The factory mindset

Work should be uplifting.

Instead, most people see it as a means to a (financial) end.

I accept that there are exceptions, but there's a world of difference between being your work and enjoying it.

These days, I hear lots of talk about employee engagement, wellbeing and doing 'great' work (whatever that means) but to my mind, these are all superficial. I mean, if it were otherwise we wouldn't have to read survey after repeated survey wearily reporting the disengagement of the workforce.

Personally, I blame it on the Victorians. Weren't they the ones who commoditised our souls in and around the factory -- which, even though the office environs are a lot better, still persists to this day?

But, and here's the kicker: we're also at fault.

Meaning: we're complicit in not challenging our Masters, and asking for something a lot better; namely, a place of work that allows us to become who we truly are -- all body, mind and spirit.

You'd be right to think, qua owner or boss, "That's not my/our job", but I disagree. More than that, I think it's negligent to allow people to wallow in their disenfranchised state and pass it off as the price we pay for the security of employment.

The trouble is, the world is changing at such a pace that if employers don't grasp this True Self nettle, then the robots and the more enlightened employees most definitely will.

Just think about it for a moment. Here we are telling our kids that they too can have what we've got but they have to be prepared to pay a great price -- i.e. they've got to pay with their lives.

"No thanks."

[As a father to three amazing girls, I speak from personal experience. All they want is to do work that matters with lots of fun and travel thrown in. They've no intention, or so they tell me, of playing by the rules that I took so earnestly to heart.]

So, if you're an employer, my strongest advice is to get with the programme. Go wander about and look at a few radical companies. Talk to your people about what they actually want -- it won't always be more money. And, most of all, drop your old and out of date belief-system and picture the world anew.

Of course, you may decide to bury your head in the sand and that's fine, but you may find, in the years to come, it gets harder and harder to convince people of your story of work.

Blessings

Julian