I have been saving this picture for many years, but for some reason I have never included it in a blog post. These past couple of week I have been thinking a lot about the nature of work, and what really makes me tick in a professional context, and this is where I think this illustration fits pretty well.
The real question, I guess, is which company offer you the option to have you dream job, or at least come as close to the dream job as possible. As far as I am concerned that company does not really exist and here’s why. No matter what you do, you will always be constrained by the overall goal of the company, which is making money. Now, this is not something new, the number one reason why companies exist is to make money, not to make employees happy. When you sit in a position like mine, your reasoning is based on different variables compared to what might hold the interest of top management. Inevitably, this creates a conflict of interest, which the employee will always loose due to the power structure.
If I am right, and I might not be, we should question the general notion of the principal-agent relationship. This relationship stipulates that the manager is hired by the owner to look after their interests, however, if the management’s interests differ from what is in the company’s interest the management might actually benefit from running the company into the ground.