Company Performance
Well that is a no brainer you are thinking. Today there are new measures of company performance. In the New Normal Company performance can kick you in the butt from afar. It used to be that your career was based on your performance in your division. Today not so much. We all have read about Toshiba’s problems due to its ownership of Westinghouse Nuclear Division.
This was on top of an accounting scandal.
Kind of crazy that a Japanese company would be in trouble because it owned an icon American Brand like Westinghouse but that the way the world roles these days. Buy American wasn’t such a good idea for them.
Those problems were felt around the world in Orange County CA where I live and there are a number of Toshiba Divisions in various industry sectors. I got the news about how thing played out the other day in an e mail.
It talked about the closing of divisions, the cuts in budget and the human price.
“Toshiba is in a world of financial hurt. They are selling and closing divisions. The division I work in is closing and that ends my job and about 100 other folks too.”
That’s a mess of hurt in Orange County.
Ageism.
Age discrimination is nothing new. It has been around for years but today the age bar gets lower and lower. I got an e mail the other day from somebody in his 40’s who said he felt he was aged out of his career in advertising. His frustration was clear. Why did I go back to school and invest in an MBA and its financial burdens? It didn’t help me a bit.
After turning 40 I am not getting any responses when I reach out to companies regarding job openings.
After 20 years in the industry my experience and skill set won’t get me a cup of coffee.
Every walk into an advertising agency, digital or PR firm these days? You won’t see much white hair unless somebody has bleached theirs.
Today you often end up in a perilous place where you are being interviewed for a position by somebody that is much less experienced and younger than you. You won’t get much empathy.
I learned it this way. “I think I lost that one because I had more experience than the guy interviewing me.”
More to Come.