Externalities

By virtue of our jobs consultants are outsiders. We parachute into our clients' worlds, deliver the project and then we're encouraged to leave as quickly as possible; billable hours being what they are. Yet whilst we're on a job we work closely enough with individuals to get to know them a little.

My external status often seems to cast me in some sort of father-confessor role, especially when alcohol has been involved. I have been taken into a bewildering array of confidences ranging from infidelity to estranged children to failing physical and mental health. On a more positive note I am also party to countless ambitions to change jobs, careers and countries.

What's going on in your life if you're driven to say such things to near-perfect strangers?

After twenty years I'm convinced that one of the major externalities of white collar industries like pharma is the unhappiness of employees' families. Which is the sentiment being articulated any time anyone says The stress that my job puts on my family is unbearable. Companies are really, really bad at dealing with this issue; in fact most feel they deserve plaudits for merely recognising its existence.

Yet as unemployment rises even more employees will silently bear the burden of personal and family stressors by forcing a grin every time they walk past the boss. If there is an upside to being congenitally unsuited to full-time employment then this it it.