What you’re about to read could radically transform your professional life…
For the better.
In fact, if I could go back in time 10, 20, or even 30 years ago, and talk to an earlier version of myself, there are a handful of key career development concepts I would go on and on about.
This is one of them:
Embrace The Transactional Nature of Professional Life
Here’s why…
It often amuses me that one of the biggest complaints old managers (and sometimes even young managers) have about the younger generations is that they are “entitled”.
The boomers said it about the millenials. The millenials are saying it about zoomers. And zoomers will say it about whatever comes next – maybe chatgpters…
Regardless of the thick layers of irony, more experienced professionals tend to complain on and on about the entitlement problem of their workers.
They tell you stories about how anytime they ask anything of a young employee, they get a “what’s in it for me” type response:
Boss: “Can you work over the weekend?”
Zoomer: “Do I get overtime or comp time?”
Boss: “I need you to stay late and take care of something urgent?”
Zoomer: “How about I take a half day off this Friday?”
Boss: “I want you to take over Jimbo’s responsibilities for the rest of the year?”
Zoomer: “How about I take the rest of his salary this year too?”
For older professionals, these types of responses are not just unusual, but they are unthinkable.
Remember: In the olden days, the brainwashing was strong, and employees had much fear in their hearts. In that world, such rational and self-interested thoughts were well beyond the pale.
You took what was given and hoped your betters took care of you after the fact. That was the norm.
We Live In a Brave New World – And That is a Good Thing!
Make no mistake, in the modern day, practically all the social contracts between an employer and employee that previously held corporate culture together, functional and courteous – have all been eviscerated!
Employers – unless coerced by law – do not offer pensions or stay loyal to the employee. Most employment contracts are at will, which means they can be terminated without cause. And promises from bosses that are not in writing are completely worthless. Worse than worthless – they are positively deceitful!
Of course, despite much misinformation, the workforce is not an amalgam of idiots either. Professionals of all levels of experience understands the reality of their corporate conundrum, and they respond to it accordingly.
And, to be perfectly clear, I don’t think there is anything wrong with the expressions of self-interest these supposedly “entitled” workers have.
On the contrary, my argument is: employees don’t go far enough!
And when they try to, they don’t do it well.
Employees Are Doing It Wrong
Most employees don’t know how to protect their interest or negotiate effectively.
They don’t respond to employer asks using the correct psychological tactics – or utilize the necessary career skills – so that they can benefit from the transactional nature of work and maximize their opportunities.
They know that they have to protect their own interest or that they will get steamrolled. That’s not the issue.
They just don’t know how to do it best. So… They reflexively react. And under emotional pressure – they even lash out.
Young employees aren’t stupid. So, if you see one lashing out, don’t go patronizing them about how “their boss asking them for extra work is actually a good thing…”
The issue is not “young people don’t get it”…
Of course they do!
They realize that every ask is also an invitation to get new marketable experience, upgrade your title, get paid more permanently, and get promoted. The problem isn’t about being informed about how the corporate game works.
It’s deeper.
The real issue is that most of the youngins – those that reflexively lash out at every asks as well as those do it with a pretend smile – they don’t actually care.
They don’t believe in the corporate game anymore.
In fact, they believe they are being lied to.
They may appear like they have bought into the game, because they have a job… But the game they are playing is not the one they were sold!
And as a result, even when they go through the motions, they don’t have integrity in their approach (i.e. they have internal conflict).
They don’t have their thoughts, words and actions= aligned when they comply with a smile… And they don’t have their thoughts, words and action aligned when they come back with a snarky response…
In other words, even when they say they want “gimme Jimbo’s salary for doing his work”, they don’t actually mean it.
Even that is tongue in cheek, sarcastic, almost comical – done more for the memes than the potential paycheck…
Words That Don’t Match Their Hearts
It might sound surprising, but at it’s root, this is because most young professionals don’t actually embrace the transactional nature of their professional interactions.
And how could they?!? Their parents fed them the complete opposite propaganda! Teachers put them on the activist track. And social media crammed down a mixture of “follow your passion regardless of the outcome”, “love the hustle and build your side gig”, or “get a zillion followers with this weird trick” – depending on which funnel they fell through…
They may have a job and be involved in a professional transaction, but to them, it’s less about the “professional” or “transaction” and more about the “I’m forced to be here because I’m not a big influencer yet – and I got a million things to do”.
As a result, asking them to do more is not perceived as an “invitation to trade more”. Instead, it is perceived as “my boss is bullying me and trying to take advantage of me, what an abusive jerk”.
To the external observer, this type of behavior feels as if the younger generations are getting triggered and reacting to employer asks, rather than dealing with it professionally, let alone strategically. Their reactions appear petty, annoying, and even make them look weak. It’s childish… It’s also penny wise pound foolish.
But… Again… At it’s core, it’s none of those things. It’s simply a perfectly natural, even healthy reaction. But it’s due to a mis-perception or misinterpretation of the transactional nature of work.
Which ultimately results in them – unwittingly – taking the professional personally.
Contrast The High-Value Professional
You see… A high-value professional never sweats the small stuff. They don’t bicker and moan when you ask them for more. They don’t count every second of their work and fight for compensation down to every minute.
Instead, a high-value professional focuses on the vast sums of money they are getting paid for their work. Work they perform in circumstances which they control. And that massive pay plus all that discretionary autonomy makes all the extra asks that employers make perfectly fine; not just at a rational level, but also at an emotional level.
Who cares if your boss wants you to stay an extra hour for work tonight, or even to come to work over the weekend? He’s been paying for every one of your “work” lunches this past year… Daily. You already have a great deal.
Why does it matter if you need to take over for Jimbo for the rest of the year? You’re going to soon become Jimbo’s boss, and you need to learn what he actually does anyway.
Isn’t it good that your boss wants you to come to that business trip with him? You’ll make contacts that take you to a whole new level – you’re so busy scheming, you don’t have a free neuron to complain about your weekend spent in airports!
Do you see the pattern?
A high-value professional is already over-compensated (relative to ordinary workers). More importantly, they feel overcompensated.
Therefore, the little extra ask, or the large extra ask for that matter, is never a problem. (Sidenote: if a random ask here or there IS a problem for you, it’s because you are, and you feel, under-compensated).
Moreover, a high-value professional also knows how to accrue favors by going above and beyond, and more importantly, knows how to collect on those favors tactfully. (Hint: it’s not that reflexive “do I get Jimbo’s pay?” before your boss finishes his sentence. It’s the meeting you setup with him and HR about your career development, where you present a folder full of evidence of you going above and beyond your job, at that crucial point in your project where they desperately depend on you)
The bottom line is: Hirelings sweat the small stuff and frustrate their bosses, because they themselves are frustrated due to a lack of opportunities and a sense of undercompensation.
Comparatively, high-value professionals invest in their social capital and keep getting ahead, and have a sense of fair, if not over-compensation.
Of course… All of that actually stems from mindset, which stems from…
Opportunity
The mindset differences between a hireling and a high-value professional are actually all about one simple thing:
The recognition, understanding, and complete emotional acceptance of the transactional nature of ALL professional interactions.
This is possible, and in fact natural, when someone is swimming in opportunities and is handsomely compensated for their efforts.
Remember this: At it’s core, opportunity to transact is what makes someone a high-value professional.
Quid pro quo. A favor for a favor. Give and take. Tit for tat. You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.
While ordinary workers and hirelings try to play that game, they don’t succeed at it. They fail.
And whatever the reason of their failure might be (all of which can be fixed btw), the result of that failure is a tainted mindset: “This job market is messed up!”, “It’s all BS man…”, “The system is corrupt”, “This transactional capitalist thing doesn’t work!”, “It’s so unfair!”, etc.
Ultimately, as a result of their negative experiences with opportunity and success, hirelings stop believing in the transactional nature of the professional world. And despite all their bluster and protestations “against the man”, when push comes to shove, they actually think that they are being a “bad person” or “unrealistic” for protecting their interests in the proactive ways we advocate.
Of course, this tainted mindset and a lack of belief in the transactional becomes the last nail on the coffin of their dead career. It permeates their professional interactions. You can look in their eyes and see it during job interviews. You think of them first when you’re considering layoffs. It’s a disaster.
Putting the doom and gloom aside… Let’s take a step back and think: Why is it that an initial lack of success and career challenges lead to this “down with the transactional” mindset?
Why Do Otherwise Reasonable People Disdain The Transactional After Even A Single Failure?
It’s not their fault either.
In fact, it is the fault of our culture.
You see… All this happens because in the modern Western culture, as well as the overall emerging global culture, there is an undercurrent of tribalism and collectivism. Our mortality has become “communal”.
As such, a transactional approach to relationships – especially professional ones – is hit with criticism at best, and emotional disdain at worst. An experience of failure, or even a setback, does not create that disdain, it only exasperates and cements such disdain conditioned into the young mind through countless hours of subtle but effective cultural indoctrination.
That’s why people also reflexively think it’s not “nice” to confront others and ask for things, especially if that ask serves your self-interest. Yet… If you don’t confront people and ask for things, you can never get ahead!
It’s not “acceptable” to make explicit statements like “if you pay me more, I’ll do more” in the corporate world. Yet… “Pay me to do more” is the essence of the corporate ladder.
Looking out for your own interest is not accepted as a warm and fuzzy concept in our culture. Yet… You cannot even keep warm with a roof over your head, if you don’t look out for your self interest!
The older generations lived through such financial opulence caused by the post WW2 boom, and as a result, have become so thoroughly indoctrinated into an unspoken, comfortable social contract between employer and employee where the parties don’t need to be as explicit about protecting their self-interests. As a result, they get flabbergasted when younger people hit back and refuse to be good domesticated workers who do whatever they are told without a written guarantee that they will be taken care of it on the back of it.
Make no mistake: Older generations think you’re supposed to act like an always willing, always compliant, happy little worker who can be easily put in your place to do your boss’ bidding. And, when you do that, your boss takes care of you. And younger generations are filled with professionals who have been – pretty much without exception – burned because of that strategy in the corporate world.
In fact, as far as zoomers are concerned, their boss not only refuses to take care of them, but actively seeks to sell them out at every opportunity!
Despite all of this – please remember: Underneath it all, zoomers would actually go along and comply with the “do what you’re told with a smile and we’ll take care of you” programming – if their economic incentives weren’t so rapaciously devastated and the social contract between generations weren’t criminally broken!
Ultimately, if an average white collar job paid for a mortgage and a kid, zoomers would happily go along… With those terms, they would completely and emotionally accept the transactional nature of professional interactions and “yes sir!” anytime you ask them for more.
So… I hope you’re starting to see the real picture…
We are, in some sense, living in a more honest world, because zoomers don’t comply like they are expected, because what they get out of that compliance isn’t worth the humiliation older generations endured.
In other words, we have officially entered a zero trust culture.
See The Big Picture & Use It To Succeed
Regardless of all of these facts, the path to success is actually counter intuitive.
Regardless of all the zoomer justifications to opt-out of the system (emotionally as well as in action), the solution is the exact opposite.
To be a high-value professional, you must not only pursue and protect your self-interest, but you must also completely adopt the emotional and moral essence of the transactional nature of the world. You must do so, without any reservations or cultural baggage – especially cultural baggage of older generations that were created a for a time which no longer exists.
On the one hand, you must see beyond the veneer of niceness and professionalism in your interactions, and remember that everything you do is a means to an end. On the other, you must learn to project that veneer of niceness onto your interactions yourself, while also learning when to say “yes, sir” and when to say “it’s time we talk”.
Here’s the key: You are not bending the knee and submitting when you say “yes sir!” after being asked to work late. On the contrary, you are hooking them to pay you more down the road – a road not that far away.
In that context, anytime you’re asked to do “more” – OF COURSE! – it is going to present a bill down the road that you’ll also deliver with a smile. It’s just that, you need to be savvy in delivering that bill so that you get the max payout.
And to do that effectively, you must come to see the reality that pursuing your self-interest in the context of your profession is in fact moral. It’s the right thing to do.
Society, education and corporate culture will try to brainwash this approach of strategic asks (i.e. asking in situations where they cannot say no) out of you. They will try to domesticate you into niceness.
Resist!
Also remember that when you lash out at meaningless stuff, scoring insignificant victories like getting half a Friday off for staying a few hours late on Thursday – that is a wasted opportunity!
Don’t sell yourself short. Ignore the small stuff. Focus on building social capital instead. Focus on collecting ammunition. Focus on making them dependent on you. And learn the career skills that help you to get ahead.
All of that – You can only do all of that when you fully embrace the transactional nature of the professional world.
Remember: It’s not only the successful thing to do, but it is also the right thing to do.
In other words, I’m not saying that you should give into every demand of your boss, and say “how high” with a smile every time they tell you to jump.
Instead, I’m saying, learn to tally those jumps into a socially undeniable bill to get yourself into the corner office.
Not penny wise pound foolish. Count the pennies and charge them many pounds with interest!
Also, please keep in mind that looking out for your own interest is not only good for you, but it is also good for everyone: As you achieve the highest and best use of your time – and get compensated wildly for it – you create more value and make the world a better place.
The transactional is good. It is moral. It’s win-win.
And it is the way of the future.
Embrace the transactional and see that it is good.