With the state of the economy as it is, the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the corporate corruption of recent years, I don’t think anyone will be surprised by Jodi Hudak’s comparison of a corporation to a prison, and anyone who has worked in corporate America probably knows what it feels like to be a prisoner at work—trapped in a job you hate, or with coworkers you dislike because they mistreat others and backstab, yet you cannot leave because your livelihood is dependent upon that job.
In Revealing the Truth Behind Corporate Prison Walls: The Key to Freedom and Escaping Your Job, Jodi Hudak details how she began her career in corporate America with high expectations. She wanted to work hard and move up in a company, but she soon discovered that as hard as she worked, she couldn’t get ahead; promotions were not based on hard work, talent, or merits alone, but on office politics, backstabbing, and one’s success in practicing the Seven Deadly Sins.
Hudak illustrates her points about corporate America with many of her personal work stories. I was not surprised by her stories, having escaped corporate America myself, but I did find that reading her book was a cathartic experience for me. It both comforted and alarmed me; it made me feel I was not the only person who had been in these situations, and it made me realize how much the corporate hierarchy is broken and controlled by greed, envy, and childish antics that result in bullying, dishonesty, and overall corruption. Part of the problem with corporate America may have to do with capitalism, but part of it also has to do with the basic ills of human nature. Hudak held strong to her ethics throughout her years in "corporate prisons," but ultimately, she realized that rather than fighting or trying to fix what could not be fixed internally, at least not by her, she freed herself from the situation. Hudak makes it clear that if enough people will also seek their freedom from this system that no longer works for the majority of those involved, eventually the system will have no choice but to change.
Article comments
1 - Dr Joseph S Maresca
You won't see many of the things in this book if you work for a company with a strong external and internal audit function. In addition, work for companies where you see elderly people in positions for many years.
Sometimes, smaller companies might make a better fit. Read the financial statements to make sure that the organization is profitable. Research the industry to become familiar with hiring and practices therein.