25 Years in Corporate America The Good The Bad The Ugly
So 25 years ago I left the Fashion Industry to join the Entertainment Industry as an Administrative Assistant which I’ve never done in my 15 year career in fashion. My friend who referred me told me not to worry because you really don’t need to know much.
What I’ve learned over the last 25 years working in Corporate America is that it can be the greatest of opportunities to grow your career, and really make a name for yourself. But that opportunity comes with a price that i was never willing to pay. Actually it comes with more than one price tag. The first one is that as your career advances and you paycheck goes up so does your responsibility to the company and how much they expect of you. Evenings are no longer yours, and in many cases, not even being on vacation is completely your time. You’re always expected to be on and connected especially since we have so much technology that keeps you connected. There’s no excuse to turning off the grid. As I witnessed other people in the organization being forced to stay connected, never leaving the office at 5:00, and many times sacrificing time with their families to be there for Corporate America i decided a long time ago that i wasn’t willing to give up my free time for a few extra dollars. I was fearful of having to lose less time with my family to give back to Corporate America. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my family for more money and so as expected, my career has never advanced.
The second thing I learned from Corporate America is that even IF you were willing to sacrifice your time and family for Corporate America that is no guarantee that you are actually securing your job. In fact, that doesn’t guarantee anything more.
So I began my career (a term I use very lightly) in 1994. I worked in the tax department as an administrative assistant, and my friend was right, I didn’t need to know anything to get the job. Very little was expected of you as far as performance, and you got very little in return.
I stayed in that position for 12 years. I was offered a promotion to assist the head of the tax department, but I turned it down because I had a small child home, and I wanted to be able to leave work daily at 5:00 PM. I knew that if I accepted that position I would be required to stay past 5:00 PM especially if work came up last minute that needed to be completed that day. That was a
Sacrifice i was not willing to make. My family came first.
What i was willing to do was try something different. Something where I had control of how much money i wanted to make without sacrificing time with my family. In the Summer of 2001 I was introduced to a network marketing company named Melaleuca. It’s a wonderful company with all types of non toxic products such as health and beauty aides, household cleaning products, laundry products, oral care, weight loss supplements, nutritional supplements, protein powders, a complete line of skincare, hair care, and body care products. To say they are great products is an understatement. So many families have become financially free of debt because of this company and I was determined to make this work for me as well. It involves recruiting people to sign up for the shopping membership and asking the members to spend an average amount of money purchasing their products each month. It’s very easy to do because we all use these products on a daily basis. It makes sense. So it’s residual income. Each month that those you enrolled shop at Melaleuca, cha Ching, you get paid. How sweet is this??? I worked my tail off to make this work. I purchased lead lists of folks looking to make money online. So lots of cold calling and rejection. It was also a lot of personal development training. I loved that aspect. I was hungry to learn everything I needed to learn to grow my business. I had hoped and dreams for what this company could do for me. Maybe that was the wrong mindset to have. Maybe it should have been more about wanting to help families achieve financial success. Either way, after several years of trying to make it work, I then started working for one guy who already had a huge organization. He wanted someone who would call his organization and let them know about promotions or upcoming conventions and things like that. He paid me $10 per hour. So I worked for him, I continued to build my business, I worked full time and I was a Mom! Like I said, I was hungry. I was hungry for success, financial freedom, and freedom from my life as I knew it.
Because of all of this, and because it was now 2006, and I was still trying to build a business without success . And now my daughter was older, she was now 13 years old. My marriage was in a shambles and I needed to escape that dysfunctional relationship fast. In order to do that I needed to make more money.
So because of this I decided to ask for a promotion to a different department doing something I never did before, and knew nothing about. It’s an area of Human Resources called Compensation and also Executive Compensation for those fitting into that descriptive. I was completely at a loss, but the employee who was just put into the position of head of Comp was a friend of mine and he told me that he would want me to move over but I have to go through the formalities and interview for the job with his boss, but as far as he was concerned, I had the job. Perfect! This was my first move in my plan to make more money so I could escape my toxic marriage. I never once considered the idea that I was married a long time and my ex would have to provide alimony. I probably never considered it because probably subconsciously I knew I would not be able to relying on him to actually pay me.
And so this is the start of what I truly learned about Corporate America. To be continued .......
What I’ve learned over the last 25 years working in Corporate America is that it can be the greatest of opportunities to grow your career, and really make a name for yourself. But that opportunity comes with a price that i was never willing to pay. Actually it comes with more than one price tag. The first one is that as your career advances and you paycheck goes up so does your responsibility to the company and how much they expect of you. Evenings are no longer yours, and in many cases, not even being on vacation is completely your time. You’re always expected to be on and connected especially since we have so much technology that keeps you connected. There’s no excuse to turning off the grid. As I witnessed other people in the organization being forced to stay connected, never leaving the office at 5:00, and many times sacrificing time with their families to be there for Corporate America i decided a long time ago that i wasn’t willing to give up my free time for a few extra dollars. I was fearful of having to lose less time with my family to give back to Corporate America. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my family for more money and so as expected, my career has never advanced.
The second thing I learned from Corporate America is that even IF you were willing to sacrifice your time and family for Corporate America that is no guarantee that you are actually securing your job. In fact, that doesn’t guarantee anything more.
So I began my career (a term I use very lightly) in 1994. I worked in the tax department as an administrative assistant, and my friend was right, I didn’t need to know anything to get the job. Very little was expected of you as far as performance, and you got very little in return.
I stayed in that position for 12 years. I was offered a promotion to assist the head of the tax department, but I turned it down because I had a small child home, and I wanted to be able to leave work daily at 5:00 PM. I knew that if I accepted that position I would be required to stay past 5:00 PM especially if work came up last minute that needed to be completed that day. That was a
Sacrifice i was not willing to make. My family came first.
What i was willing to do was try something different. Something where I had control of how much money i wanted to make without sacrificing time with my family. In the Summer of 2001 I was introduced to a network marketing company named Melaleuca. It’s a wonderful company with all types of non toxic products such as health and beauty aides, household cleaning products, laundry products, oral care, weight loss supplements, nutritional supplements, protein powders, a complete line of skincare, hair care, and body care products. To say they are great products is an understatement. So many families have become financially free of debt because of this company and I was determined to make this work for me as well. It involves recruiting people to sign up for the shopping membership and asking the members to spend an average amount of money purchasing their products each month. It’s very easy to do because we all use these products on a daily basis. It makes sense. So it’s residual income. Each month that those you enrolled shop at Melaleuca, cha Ching, you get paid. How sweet is this??? I worked my tail off to make this work. I purchased lead lists of folks looking to make money online. So lots of cold calling and rejection. It was also a lot of personal development training. I loved that aspect. I was hungry to learn everything I needed to learn to grow my business. I had hoped and dreams for what this company could do for me. Maybe that was the wrong mindset to have. Maybe it should have been more about wanting to help families achieve financial success. Either way, after several years of trying to make it work, I then started working for one guy who already had a huge organization. He wanted someone who would call his organization and let them know about promotions or upcoming conventions and things like that. He paid me $10 per hour. So I worked for him, I continued to build my business, I worked full time and I was a Mom! Like I said, I was hungry. I was hungry for success, financial freedom, and freedom from my life as I knew it.
Because of all of this, and because it was now 2006, and I was still trying to build a business without success . And now my daughter was older, she was now 13 years old. My marriage was in a shambles and I needed to escape that dysfunctional relationship fast. In order to do that I needed to make more money.
So because of this I decided to ask for a promotion to a different department doing something I never did before, and knew nothing about. It’s an area of Human Resources called Compensation and also Executive Compensation for those fitting into that descriptive. I was completely at a loss, but the employee who was just put into the position of head of Comp was a friend of mine and he told me that he would want me to move over but I have to go through the formalities and interview for the job with his boss, but as far as he was concerned, I had the job. Perfect! This was my first move in my plan to make more money so I could escape my toxic marriage. I never once considered the idea that I was married a long time and my ex would have to provide alimony. I probably never considered it because probably subconsciously I knew I would not be able to relying on him to actually pay me.
And so this is the start of what I truly learned about Corporate America. To be continued .......
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