Corporate

A cold but sunny London day, April 2009. We are eating our lunch on the steps of St. Pauls Cathedral; enjoying a few brief moments of fresh air watching the old No.9 Routemaster Double Decker Buses drive down Fleet Street before we have to return to our spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. The conversation returns, as it often did in those days, to our corporate jobs. We are grappling with these questions: Why are our jobs so unfulfilling? How did we end up here? Are we crazy if we no longer want to work here? And, crucially: What can we do about it? But the sensible voices in our heads are saying: ‘Don’t complain. This is what real-life is like.’ ‘At least we’ve got jobs; many people would love these jobs.’ We used to spend a lot of time pondering these questions. It’s very easy to ...