Pigeonholed

Leonard Da Vinci.  Thomas Jefferson.  Benjamin Franklin.

Do you know why these men were so great?  Because they were not Pigeonholed into thinking that they could only do one type of job.    Yet the tradition of Corporate America is to Pigeonhole people and ID People by the Job they did before instead of everything that they are capable of.

I find this sad.

8 thoughts on “Pigeonholed”

  1. Reminds me of the Robert A. Heinlein quote from the character Lazarus Long in the book, “Time Enough for Love”.

    “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

    Bingo. ‘Nuff said.

    1. No, specialization is for the serfs and peasants. Day after day, year after year, doing the same type of work for the king. And they can never escape.

      It’s just another form of slavery.

  2. Even worse when you are pigeonholed into a position you have held for more than 10 years, specialized to the point that it is your only marketable skill, but naively signed an onerous noncompete in order to get the job as an eager youth that now prevents the mature and wiser you from switching firms or starting your own.

    1. Most Non-Compete agreements are not worth the paper they are written on. NDA’s however can be much more binding.

      1. That’s until they follow through and sue you. Sure you might win…but the process is the punishment. How deep are your pockets?

  3. “Yet the tradition of Corporate America is to Pigeonhole people and ID People by the Job they did before instead of everything that they are capable of. I find this sad.”

    Why do you hate capitalism?

  4. Jefferson was not great. He was a pedophile. Started screwing sally hemming when she was 12. He fathered at least 5 children and kept them as slaves.
    Never freed them. When he died he freed
    4 slaves and sold 50 others. He was a dog.
    I don’t care how brilliant he was. He was despicable

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