet in which you invent money from nothing. Everyone works for someone else. It might be a capitalist boss, it might be a client, it might even be constituents or donors, but no one truly works for themselves. The only winning move is to not play, and the ones fortunate enough to not have to play were born rich. Being self-employed and/or owning your own business is just trading one boss for another.
  Source: Was in private practice for a decade; now I'm a corporate attorney, and it's just a different set of people making my job hard.
  
  I feel better about the things I do wrong, because at least I made the decisions and I can only blame myself. I can also choose which things I especially care about doing well instead of being subject to someone else's preferences. It feels better, but still yes.
  And, as CEO of a tiny company, I have to interact with bureaucracies more than I did as an employee, so becoming my own boss didn't mean escaping that nonsense, anyway.

597 comments