“How many sides does a coin have?” a wise man once asked me. Of course, my initial reaction to what I thought was an absurd question was that this guy must take me for a joke. After contemplating if there was some dimension to this question that I had never dwelled before I bursted out: “Obviously, two!” The wise man simply snickered some chuckles and responded: “Obviously, you’re wrong. Three is the correct answer.” While he responded he took out a quarter and showed me the George Washington’s face side and then the bald eagle’s side. Before he could show me this mysterious third side, I realize what he meant. Of course, he was talking about the silver linen crunched between the two. To what he then answered: “In the grey you’ll find your answer. Use this logic when encountering the business world as a young professional and I assure you, you will excel and strive.” Logically, I took his advice to heart.
A local news outlet recently published an article about the aggressive population decline that Puerto Rico has seen in the past couple of years. Young professionals are fleeting from Puerto Rico to other regions of Earth contributing to the so-called brain drain. Even so, my intent with this blog piece will not be focused on extravagant claims, statistics, or lively expressions. Let’s just leave that whole shebang to fall outside the scope. Conversely, the intent is to inject some realism to the mix. Furthermore, I would center my remark on those millennial professionals who are staying in the homeland to compete in the ferocious job market that awaits them. Moreover, I will comment on the reality check in the workplace that is just inches away from knocking on their door waiting to get in and cause some mayhem to this little thing called life.
For one thing and before I continue, the following caveat must be disclosed. It partakes on my standing to address this social phenomenon. Some of the readers might wonder, who am I to tell you what to expect. To them I say, “fair enough, treat this written remark as an add-on or widget of your on-going creation of a clever, cunning and malice professional state of mind. Nothing more, nothing less.” In particular, to address the standing issue, I will say that I have worked on numerous places, starting off on traditional first job experiences in my teens, to grown-up, for lack of a better term, jobs. I will emphasize on the latter of the two since I have dwelled in it for quite some time now. To boot, five years along the line, I’d say that I am in some position to comment, although I do not hold the entire truth. At most, just a speck in the entire truth spectrum. Some truths I have experienced first hand and others come from my peer’s experiences. So, I decided to bundle them both in order to data-mine some truth. Reader, take into consideration, it is not me talking, but the wisdom of the crowds is preaching to the entire millennial choir. For with, without further ado, I bring to you the workforce reality check in Puerto Rico.
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For you millennial boys and girls, and anything in between, people will say it is ill advised to stay in our island paradise. The reason being primarily no good paying jobs for everyone who has at least an undergraduate degree and at most a Post-Doc to stay alive[1] and not drown on massive student debt in addition to other liabilities you may incur in the process. This means zero quality of life awaits a young adult in Puerto Rico being the only thing you could wait for is a boulevard of broken dreams[2], pun intended.
In any case, lets say that you get hired to work on a firm. Noted, for arguments sake, firm refers not only to working on a public or private enterprise in the business world. Thus, what will be mentioned in subsequent paragraphs applies to any workplace scenario, but still I will refer to be as firm o workplace.
As follows I will only address three issues briefly, hereto referred as Reality Check’s.
Reality Check # 1:
At first, you may be treated and filled with hopes and dreams that you are now a proud member of the job market and everything they teach you in law and business ethics is applied to the outmost extent. So, a rookie professional ignorantly perceives justice and equity will prevail in the twenty-first century workplace. The wise crowd coins this stage as the honeymoon stage.
All of a sudden, reality hits, smack! To which I regret to inform that you are not being well received, but that the rest of the office is empirically collecting data to see what are your strengths and weaknesses. Most of the members of your firm are closely taking mental notes to preview if this up-and-comer will canned someone here. In sum, the honeymoon stage is not a welcoming to a new firm; it is simply a preparation for an Ides of March about to take place. So, millennial professional newbies beware of the friendly hand. Remember Satan used to be an angel once.
Reality Check # 2:
Second, life is all about networking and connections. We know it best, but the wise crowd will say that in Puerto Rico networking and human-connections wrongfully justified are degraded to acts of hustling. The previous statement gives leeway for two plausible reality-checks. One, I am addressing right now in this paragraph and the other will be attended shortly in the following.
Now to continue, more likely than not, someone in your workplace gets paid well (“well” meaning in this case above federal minimum for Puerto Rico at $7.25/hour)*. In addition, this certain someone is also getting some sort of government stipend or aid on the side. To clarify, if an individual is going through rough times, then it is in the government’s best interest to help out its struggling citizen. The previous of course, with the intention of the citizen, after stabilizing his or her affairs to say: “Thank you government, but hereafter no more.” The thing is, typically, the person does not do the proper avua adieu and stays inside the money loop scheme. Voilà là le problem! (No, I am not fluent in French.) Even so, if I flip the judgmental pendulum to the other side, can a regular middle class Joe that has his o her job to make ends meet, deliberately wake up one day and conclude to say: “Things are ok, but they can be better. I know, let me ask for government to give me a hand.” The hard fact is that he or she cannot do so. Therefore, take into perspective before rendering an unjustified biased claim.
Reality Check # 3:
Third, the person who gets the job is not the person who has bled and sweated for the company. It will be the friend of the boss, the one whom he or she knows better. Once again the hustler figure comes about, giving an apparent perception that he or she knows what his or her job description entails. Quickly, does anybody want to work in a country where the corporate culture of the workplace is defined by how much of a suck up you are, or how much one appears to be doing the job correctly? Work ethics anyone? There are no ethics whatsoever, and if there were it will be skewed favoring individual interest. Following, is this the ideal place to create a good life, or is it better to flee the country contributing to the massive brain drain? Moreover, is there a third possible lens to look into our own projected personal future? I know there is.
There you have it, the reality check of the Puerto Rican workplace at a glance. As mentioned before in this remark, the wisdom of the crowds would state that it is ill advised to stay on the island. Yes, laws will be enacted to attain this issue, private and public policy will be written to avoid this evil, but at the end of the day, they will not generate the desired change. Things will stay as because until the three organizational issues I have stated in this remark, in addition to a mountain more of existing organizational problems, go through a redemption process people will not perceive justice and equity in the workplace. Furthermore, being that as it may, then there is no use to stay in this sadly dreaded island because all the millennial generation professionals will get, myself included, is a broken embrace of good things to come.
Nevertheless, my intention with this written remark is not for the millennial generation to abandoned hope. On the contrary, “…hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.[3]” So, in lieu of leaving the reader in despair I will comment on a simple motivational insight. A while back, a brother of mine forwarded an eye-opening link, and now I will like to share to you an epiphany. Here goes: Rebellion is an act for the young mind, (Anybody remember their teens and undergrad years?). In that same logic, we tame our rebellious heart and start thinking with our heads. In other words, we mature as an individual. When this happens, in our minds we can resolve most, if not all, of the worlds problems with big mega-projects for social justice and change. Following this way, the problem arises of not having free time for self, because that time is spent on magnificent projects for the future. One then ages and looks back to the past and realizes that one ends up not cultivating the human relations that really matter. So, in order to avoid wasting thirty (30) years down the line, I comment on it today for the reader to take note as I previously did and leave with this: “Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things that I love to do and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm. Today I call it “SIMPLICITY”,[4]” for what I would emphasize on Simplicity, but that’s just me. Therefore, I hope that any reader of this remark as well as the millennial generation at large, will take these words to heart and in some fashion make it applicable for personal aspirations to live a fully satisfied, joyous and plentiful life. In other more humble words, a magnificent life is reached through simple executions in all aspects of life, the workplace included.
To summarize, let’s rekindle the wise man’s words: In the grey you’ll find your answer. Use this logic when encountering the business world as a young professional and I assure you, you will excel and strive.” In effect, that is the message the wisdom of the crowds and myself are trying to bestow upon you, the reader. So, in farewell, young professional arriving on the crossroad as to stay in Puerto Rico or leave Puerto Rico, remember this, you can not go through life just waiving the pro’s & con’s of both side of the coin. Above all, consider the third side of the coin, crunch right in the middle, as to any life; i.e. work-related decision taking into serious account the three (3) reality checks mentioned earlier, you may face to find clarity. “…I’ll assure you…” in doing so, you will thrive and excel beyond your wildest expectations and thus will have lived, it its due time, a many-splendored[5] life. If not, well, what can I say, Reality bites!
Finished on October 7, 2013 at 12:46 A.M.
*References:
[1] “Stayin’ Alive” performed by Bee Gees as part of the compilation: Saturday Night Fever L.P. from R.S.O., Polydor & Reprise Label Co. (1977).
[2] “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” performed by Green Day as part of a compilation: American Idiot L.P. from Warner Bros. & Reprise Label Co. (2004).
[3] Line from “The Shawshank Redemption,” distributed by Colombia Pictures (1994).
[4] Poem titled “As I began to Love Myself” by Charles Chaplin on April 16, 1959, (To see an example: http://www.dippingintolight.co…, last visited on October 7, 2013 at 11:28 P.M.).
[5] Wording in italics taken from the following film title: “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing,” distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. (1955).
http://english.qstheory.cn/society/201111/t20111123_125642.htm