What makes work so inherently dismal?
So, there was actually a time in my life when I was so excited about work that I ran to the office — I couldn’t wait to get there! Of course, that’s an uncommon experience, and even people who say they like their work rarely feel that enthusiastic.
Why is work so dismal? What causes those rare exceptions? And what should we do about work?
As a small child, I saw my father come home from work every day tired and unhappy. Every day.
Even as a child, I knew that this was something I did not want. My view wasn’t to banish work; it was to find a way to make work better. But first, what’s wrong with work anyway?
Servitude
Getting paid doesn’t change the fact that work is generally servitude. When you work, typically you are unfree. You do what’s expected of you, what you are told to do. You have little or no agency.
This is an unsatisfactory situation for most people. People want to make their own decisions, have choices, and do what they want to do.
And while some of this is okay, 8 hours and day and 40+ hours per week is draining.
And then there’s the boss, who is often interfering and clueless.
I ran to work with enthusiasm when I was working at my own company. Requirements of the job did control my behavior to a certain degree. But I had no boss calling the shots, and I had considerable autonomy.
Waste time/life
Your time IS your life. And when you spend most of your days for many decades WORKING, there is little of YOUR OWN LIFE remaining.
Basically, whatever time you have after exhausting yourself serving others…only that is yours.
Makes people unhappy
Studies have confirmed the obvious: work makes people unhappy. From what I understand, part of that unhappiness is caused by commuting and people with longer commutes are unhappier.
Destructive of planet
Commuting uses energy (usually fossil fuels) to make yourself unhappy, serve your boss, waste your life AND produce unnecessary crap which is destroying the climate and causing the current mass extinction…which, at the moment, threatens our own species.
That seems like a lot of effort to generate suffering, misery and death.
Instead: Life Co-op and a Spirit of Play
I’ve been thinking that people everywhere can work together to create a planet-wide “Life Co-op” — a sort of universal basic income financed by co-op members, performing far less labor than they do serving bosses. And it would only be useful labor, producing what people actually need: food, housing, medicine.
Since we’d be working less, and for a worthwhile cause and NOT serving greedy and ungrateful masters, this would be a great improvement on what we gave now.
But What About Making the Work Experience Better?
In the 1980s, I met and talked with the management guru W. Edwards Deming. He had a humane vision for how work should be organized and managed. He thought working people should work ON systems, not simply being obedient servants working WITHIN inflexible management-controlled systems.
Workers understand how the work actually gets done — because they are actually doing it. Managers and executives believe they know best but are mistaken. Executives issue orders and intimidate thoughtful workers into silence. Workers somehow get work done DESPITE management interference.
In Deming management (and Ray Katz management), working people would have authority over their work. They’d be trained in systems analysis, and they’d figure out better ways to get work done. They wouldn’t work harder or longer. They’d work smarter.
And they’d only produce what’s needed so they’d be able to enjoy their lives, not spend too much or it working.
Food, housing and medicine for thought.
Please follow me on Medium. I’m currently on vacation, but still writing. See WeAreSaners.org and my podcast at 5 Minutes to Save the Earth.
