1074 – Learn a real skill: Tom talks Pencil Pushers

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

Tom Antion criticizes what he calls “pencil pushers” — corporate employees, especially in management, who hold high-paying office jobs but produce little real value. Using widespread corporate layoffs as evidence, he argues that companies are cutting these roles because they don’t directly contribute to the bottom line. He cites major layoffs in 2025 at companies like Amazon, UPS, Verizon, Intel, Meta, and others, noting that many cuts are in management and corporate positions rather than frontline or skilled workers.
Antion explains that corporations are under pressure from stockholders, cost-cutting efforts, and the growing role of AI, all of which make non-essential roles expendable. He contrasts these jobs with hands-on, skill-based roles (like delivery drivers or technical workers), which companies still depend on and are far less likely to eliminate.
His main advice—especially to younger people—is to stop relying on traditional college paths that lead to vague management or administrative careers. Instead, he urges listeners to develop practical, in-demand skills that directly generate revenue or solve real problems. He points out that many major companies no longer require college degrees and instead want people who can actually do the work.
Antion warns current “pencil pushers” that layoffs are likely inevitable and encourages them to prepare by learning marketable skills or starting a side business. He concludes by reinforcing his long-held belief that corporations are not loyal to employees, and survival in today’s economy depends on being useful, skilled, and adaptable rather than holding an impressive title.

===

Episode 1074 – Pencil Pushers
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.
[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1074 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about pencil pushers. I do not want you to be a pencil pusher. All right? And I'll tell you why in a minute. And it's really sad story for a lot of these pencil pushers, I'll tell you. All right. I hope you didn't miss episode 1073. That was one of our many episodes on phone tips to make you lightning fast on your phone, and make sure you pick up a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree, and make sure you get version 3.0. That's the latest. And check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, the only licensed dedicated internet and digital marketing school in the country, probably the world certified to operate by SCHEV, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because its quality distance learning.
[00:01:23] Okay, let's talk about these pencil pushers. First of all, what we're talking about today is layoffs. And I was just listening to the radio today and I heard about Amazon and UPS laying off a whole bunch more people this year. And I started looking into this. And apparently 2025 was the worst year since 2009 on layoffs and corporate. I mean, the reasoning behind it is the corporate restructuring. They want to manage costs. They're getting pressure from stockholders to, you know, do better on the stock prices. And of course, AI plays into it very heavily.
[00:02:08] So I'm going to read off a bunch of places that are the number of layoffs they're doing. So Amazon, since October is 30,000 corporate job cuts. Now, the reason I called this pencil pushers is because so many of these companies just have a bunch of people that are do nothing people. Maybe they have an MBA. Ooh. But they can't do crap, and they aren't. You know, when I go onto Verizon, uh, they're they laid off 13,000. It's. And as long as I've been dealing with them, it's like they laid off everybody. Because the websites suck. The the geeks, the IT people are, uh, there seems like they're doing, you know, playing video games all day. The website's slow. I gotta try to pay my bill six times before it goes through. And it just. Just a bunch of losers and pencil pushers that are do nothing people. So finally, it's now. Unfortunately, it's probably going to get worse for the consumer because these they're getting rid of these. At least some of the pencil pushers probably pushed a couple pencils that helped us, but most of them didn't. But anyway that was Amazon 30,000 ups 48,000. Uh, and um, and I think, I don't know, 33,000 of them were in management or 14,000 I can't remember. But whenever you see that they're laying off people in management, these are the pencil pushers. These are the people that go in the office. Nine 3010 they might start. They sit at the, you know, they go to the water fountain, they go get some coffee.
[00:03:54] They look at some papers and do nothing to help us, the consumer. Okay. So when you see management that's usually pencil pushers. They are worthless basically. And maybe when the company was booming, they just hired on for tax deductions and make their life easier. I don't know. Or there's a lot of nepotism also in these companies, or they hire people that are related to them. And I mean just a lot of crap that goes on. There's no wonder I hate the corporate world and I never wanted to be in it. But here's some other companies. Let's say target's 1800 corporate people, you know, Best Buy and Starbucks 1100 Burberry. I'm not sure what they do. If that's a clothing thing, 1700 BP or Chevron. I forgot to get the numbers for them. Bp 7700, Verizon 13,000, Intel. They're shooting for 34,000. I think they're over 15,000 now. Procter and gamble 7000. Uh, meta 3600. All you have to do is type this in layoffs, 2025 layoffs, corporate layoffs and the list just goes forever. I couldn't put them on all on this podcast. So my message to you if you're young and you're taking up stuff in college, which college to me is a dirty word back when I went to college. You might learn something nowadays. You know, I don't know. You learn how to, uh, to be broke when you're paying off your corporate debt. In fact, I saw this 90 year old comedian.
[00:05:34] His first joke was, hey, I just paid off my student loans. So? So you learn how to protest. That's a good thing. I guess, if you can get paid for doing that. So my message to you young folks is learn how to do something that people actually want. I mean, a Fedex driver can make more than the management, and they're never going to get rid of the drivers, okay? Because they have to do have to have them to do the job. Right. You don't have to have a pencil pusher just doing nothing in the office all day for a big salary. But you do have to have somebody delivering those packages if you want to have a profitable or a company that actually works, say so. Get a skill. I mean, if you are stuck in college because you're you're a cave person, parents forced you to go or expected you to go, or you even thought I should go because that's like 100 year old thinking nowadays you don't have to go. You need to have skills that companies want. In fact, many of the companies dropped the college degree requirements, including IBM and Google. They want people that can actually do something that can make money for the company, not pencil pushers say. So if you're in some kind of leadership or management or some kind of crap like that and not that those skills aren't important, it's just that they they don't bring immediate money to the bottom line in most cases, and companies are just sharpening their pencils and getting rid of all this dead wood of these people that are getting 100 to $200,000 a year and bringing nothing to the table.
[00:07:21] Nothing. All right. They're pretty much worthless. And if that's you in a company like that and you know it's you, you might not want to admit it, but you get nothing done all day long, and you go. You sit in meetings that are just stupid. Uh, the big shots hearing themselves talk. Maybe you better plan for the future and get some actual skills that are in demand. And maybe start your own business on the side. And some of you might be in contracts where you're not allowed to do that, which sucks, but you can still develop your skills so that when you do get the ax, which you probably will, you'll have some somewhere to turn, say so. Don't be a pencil pusher. Nobody wants pencil pushers. Everybody hates them. They're worthless slugs. They're probably got low self-esteem because they know they're a pencil pusher, but some of them just think they're better than, you know, the Jesus and just collect their big checks and buy their fancy clothes. And they're in debt, probably with their credit cards and stuff, because they live above their means, because they're a big executive with a big title at some big company. Well guess what? That's coming to an end. Ask those, uh, 48,000 people at UPS about it.
[00:08:41] Uh, what, uh, what their pencil pushing did for them got them the ax. See, because these big companies don't care about you there, they got to answer to their stockholders. And the bottom line. I mean, like I said, just type. If you don't believe me, just type it in. Just type in 25, 20, 25 layoffs and and look at all the companies that are just slashing thousands and thousands of people. And usually it's not the ones that actually do the work, right. Like the car companies and everything. Just get rid of the management, but keep the people that actually build the cars, right? So. So there you go. So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Do not be a pencil pusher. And if you are, get some skills that are going to back you up when the ax comes and it seems like it's coming. All right. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Check out my mentor program. Greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and my school IMTCVA.org and if you're in my mentor program, you get a scholarship to my school, which you can then use to for extra training for yourself. Or you can gift it to someone and it would be one of the best gifts you could ever give them, because they're going to get a highly in demand skill and as little as six months. All right, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.