Pyramidal Work Scheme – Part 1

If you’re currently an employee of a company/corporation, chances are good that you’re working in a “Pyramidal Scheme Business Model”. Now, I don’t mean that your work or place of employment is a fraud as the name might imply. However, currently corporation hierarchy does show a strong resemblance to the widely recognized fraudulent business model frequently referred to as a “Pyramid Scheme”

Such “businesses” seldom involve sales of real products or services to which a monetary value might be easily attached. However, sometimes the “payment” itself may be a non-cash valuable. To enhance credibility, most such scams are well equipped with fake referrals, testimonials, and information. The flaw is that there is no end benefit. The money simply travels up the chain. Only the originator (sometimes called the “pharaoh”) and a very few at the top levels of the pyramid make significant amounts of money. The amounts dwindle steeply down the pyramid slopes. Individuals at the bottom of the pyramid (those who subscribed to the plan, but were not able to recruit any followers themselves) end up with a deficit.

At this point you might be thinking no way! I work for a credible business, a credible corporation, we’re rated the top 100 employers of 20##!  etc. etc.

Stop. Think about your work place, does it have the following features?

• A CEO / Chief whatever at the top making all the decisions
• A select group of VPs under the CEO
• A slightly bigger group of directors and senior managers
• A vastly larger group of lower level managers
• A ginormous amount of “enablers”/admin/”worker bee” type employees

So, if you answered yes to most of those questions, you’ll see that the pyramid is already starting to take shape. Lets examine further. Does your workplace also have the below features?

• The CEO likely makes the most money
• The CEO gets the biggest portion of annual bonuses
• The CEO somehow still received a positive earning in the 6 figures despite unemployment rate, market failures and bankruptcies
• Income rate decrease as you move down from CEO to VP to Manager to General employees
• When the business starts failing the bottom layer gets cut first  as a “cost saving measure”

Are you still thinking your workplace doesn’t look like a pyramid scheme?

We’ll be back with part 2. Until then, I’d like to hear what you think.