Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but eventually we will think about our career prospects. A simple, hungry question arises: could I be the boss?
It feels like we have never worked this hard, we must be doing something right. Gosh, I hope someone up top notices.
But let's get clinical. The standard career has a few boxes that need to be checked off for that promotion.
We need to have foundational skills developing them into technical proficiency. Then we must learn to work as a team and manage others.
If you really want to get to the top, where big decisions are made, you should know how to work a balance sheet and know when to take the risk.
Oh, and one quick thing, your name is either Peter or John. You also went to a private school and captained a sports team. You then went to university to study commerce or science and spent the next 20-30 years climbing the corporate ladder, building those financial skills.
As an observer of and adviser to corporate Australia, when I did the analysis of our executives I was a bit surprised. Perhaps I'm a cynic, but description doesn't reflect modern Australia.
All across Australian business we see that very narrow definition of talent. In the past few months, our largest companies, the brand names we know and love, have been reporting on their year.
They also are telling us about their senior staff, who they are and what they are being paid.
When we consider that the average executive of a big company is paid $1.65 million a year it raises a few questions. Especially when for some executives that is their starting rate.
Over the past couple of years we have all questioned corporate attitudes and positions. Maybe it was the CommInsure debacle, ANZ's toxic and sexist attitudes in the trading room or even just last week with Caltex underpaying service staff. The remuneration for Caltex's seven executives, you might be interested to know, edges $30 million a year.
Central to each of these issues – the narrowness of leadership, questionable pay and workplace culture – is really about what is valued.
Workplaces have forgotten that the hard work of many is what makes us successful. Rarely, if ever, can we do anything alone. It takes a mix of skills and attributes for workplaces to, well, work.
Unless you look a lot like me – tall, white and male – your contributions are under-acknowledged.
There are plenty of examples to illustrate this, but ask the women you work with or your family or your migrant friends. Each will have a story more powerful than I can recite.
For those who prefer the bleeding obvious as an example, look at who makes it to being the boss.
Women and ethnic minorities are viewed as risky choices. That is why only 10 of our largest companies, the ASX200, have female CEOs.
Yet this defies all logic and evidence. Female managers have to work harder to even get their foot in the door, they are promoted on their performance whereas men land jobs on their potential.
Like Coca-Cola Amatil CEO, Alison Watkins, who used to head agribusiness Graincorp.
The same can be said for the previous CEO of Westpac, Gail Kelly, who was appointed partly because she had already run a bank.
I don't want to shock anyone, but white guys like me clearly don't have the answer to everything. A few of us sitting around a table trying to solve the world's problems hasn't ever been the solution.
Our workplaces could be the envy of the world, this starts with realising that equal work can be of different value and actually respecting the contributions of many.
You don't need to be named Peter to realise that makes sense.
Conrad Liveris is a workforce diversity specialist. He recently completed a major review of executive remuneration.