Survival of the Fittest
I missed the super Bowl this year – moving, no tv – and sadly missed my favorite television time of the year: Super Bowl commercials.
Last night I saw the Career Builder commercial for the first time in which a large number of employees, in homemade battle gear fight to the "death" for a promotion in the Promotion Pit.
The messages I get from the commercial are this:
- Jobs/promotions are scarce
- Management is willing to fill openings with the warm body that manages to last the longest
- Actual job qualifications are unimportant
- Standing out in the crowd just means being the last one standing
- Fighting dirty to get what you want is okay – necessary, even, to succeed
- Even those outside the organization can apply – regardless of qualifications (i.e. the Delivery Guy and he seemed to be putting up a good fight)
Looking for a job or a promotion? How does this make you feel? Hopeless?
We work our whole lives amassing a level of experience, competence and special skills that apparently mean nothing in the real world, because according to this commercial, you just have to be tougher than everyone else.
So working hard and giving it your all mean nothing. Have I read this commercial all wrong?
One more thing. Where are the women in this fight for the promotion? I would suggest that they are too smart to go along with such shenanigans.
What do you think? check it out: Career builder Promotion Pit Super Bowl Ad
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By Gary Bourgeault (Managersrealm.com), March 7, 2007 @ 10:38 pm
I haven’t seen the commercial, but from what you write, it’s a nice piece of fiction.
All studies show that there will be a continuing shortage of qualified workers across many sectors.
Of course the company is one looking to make money off representing people that don’t believe that.
The workers will have the upper hand in a lot of areas in the years ahead.
By Deborah, March 8, 2007 @ 5:09 am
Gary, Thanks for your comment. I always thought the same as well – that qualified workers were hard to find. It’s just that the up and coming generation doesn’t seem to have the same understanding of working hard/company loyalty/work ethic that the Baby Boomer Generation does and commercials like that just seem to focus on negative qualities. I realize it is designed to entertain and focus on Career Builders as the place to go to find an alternative to the “rat race” but it was just a bit disturbing to me.
By S.M.Mehdi Hassan, March 8, 2007 @ 10:36 pm
This is why I strongly believe that to survive and go up in the corporate world knowing how to do politics and maintaining liaisions are more important than working hard, or being honest.