paycheck factory

a paycheck factory is a place you go from 9-5 each week day and in return you are paid every few weeks for your time. one of my sources of income is a paycheck factory.

paycheck factories have the following characteristics:

• the work may or may not be meaningful
• your own contributions may or may not be meaningful
• the benefits of working extremely hard are often indistinguishable from not even showing up.
• “maintenance mode” is the overarching strategic business model
• talented prospects are actually turned away; mediocre prospects are welcomed for their penchant for being willingly cheap and unwilling to rock the boat
• organizational initiatives are driven nearly exclusively by fear of below average year end reviews.
• political alliances aren’t to be taken lightly
• innovation is not well understood even in the presence of dictionaries

If your only concern is earning a paycheck, it is a great place for you to be – providing the organization is not sold.*

If you ever want to do anything interesting with your career a paycheck factory is a terrible place to be. you will never achieve anything of significance without losing your soul – or at very least wasting a lot of time that could be well spent elsewhere.

*paycheck factories are often sold – typically to even larger paycheck factories.