Achieving a successful career while maintaining a solid marriage is difficult; practically impossible, for some. When asked how she could reconcile family life with a career, Marie Curie – the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for her groundbreaking work on radioactivity – dryly replied, “Well, it has not been easy.” An understatement if there ever was one.
In recent generations, the difficulty of maintaining a happy home life while climbing the corporate ladder has become even more stressful than in the past due to several factors:
Did you know that people decide how they feel about you within the first three seconds of meeting? This reaction, an auto-response generated in the most primitive part of our brains, evolved in our early pre-human ancestors when instant decisions about friend or foe were required to survive. The way we look and act generates subconscious impressions and comparisons with “stereotypes” in the minds of observers, often generating powerful emotions and judgments.
First impressions, even when untrue representations, are difficult to dislodge and change. A “good” first impression can be a powerful impetus for your career, just as a negative impression can be an impossible obstacle to overcome.
As a former senior executive of a multi-billion-dollar service company and a small business owner, I am constantly surprised by the naiveté of job applicants or new employees in their failure to recognize the importance of etiquette and manners in the workplace. There are few jobs that are so demanding or unique that they fit a single individual; in fact, for most jobs and promotions, there are literally hundreds of candidates with similar experience, competence, and skills.
Has your boss ever treated you unfairly or blamed you for a failure that was beyond your control? Recently, a friend came to me in distress about a critical hand-written memo that he and his colleagues had received from their superior, the manager of a national retail chain store. The chain, formerly a Wall Street darling, had fallen from favor with the failure of the company to renew an annual contract with one of their larger customers. As a result, the stock price had dropped by a third, cash flow had decreased, layoffs were anticipated, and morale was in the dumps. Every employee felt the pressure.
The young assistant, vacillating between resentment and hopelessness, didn’t know how to respond to the three-page memo which listed failure after failure of tasks and expectations that had not been met by the group. The memo concluded with a threat that “things had to change or else,” and that he, the manager, no longer cared about the individuals due to their shortcomings. My friend, torn between quitting for what he believed to be an unfair assessment or staying when further advancement might be delayed or impossible, asked me, “What should I do? Quit or stay there hoping I will not be fired?”
The term “big government” stimulates plenty of images and emotions, and they’re generally negative. Words like “bureaucratic,” “inefficient,” “intrusive,” and even “corrupt” are often associated with the term. Economists charge that big government interferes with the mechanisms of free enterprise. Libertarians believe it seeks to control private or personal freedoms guaranteed by the “natural law” eloquently philosophized by John Locke and formalized in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights. And politicians claim big government lacks checks and balances on its exercise of power, leading it to represent special interests to the detriment of its citizens.
Small government, on the other hand, is generally believed to lead to a more efficient and flexible system. “Getting government off our backs” or “getting government out of the way” are cries to return to the low-tax, no-regulation beliefs of the American Revolutionary period. The size of government envisioned by the country’s founders sought to cast off tyranny and empower small businessmen and entrepreneurs.
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Achieving a successful career while maintaining a solid marriage is difficult; practically impossible, for some. When asked how she could reconcile family life with a career, Marie Curie – the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for her groundbreaking work on radioactivity – dryly replied, “Well, it has not been easy.” An understatement if there ever was one.
