Life with Ken

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As someone who has spent years working in corporate America, particularly in sales, I’ve come to realize that its internal structural and systemic issues won’t fix themselves. Nor will they be pacified by free lunches, corporate swag, or other surface-level perks. My perspective is shaped by my personal experience in this space and my academic training in Applied Social and Community Psychology, where I’ve been trained to analyze organizational structures with a focus on integrating human well-being into these frameworks. While throughout the following I will be generalizing to cast a wide net, these generalizations are based on patterns I’ve witnessed firsthand and across various industries.

I was once a corporate acolyte. I eagerly wanted to climb the corporate ladder. I drank the Kool-Aid, and I know how to make it. I focused on going to a good school, building a marketable resume, networking, and buying into the hustle/grind culture. I had a desire to be a corporate citizen and grow my life in that way. And in many ways, I succeeded. I ascended into executive circles where I tended to have a good rapport. However, my ambition and drive, which should have propelled me forward, were perceived as threats—particularly by middle management.

I would find myself caught in a power struggle, where my direct supervisors often felt insecure about my upward trajectory, while executives admired my energy and dedication. This disconnect between leadership strata resulted in toxic dynamics that eventually led to me being marginalized, placed in impossible situations, and eventually pushed toward resignation.

When I extrapolate my experience and align it with some of the unignorable phenomenon taking place in corporate America today, I recognize that corporate America seems to have adopted a system that cannibalizes itself internally. Too often, employees are treated as disposable, are used up, and then discarded when they no longer serve a company’s bottom line.

Consider this evidence: a significant percentage of employees report being disengaged at work. Mass layoffs post-pandemic have become routine, burnout is widespread, and ghost/fake job postings are becoming endemic on job boards. “Entry-level” positions are asking for 3–5 years of experience while not paying commensurately and leaving young talent with little room to grow. Meanwhile, older generations are holding onto and in some cases are just starting to acquire junior and senior level roles, making it harder for younger employees to rise. Additionally, men in their prime working years are exiting the workforce in some capacity, at an alarmingly increased rate and working-aged people under 40 more broadly, are giving up on cultural and developmental milestones associated with being able to store and generate wealth.

The problem isn’t as isolated to various specific areas as some may like it to be, it’s the structure itself. At least since the mid to late 1900s, corporate America has thrived on a growth model that prioritizes profit above all else and employees have increasingly become caught in the crosshairs. Looking ahead at the future of work especially with more and new AI and automation in the workplace, the way to mitigate these issues from becoming a broader cultural crisis, is for the corporate sector in particular, to reform how they do business internally.

Corporations must commit to top-down reform, driven by bottom-up demands. CEOs and executives need to take ownership of their company’s culture and recognize that treating employees as valuable assets isn’t just ethically sound—it’s good business. But culture alone isn’t enough. Reforms must permeate all levels and aspects of operation. Functions may not need to change, but how those functions are implemented will.

This is where the potential for a prosperous future resides. if you can’t promote someone, don’t pretend to care about their career goals or hire multiple new people to create a façade of growth. Adopt a value-based business model that focuses on efficiency and providing high quality deliverables; this will curate trust and reinforce company buy-in from employees and consumers. Encourage healthy and dynamic company culture and be vigilant to not let it turn into divisive corporate politics. Explicitly reward merit and not just ambition. Incorporate humanity into your key performance indicators. And finally, give fresh [and young] talent opportunities at every level, from entry to senior positions.

The result of these kinds of reforms will be a better and more engaged workforce, lower costs, greater innovation, increased profits, and long-term sustainability. The winners of tomorrow will be the companies who start doing these and similar reforms today. The next big opportunity is in making people invaluable assets, not expendable ones. After all, humans aren’t going anywhere, and corporations that fail to acknowledge this within their own business model and organizational structure, will struggle in the years to come.

The status-quo is going to find itself in an uphill battle to generate new opportunities for growth; we are starting to see this take place and steadily spread now. Solely increasing production and mitigating degradation on the margins, at the cost of social responsibility, won’t be the thing that will take corporations to the next level. Corporate America cannot continue with business as usual. If a company want to succeed in the future, it must embrace systemic reform today. Doing so will not only ensure profitability but also foster a more sustainable and humane workplace.

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