Happiness at work

I'd love to say that, over the space of 35 years (and counting), I'd enjoyed blissful periods at work.

Frankly, it's not even worth counting on one hand: I can't remember a time where I wasn't harried by doing too much, coping with a tide of conflicting messages and trying to use my limited energy in a way that made sense to my fragile soul. 

In any other area of my life, I'd have jack-knifed and given it up in pursuit of something more deserving of my time.

But, unfortunately, by dint of the money and my intermittent sense of self-worth, I hung in there, in the forlorn hope of finding happiness.

What about you?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your experience of work?

If you take your cue from the latest information coming out of Gallop, "85% of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work."

This probably means you've scored yourself around 2 or 3. 

Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know; but the more serious point is that if you know this -- qua employee -- so does your employer.

AND WHAT ARE THEY DOING ABOUT IT?

Very little?

Oh sure, they might be investing in a slew of extrinsic rewards, but as Dan Pink wrote about in his excellent book, "Drive", what's important is how self-motivated you are. In other words, to foster and develop intrinsic motivation you need at least 3 things:

autonomy

purpose

mastery

The trouble is, at every turn, at least one of these, if not more, is thwarted.

But, as I've already said, when talking about 'Wicked Problems', the problem is so impossible to solve that stasis is the order of the day.

However, if you look carefully enough, you'll quickly discover a slew of companies who've decided to do it very differently. Call them rebels if you like but I prefer to look at the situation in a slightly more nuanced way. You see, for whatever reason, they've concluded that to apply old-school thinking will produce old-school results, and rather than wait for the system to completely break or to prop up an ailing and moribund one, the most obvious solution is to let people manage themselves.

Like, you know, erm, treat adults like adults?

When you've been used to lots of rules (upon which lots of jobs depend -- e.g. HR, facilities and Compliance), it's hard to see the problem as anything other than a mild relaxation of said rules. But what if you dropped all rules and let people manage everything? And I mean everything including holidays, how much they're paid and what sort of work they do.

Yes it's scary but no more so than waiting for the system to fall apart in the face of AI, virtual working, zero discretionary effort and trying always to keep your foot on the super-duper-but-only-for-a-few profits pedal.

Perhaps my new world sounds too egalitarian, too whimsical or even stupid but from where I sit and a few well-informed souls, we either evolve to a new, more vibrant stage or we die. 

Take care.

Blessings,

Julian