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I have heard it said that there is more to life than work… sadly not for most people. In Western society I have noticed an emerging desire for work that goes beyond common sense. I could blame organisational psychology or whatever but in my opinion we have developed a “job=life” attitude. This has to stop… it’s not healthy.
You are not your job
When you ask most people what they do for a living, the answer most offer is that, “oh I am a lawyer” or “oh I am [inserted job here]“. The often cited unbalanced measuring stick called, “work-life balance” consists of working too much and then burning out. You may like your job and enjoy doing it… but it’s just a job. I don’t think we should make the mistake of selling our souls to a world that largely is run by people who have so much money that people have stopped meaning anything to them. When you say that you are your job and your identity is wrapped up in what you do… then you are saying that you are that job. Your priority in life is your ambition.
I know most people have nothing wrong with ambition… I have a big problem with it. The ambition you have will often cause you to push people aside, make irrational judgments and enter into a reality of self-promotion which even the most deluded narcissist can see is wrong. There is nothing wrong with goals neither as there anything wrong with trying to make a living… there is something very wrong when work becomes the centre of your life.
Working too hard is poison for you and your life
It’s sad to say but 4 billion people in this planet live on a dollar a day or much, much less. The main assumption we have that these people need jobs. I bet they already have one in most cases. Perhaps they are working already for a big multinational? Where did that get them? Selling organs? This point can’t be overstated … those who are working poor know exactly what I am talking about. We work and work and work and work. Where does it get us.? Sick, burned out… dead or dying. It’s a sad state of affairs.
What have we got wrong about work?
From the day we hit pre-school (prep now) until the day we retire… we are working towards some kind of invisible goal. As a matter of fact we become so used to it that when we reach our old age all we have to show for it is a house… if we are lucky. Somewhere along the way we have bought the lie that work is what life is all about. Work is what we do because we have to. If there was an alternative to work… I’d be doing it… sadly there isn’t. I understand that some people love their work and there is a path where you can take that thinking. Still, that “job” should never be given the status symbol of “identity” in your life. Doing that only ever makes you realise that you are a slave to some invisible form of ambition.
So we work. Like a stream of ants lining up to serve society. Why do we do this? Because we have to. I was told that the university where I work runs off the good will of people who work there. Indeed, it does… good will that is bought with a price. That price is very high. If I were to ask you to exchange your life for work at the age of ten or ask you to sacrifice your teenage dreams to do the right thing by your wife and family would you do it? I bet you wouldn’t. Why then do we act as though our jobs, cars, houses and the life give our lives meaning… when they don’t. Clearly, if life was meant to be about work so society could advance… I am not seeing the advancement. We still have all the same problems they did thousands of years ago… when evil landlords invented this work business.
Where is the greater good?
I have heard it said that to work is its own reward. What is that reward? Money? Money that is gone before it hits my bank account. Money that evaporates fast these days. I am constantly reminded that my wife and I’s choice to have a parent at home is costing me dearly. Yet, these are values I choose to live by. A tough call? Not really, if living purposefully and intentionally means I have to suffer to maintain my values than so be it. I would rather live one day by what I believe and pay for it, than a thousand working to reach some invisible goal. That doesn’t mean however that it’s all smooth sailing or happy days.
So, what’s wrong with work? Nothing. If your work is fulfilling to you and meaningful and supporting of your values… then you have found a rare treasure. What I think we have wrong about work is that it’s all life is supposed to be about. Your life is your life. You are here for a reason. Yet, in finding that reason you do not have to sell your soul to make another person rich. What I want you to take away from this post today is this: don’t let “work” become the end all and be all in your life. The end result is just not worth it.
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In this case (as usual) I venture to suggest that it’s not about money. It is about status. And a need to understand and accept one’s social status is a very powerful instinct. In a pre-postmodern (!) world, each individual tends to have a well-defined sense of their standing in the community, based on a range of factors such as family background, personal attributes, wealth, education, physical prowess and “marital”/parental status. In the postmodern world, individual status is increasingly fragmented and there is no consensus on how to establish or enhance status. One symptom of this is the cult of celebrity, being famous for being famous, which is a result of viewing oneself as a member of an unreal society (that is, a society in which one has no identity beyond one’s (lack of) celebrity). Work, on the other hand, offers a real society within which one’s status can be established, both formally (within the hierarchy of power and/or remuneration) and informally (in terms of influence and social popularity etc). And because “work status” is effectively a universal, projection of that status into social contexts is comparable to class and race projections.
The real problem isn’t work, it is our failure, as groups of individuals, to organise ourselves into meaningful communities.
Wow,
That is a good response. I think you may have hit the nail on the head here. The place where I work seems to have a great deal of motivational problems at present. Yet, people are leaving!
If that made sense … it didn’t to me
I agree, Luke, with what you ahve expressed! Thank you!
Thanks Molly! I appreciate your comment.
I agree, This is a good response. So to speak you’vehit the nail on the head. I run a web design companyoffice in Melbourne Australia and the office doesn’t seem to have a great deal of motivational problems at present. However without careful attention things could go pearshaped!
Thanks Alaress,
Nice website by the way!
Luke.