Fantasising about corporate

Last week I saw multiple times how amazing corporates can be.  For the startup founders on my accelerator programme, Shell is opening so many doors, sharing its advice and experience and creating opportunities they’d never get from any other programme.

A creeping sense enveloped me that I am in the wrong place: I should be working for Shell.

This week I found myself fantasising about it: the impact, the difference it can make, the quality of the people, and yes the status, the budgets, the predictable salary too.

I even started to thinking about how I’d get a job, who I’d talk to, what role I’d want, what terms I’d accept, when would I start.

It’s been a bit like watching one of those programmes about houses of the super-rich that you start imagining yourself owning.

Once you switch off, there always a part of you that’s quite happy with what you’ve got.

Because those fantasies don’t give the full picture.

Just like we don’t know what the super-rich have sacrificed or how they live, life inside a corporate isn’t unicorns and rainbows.

I coached someone this week who’s desperate to leave her job, with a story that’s not unlike mine and dozens of others I’ve spoken to. And another who’s had burnout and zero sympathy, and another who feels angry that all his attempts to do more and be more are thwarted so he’s under-utilised and unhappy.

I’ve also watched how free I am to get the best out of the corporate on behalf of the startups because I am NOT inside that corporate.  I haven’t got my time wasted with pointless team meetings, away days, planning, comms, performance reviews etc. I can travel under the radar. I am not thinking about my next role or a restructure or a boss who’s interests are not aligned with my own.

I’m never going to say never to going back to a corporate job.  I rewrote Chapter 14 Going Back because I didn’t want to be called an outrageous hypocrite because one day it might be what I want to do.  And that won’t negate everything I’d written in the other 14 chapters.

Corporates are great. Until they’re not. Then get out.  That’s my motto.  Don’t stay anywhere if it’s not making you happy or if you think you can be happier somewhere else.  And that’s the same I guess for going back.

What Corporate Escapology tries to do is help us keep our eyes wide open – rationalising our relationship with work, appreciating our full set of skills, experience and knowledge, and expanding our available options.

And that might mean one day going back to corporate might be the right thing to do.

But it’s still a far-off fantasy that I’m not ready for just yet!