I have had several people send me this video – so I guess I need to pass it along. It may make you angry but frankly, I found it to be hilarious, as well as extremely well done.
It’s been a couple of years now that I’ve been hammering the message that the workplace is changing. And I keep running into people who are alarmed that things are not the way they used to be. Just yesterday on a radio interview I had a caller who was distraught that he was losing his job after 27 years with the same company. But then again, it is not the “same company.” There have been multiple mergers and acquisitions along the way. All his old bosses and co-workers are gone, yet he is angry that they are now pushing him out the door. It should not come as a surprise – especially since his compensation has crept up over the years to $268,000. This doesn’t mean he’s dead in the water. It just means he better be aware of the new opportunities for “free agents.” And then rock and roll.
Tags: free agent, Hire, job market
Dan Miller's Blog 
April 3, 2008 at 9:43 pm
One of the funniest YouTube videos I have ever seen. Well done. It’s good to turn things on their head every now and then. 😀
April 5, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Not really that funny, until you realize that this is where we have placed ourselves by not being aware of our changing society and work place. Still, not very funny. I really don’t know whether to cry or laugh. I’ll chose laugh and then do all I can do not to end up like that, AGAIN!
April 6, 2008 at 10:27 am
Welcome to the 21st Century, where both your employer and your customers might be anywhere in the world. I couldn’t quite make out the sign on the big building in the background, but it looked a bit like Monster.com to me.
April 7, 2008 at 1:17 am
I’m just glad I learned how to speak Spanish! I’m thinking Indian or some other overseas country’s language is the next best thing!…LOL
Heelooooo ..weelcome to babbakanooosh company…how may I heelp you?
April 8, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Right now I sponsor a 16-year-old girl from India through a Christian agency. She just wrote me a beautifully-written letter in English, which she has been studying since she started school. She is also taking “spoken English” classes. Her parents are day laborers, and the only way she could go to school at all is through this agency. After seeing the video, I wonder how many of our young people are learning to be proficient in Chinese, or Hindi. Even becoming proficient in Spanish would be a good start. The dropout situation in this country is absolutely scary. In my own city, about 40% of the students who start high school actually finish. What kind of future will they have, compared to my young sponsee?
April 8, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Well…I have always ended up as “the one nobody picked”–the one everybody “felt sorry for” or “looked down on” or called, “a job gypsy”. This video is a picture of how “working” has always looked to me. For years I have felt like a stranger in the land of my birth. For years it was frustrating because I didn’t recognize that what I saw as a forest was really somebody’s front garden. Now that everybody out here is, for better or worse, a “free agent” and no company has any loyalty to any worker…no worker has any loyalty to any company, I am an expert at how to live; roll with it and keep going; make opportunities; see doors in brick walls. I look around to find out I AM the new workforce. Wow.
April 8, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I thought that was very funny. It makes feel a little bit better about being an employee.
April 9, 2008 at 12:15 am
Pretty funny, Dan. Thanks for your materials, insite and encouragement Dan. I’m in my second year full-time self-employed…and it’s your fault! 🙂
April 9, 2008 at 12:56 am
Brilliant. And outsourcing is here. Time for everyone to step up their skills, learn to think out of the box…and honestly….just create their OWN box 🙂
Thanks Dan!
Carrie Wilkerson
The Barefoot Executive
http://www.theBossMovie.com
April 9, 2008 at 3:50 am
Dan,
Honestly, that was hilarious though I am sure some people
will take great offense to the inference to day labor sites.
This really shows why people need to create their own
Money Trees producing a reliable income. That is why
I started teaching people how to do just that back in 2003.
I am glad that I chose it as are many others that I have worked with.
To Success,
Joseph Parton
http://www.SuccessfulHomeBusinessReport.com
April 9, 2008 at 3:54 am
Right on the money honey,If your in the back of that ranger right now ,read NO more Mondays .The video is full circle and metaphorically hit me in the back of the head.I have used day laborers thinking I’m a big shot ,I’ve been a big shot looking for work getting in the crowded truck with a whole bunch of people that don’t know where they are going.
Thomas O http://www.nlpselfesteem.com
April 9, 2008 at 6:46 am
Build your own box!! Own the ladder!! This video is so funny on multiple levels. Thanks.
April 9, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I consider myself a “self-employed” corporate employee that has survived by understanding that my employer is not so much interested in what I did for them yesterday as what I can do for them today and tomorrow. I have made numerous minor career changes and one major career change all within the same ever-changing company. I tell my children constantly that they must always be learning and they will be self-educating for the rest of their lives. There are way too many peole who want to “take it easy” and get along without adapting to the needs of the day. As Dave ramsey says, there is no such thing as a truly secure job.
April 9, 2008 at 2:14 pm
The video clip made its point. I used to work for well known high-tech R&D company that is still going through reorganization and downsizing as it continues to diversifying it operations (e.g. offshoring). [They even outsourced their HR function]. The employees are in constant turmoil and morale there is so low that a hole in the ground is up. I’m serving there as a contract employee filling a critical need and being more productive and having more fun as I do not have to endure the endless meetings to justify my position.
April 9, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Well, it was not funny to me. I found it more sad, than anything. Yes we need to develop more skills, and yes we need to keep up with the changing times, however this little video appears almost like all those well-to-do types out there, are now being paid back for all the things they took advantage of or took forgranted. I am just glad I do not fit in that bracket. Everything comes full circle, and it looks like America has to pay up.
April 9, 2008 at 8:30 pm
It just goes to show that life truley sucks, but if you think it’s bad now, just wait till the liberals take over. Whats the big deal about being an entrapeur anyway. I’ve been my own boss for 25 years and it sucks. the government is getting most of what I make anyway.
April 9, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I chose to drive my own care and hired myself to do something I love. Read my story on page 166 of No More Monday’s. You, too, CAN create your own job and love every day – weekday, workday, holiday, it doesn’t matter – when they are yours to spend and you are not someone else’s.
Adapt. Grow. Decide. Try. Amaze yourself. You CAN do it!
With Hope in Him,
Jim Hodges
Jim Hodges Audio Books
April 10, 2008 at 3:39 am
I watched this clip just this morning.. told my daughter about it… came back and it is now “no longer available” Loved the clip. Yes… it was tragic… but a well timed wake up call I believe.
I don’t suppose the powers that be might consider putting this up again (just for a few more days?) Would very much appreciate it if you would.
I’m sure there are many others yet to be profoundly influenced by it!
Thank you in anticipation of your positive response…
April 10, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Hilarious…nearly fell out my chair. I know the humor maybe lost to some. But when you realize, how many worthless positions there are, and that if you are in them how disposable you are, it makes me laugh!!!!
April 15, 2008 at 3:00 am
A previous employer once told me, “BE NICE TO GEORGE THE JANITOR – SOMEDAY WE WILL WORK FOR HIM.” When they let me go, it was both the best and worst day of my life. When the engineers upstairs (all great guys) came down and told us how sorry they were for us, we told them, “Its Okay, we know what tomorrow holds for us. Now you have to wait and see if you are next and while you wait, we are all out ahead of you applying for the available jobs”. They ALL eventually lost their jobs. Today I would not trade the experience of being laid off for anything in the world.
Does it eat at your soul ever day not working with the skills GOD gave you to further HIS kingdom? It does me, but I am working toward that goal of working fulltime for myself. Its like the feeling you have when you loathe your job and you update your resume, or mail it out for a job, or get a call for an interview, or a job offer — It is a means to an end. Every step you take toward that goal is a means to an end.
GOD Bless You All. GOD BLESSED YOU ALL with a special skill that he did not give all of us that make you stand out from all of us with a different skill or talent. And we all shine when we do what GOD created us to do and we need to remember to give HIM the credit.
April 15, 2008 at 2:52 pm
LOL funny…. As a skilless talentless job nomad I’ve never had to deal with job security, but the video makes a good point. The key to really good humor is the truth behind it. I wonder about all the poor “yes men” who battled their way up some corporate ladder only find out the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was really a hole leading them to the exit. Imagine being a mid level manager with Northwest Airlines right now… scary.
April 15, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Hi Dan!
I wish I could download it and save it for those days I’m less than “inspired” over the struggles of getting a new business going.
I was fortunate to be in telecommunications(?) when it became so apparent that enormous change was coming on the US. I’m thankful to the ALMIGHTY! for getting me going on this path a while back. My new chosen industry is somewhat like a roller-coaster but I’m happy to be here!
It certainly may be a little scary when you first step out and you leave a “good job” behind and all your friends have “jobs” but it is worth it if you need to feel in control of your life and free to make choices that concern your life.
I was recently asked by someone unaware I work for myself the following: “did you ask your boss…” and I was happy to say – “um, Yes! I did, and I approved my choice” What a feeling!
Your initial newsletter was instrumental in helping me ignore the advice of family and friends and to take charge. THANKS!
oh- the huge multi-national joint venture company I left? They folded and each player went home without achieving their goal, and everyone lost their jobs. I’m not happy about that – I mean to say-some things can look secure when they are not.
Victoria
http://www.wingz.tv