Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 10, 1993 TAG: 9310060014
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
What's not reported are the stunted dreams among many of their colleagues still with jobs.
Obviously, a paycheck is better than a pink slip. But that paycheck may be flat, in real terms, for years to come. Such workers have "topped out," years earlier than they normally would have expected.
"Topping out" is the day you look in the mirror and say to yourself, "This is all there is." The promotions have stopped. You're not going to get a better job.
Almost everyone stalls eventually, but it's happening earlier today. Able Boomers, ready for promotion, see few jobs to be promoted to because whole layers of management have been snuffed.
Older generations weren't stopped until they reached their late 40s, says consultant Judith Bardwick of La Jolla, Calif. Now it's the early 40s and may go lower yet. Professionals and the self-employed may also top out young, squeezed by the competitive crush of their enormous age cohort.
First-wave boomers - people ages 39 to 45 - will do the best. Not all upper-level jobs have been eliminated, and thanks to the early retirements, the survivors see slots they can aspire to. But late-wave boomers - aged 28 to 38 - will be blocked by a wall of fortysomethings who aren't about to get out of the way.
Not every topout is unhappy. Some workers find a comfortable niche and roost there deliberately, to avoid job stress or to leave themselves more personal time. But for those whose ambition is tied to advancement, topping out feels like failure, especially for those stuck well below their competence level.
In the old days, they handled their mortification by drinking at lunch and dropping in on colleagues for bitter chats. Nowadays, however, that can get you fired.
So what usually happens is that "people start to alter their goals and how they define personal success," Bardwick says. "They look to sectors of their lives where they have more control, like creating a wonderful family or contributing to the community." The objective, she adds, isn't to change your life but to change how you experience your life.
It's not just the employee's job to come to terms with the new economy. Companies, too, need to think about how to encourage talented people who can't advance. If the old rewards of promotions and pay are no longer available, companies need to find new rewards to keep workers alive to the importance of their efforts. To achieve this, the leaders of corporate change have been pursuing two ideas:
The lateral move. Instead of advancing in your specialty, you transfer elsewhere in the company or take temporary assignments. These moves broaden your skills and your perspective, which might help promote you in the future. "More and more, your resume will list the projects you've done rather than the titles you've held," says consultant Beverly Kaye of Sherman Oaks, Calif.
It's not always easy to lure workers into lateral moves, especially when so few of them offer extra pay. Employees may figure that it's better to keep the job they have rather than to risk a failure that might propel them out the door. Peter LeBlanc, national practice director of the consulting firm, Sibson & Co., thinks companies should promise reliable workers another slot if their new assignment doesn't go well.
Performance pay. Plateaued on the job probably means plateaued in pay. Increasingly, employers save their raises for the better performers, leaving average workers with little or nothing. You may get one-time bonuses that don't raise your basic pay; or your work team may split a bonus for fulfilling a performance goal; or your pay may rise based on the number of clerical or technical skills you acquire.
The common denominator here is differentiation. In every profession, the pay gap is widening between the stars and everyone else, says economist Paul Krugman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Stars, incidentally, top out, too. A quick riser at 30 may find herself at 50 with virtually the same real pay and perks she had in her admired youth. We are glimpsing our own business mortality. Instead of a long climb up a ladder, a successful career might very well unfold in place.
by CNB