After 35 years in corporate roles, a Gen-X professional is done with full-time employment. He cites workplace politics, family priorities, and a desire to step back for younger people. He plans to focus on advisory and collaborative work instead.
Chapters
Good morning, everybody. I'm in beautiful Canary Wharf in London. It's a typical day in the UK for arguably what is my last business trip. So the first question is, what is it that I'm not going to do, right? What I'm not going to do is working as a full-time employee for a different company. I'm not going to do that for essentially 3 reasons, in order of priority. Reason number 1 is 35 years of experience has taught me a lot of things, but has taught me that it's not greener elsewhere. You know, so to speak, it's a different shade of brown that you'll find. Don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed the companies that I've worked for for the past 35 years, maybe with one exception, but it didn't last long. So I will do it again, but I have to say, you know, it's the politics, the turf war, the ego. It's kind of all the same everywhere, and I have no patience anymore for that. I really don't want to deal with that anymore, so I'm not going to do that. Reason number 2 is, for 35 years, I have to say that I was much more a full-time work than I was a full-time family. guy. And, you know, the family is expanding, the family is growing, the family is getting older, and it's time to spend a lot more quality time and time altogether with my family. So that's a very good reason not to take a full-time job anymore. The third reason is, well, I'm a Gen Xer. I would say even, you know, close to boomer. It depends where you think and feel that 1965 Is, and it's time to hand over to the next generation, that there is the great space in place for those people who have more energy, more envy, and more time to take over a position like mine. So for those 3 reasons, I'm not going to do that again. Now, what is it that I'm going to miss of not being a full-time employee for a corporation? Well, I'm going to miss the people. I'm going to miss working with my team. I'm going to miss those moments, good, bad, never ugly, that we share and that we're sharing together. So not to myself, and as an indication of things that I may be doing in the future, I want to make sure that whatever it is, it has to do with people and helping people growing in many aspects, right? But in a space that they choose to join or I choose to help them, then there is no strings attached and nothing else than mutual respect and mutual envy to do whatever it is together. So more to come on that space, but it's not going back to being a full-time employee. Thank you all. Bye. Bye.
