By Steve Ranger, 21 August 2006 12:20
NEWS
Management consultants and managers - along with hairdressers and celebrities - are the "iconic" jobs of the 21st century, according to The Work Foundation.
The work consultancy said that through these four jobs, the pattern of modern working life can most clearly be seen. The four roles were chosen by studying the trends affecting work and then picking the workers that personify them.
The report from The Work Foundation claimed management consultants are iconic because they show the "power of the outsider", are the archetypal knowledge worker and reflect the "pronounced love of change" at large in modern work.
Around 38 per cent of the people working in the UK (11.1 million workers) could be said to be knowledge workers, according to calculations by The Work Foundation.
And no other group is as big or swelling its ranks as fast as managers, which reflects a mounting obsession with hierarchy and status, it said.
By contrast, hairdressers reflect working trends by showing how much work remains manual but also the importance of social skills in work. The Work Foundation also said hairdressers serve to show how the "rhetoric of globalisation" has been overplayed, as such personal services can never be offshored.
Celebrities demonstrate how people are becoming their work - and at the same time, the report points out, "they defy the notion of 'productivity'".
While in the early 20th century, 'worker' would mean a unionised factory employee, it's now not so obvious what it means, said the paper's author Stephen Overell.
Comments
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1. Stuart Fawcett
It’s important to remember that the "iconic" part of these roles is often displayed by the successful player who is also seen to take timeout to enjoy the affluence that the role brings. These successful manager positions are often filled by gregarious leaders of people - another trait that many wish they had more of, and so desire.
In an environment where work is an increasingly large part of life we have limited chances to display/create our characters at any other time than at work.
The hairdresser comparison is perhaps the most important point, in many positions good social interaction is just as important as any another skill, yet there is little schooling or training in this. Maybe teaching ourselves how to operate more comfortably within our new work based family/community group will make us all winners as we accept work is the new extended family and our colleagues are individuals with whom trusted relationships can be built.
2. Chris Stevens
What total tosh! "Iconic" jobs is a term invented by the outsourcers trying to hide the fact that they are tax avoiding service importers.
There may be more managers, but that down to more people taking the title of "Manager", it doesn't actually mean that these people are real managers with true authority, responsibility and leadership. Many of these so called managers are administrators who follow preset and imaginary rules.
Many of the consultants are not true consultants, they are just temporary administrative staff with little technical skill or experience. A genuine consultant has enough knowledge to give good advice and to be accountable for the risk arising from that advice.
3. Confuseius
Bullsh!t. In my time in consulting, I met people who were some or all of the following: one-dimensional, arrogant, greedy, arrogant, sanctimonious, conventional-masquerading-as-unconventional, drone-like, blinkered, unimaginative. Not all of them mind, but most of them. This was observably at odds with all the hype they produced about themselves. The irony was that they were expected to blossom the moment they became partners, having been oppressed, suppressed and depressed for a decade. Yet nobody except me seemed to notice this.
I left consulting and became a banker, liked it a little more but still not much, and only truly found a job I enjoyed when I became an entrepreneur. In the real world you meet honest, hard-working, decent people that you are proud to work with and with whom you want to spend time; and as an entrepreneur you have THE truly iconic job of the post-industrial age.