Further your education, further your career?

Further your education, further your career! That's what your company and/or HR department tells you right? Well maybe, if you're amenable to becoming a "corporate crook", then go for it. Let me explain what I mean.

I've been studying nearly half my adult life; engineering, project management, information technology, business management etc. because like everybody else, I wanted to work my way up the company ladder. Then, several years ago I began noticing something about big corporate companies; the one I worked for and others. It started about the time the company listed on the Stock Exchange, but the signs were showing even before this, while the American investors who owned a large percentage, were still literally running the company.

The change that struck me immediately was the release of the new Company vision and values. The one value that changed everything for me was "create shareholder value". This one statement authorized management to exploit labour resources and customers to enrich the shareholders. The CEO lay ed off large numbers of employees, made cuts in other areas and presto, the company declared a huge profit at the end of the financial year. Top and middle management received huge bonuses, investors received huge dividends, while the majority of the employees got a pittance.

This is not unique to this company; it happens in every large corporation all over the world, where shareholder greed (euphemistically called shareholders' equity by companies) takes precedence over customer and employee well being. Corporate greed may fuel the economy (so they claim), but it only makes the rich, richer, and the poor remain where they are.

That's a roundabout way of explaining why I don't study any further to climb the corporate ladder. Put simply, I refuse to become a tool of exploitation in the hands of the corporatocracy. I've witnessed how even union leaders, become prey to the corporate hierarchy's greed. Once they get their grubby hands on you, they turn you into one of them; you eventually become distanced from your roots. You become the investors latest acquisition; they now own you and you will be forced to do their bidding, or you're out on your ass. I'll stay where I am, thank you.

Actually, I do study further, but not the things that will add to my list of qualifications and make me a corporate crook. I study things that make me happy, like photography, videography, history and the sciences. Things that improves my mind, and makes me a better person. I wont get rich, but my mind will belong only to me.