Challenging The Lure Of The Protean Career

Abstract

In this paper I call attention to unique perspectives among workers and reassert that “worker” does not denote a categorical monolith, but rather a unique human being who perceives the same phenomena differently from everyone else. I position my assertion within the context of the seemingly unquestioned notion of the protean career. Referring to stories by people who participated in a qualitative study I conducted in 2001, I caution that the “emancipatory” qualities of the protean career might not be universally accepted; rather, for personal reasons of one’s own, these same characteristics could be perceived as disruptive of the order that one has constructed. Conclusions suggest that there may be workers like the people in the study I conducted, who find themselves engaged in the protean environment against their will. Even though on the surface they could be said to be taking their place among the residents of “free agent nation”, they might have preferred uninterrupted citizenship in the company wherein they were employed. Implications point to the importance of problematizing the blind acceptance and generalizability of the protean career.