Corporate ladder, the thing that keeps me thinking. The higher you climb, the worst your life could get and what worst is that it is very insecure. What this means?As you got higher, you job responsibility got heavier. Everything is related to you and every decision you make decides whether you will still be an employee of that company next month. A bigger paycheck that you don’t have time to enjoy, perks offered by the company that you hardly use. You work 10x harder than your boss, you still work for someone else even you are at the highest point in the corporate ladder.

Corporate ladder is a ladder with a wide base and it gets narrower and narrower when u climbing up. When you are trainee, there are a lot of other trainees around you. You won’t get fired easily, even if your colleague climbed faster than you, you still have a job (assuming you in a big cooperation) and that is what people call job security. When you are a small fry, you don’t get fired easily and you have a lot of potential to climb up.

As the higher you climb, the narrower it gets. Office politics now start to bug you. You struggle to eliminate the competition, every night when you sleep you complain to your partner about how dirty and stressful the office has becomes. It gets more and more frustrated. A heavier job responsibility forces you to trade more time for office work, you find that you spent more time in the office than at home.

At the highest point, say you are now the CEO when you only report to the shareholders or the chairman of the company. Before you start to think this is the best point in my life, you suddenly still aware that you still depend on the paycheck signed by your boss each month. You are stressed, because even your colleague can not take you down now, you won’t be demoted easily. Now you have a bigger problem, the board of directors might just terminate your service next month if you don’t perform the way they expect. The stress level gets more intense. You have a BMW that you don’t have the time to cruise with now and you start to worry about many things.

But I get more securities if I do well in a big company. At least I am paid and I don’t have to worry anything else.

Now the crucial part. Where does job security comes in? As you can see, job security decreases as you climbed higher. But hey that is not what we used to know. This is because nowadays with such competitive environment where corporate with the lowest cost and talented personnels will prevails in the marketplace, no company will promote a staff or retain a staff based on SENIORITY. It is now all capabilities, cost and value that you can offer. Now to make problem more complicated, the one who is the best politician in the office always has the edge. One screw up and all your so call securities will vanish.

What is worst? You stop getting paid when you can’t go to office, no matter how high your position is.

Then if it is that bad, why everyone is trying to climb it?

- Simple, because we are only taught to do that in life and in school. Get a good degree and start climbing! Furthermore it is considered as the safest bet to make sure your rent is paid every month. But now I hope you could start thinking that there is not much security if you are an employee for the rest of your life.

Then what can I do?

- I am not saying stop thinking of working and start seeking a rich woman to marry with. Instead I am emphasizing that to stop thinking about climbing the corporate ladder will eventually buy you more luxuries, freedom and security. In fact, stop relying solely on your paycheck. Start doing some investment, be financially literate and you can even consider to start your own venture. Build passive incomes as what Robert Kiyosaki said.

Ok I want to be financial literate, where do I start?

I am thinking of starting something to promote financial literacy. Stay around.

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