Corporate vs. Indie: The Greener Grass Effect

A friend who used to bitch about the massive corporation that owned her store is now bitching about the small local owners who bought the location. It's a perfect A-B scenario, because the business remains the same. Suddenly, it becomes quite apparent what a large corporation does well. In ever-so-subtle ways, the new business is rougher around the edges, despite the gorgeous architecture. Signs are missing from displays. Inventory is lost. And my friend discovers she can't use next-day shipping because it's too expensive.

Thinking about her frustration, I decided to write a list of pros and cons:

Corporate Cons:

1. Soulessness. You're a cog in the machinery. Managers look at you and see a dollar figure floating above your head, representing what you cost to them: Your salary plus 30% for benefits and taxes. They wish they didn't have to pay you that.

2. Politics. People play games with you, and you must learn to win them to get ahead.

3. Injustice. Hard work is sometimes rewarded, but due to con number 2, it is not a guarantee of success.

4. Dilbert. A certain breed of inconsequential coffee-swilling cubicle dwellers has evolved nearly infallible survival skills, meaning that outlasting you as an employee is their only professional objective. Make no mistake, they will outlast you.

5. Stress. The pressures of organizational conformity make you feel like an ant about to be crushed.

6. Bureaucracy and waste (human, financial, environmental). The effluence that is a necessary byproduct of a large corporation can be depressing to observe (or clean up).

Corporate Pros:

1. Money money money. Provided you are not a lavish spender, the amount of disposable income available in a corporation to be spent on bettering your professional outcome is huge. With seemingly inconsequential expenditures, wisely applied, you can reap success.

2. Benefits, especially medical and dental care. Insurance increasingly cannot be obtained any other way. Young, healthy people are now routinely denied private coverage (it happened to our family. Our plan is to get a corporate job if one of us gets sick).

3. Exposure to major-player business practices. Nothing beats seeing how the big guys do it. You learn a lot, and it expands your understanding of what can be done through delegation, outsourcing and internal resources.

4. Respect. Working for a corporation grants you a veneer of respectability. Note that it is only a veneer. What lies underneath is up to you.

5. Resources. Because corporations comprise multiple networked businesses and departments, you often discover services that can be had for free (or for a little quid pro quo) within your company.

6. Security. Corporations move slowly, and even if layoffs abound, getting a check on the 15th and the 30th of the month is the perk I miss most.

I'll write a similar list for indie business in another post. Gotta go pick up my son.