Rethinking Work Work Work
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012Ever since I started speaking out about smarter versions of retirement, I’ve been an advocate of including meaningful work in the mix of your “leisure” years. I do think that’s important. But there’s a huge difference between “good work” and “work work work”.
With more and more of us accepting that not working at all isn’t going to be part of the strategy for our “golden years”, perhaps it’s time to take a look at this “work work work” thing.
The idea that people of character demonstrate hard work above all else has some interesting religious underpinnings. The “work work work” we are steeped in now grew, at least initially, from the Protestant Work Ethic–an element of the religious revolt against the Catholic Church that started with Martin Luther in 1520. The Catholics taught that good deeds would get you to heaven. (And included buying your way in as an option for “good deeds.”) The Protestant revolt insisted that God predetermines who’s going to heaven (and who’s not) and that doing a lot of hard work during your life is an indication that you’re one of the chosen. Working hard became important as a way to look holy.
For you individually, that “work work work” mentality probably has nothing to do with religion. It’s more likely a case of “I need this job.” Or maybe “That’s just the way things go for responsible adults.” But the societal expectation that everyone needs to work hard has deep, old roots that make more logical choices difficult to sell. “Work work work” is not particularly effective in most cases. Premier atheletes already know this. The rest of us need to catch on.
We don’t need to work harder. We need to work smarter.
We don’t need to work ten hour days to prove we are worthy employees. We need to solve problems well, get the product out where people can buy it, satisfy the customer, etc. How many hours it takes to to do that should be a function of what needs to get done, not a time clock.
There’s a lot of cachet in working long hours though. I once had a boss who did all sorts of non-business things during the day. (He reprimanded me once for interrupting him–while he was balancing his personal checking account on company time.) Then each night, he would stay until 7:00 or later because that’s when the higher ups would lavish special attention. “You’re dedicated and here late, so you’re one of us” was the clear message. The guy was nowhere near as productive or effective as those of us who left closer to the prescribed end of the work day. But he got kudos just for making it look like he was work work working.
Perhaps we need to consider using a different word than “work” in how we look at what we do for a living. In her new book Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, Martha Beck recommends thinking in terms of a cycle of play and rest with no “work” in the picture whatsoever. Rest is not always sleep and play is not just a round of golf in her scenario. Rest is anything you do to recharge (which for me, oddly enough, includes digging in the garden dirt and doing the dishes). Play is what you do to honor your purpose for being here at all.
When you boil it down to this kind of dichotomy, the place “work” has taken becomes more clear. “Work” is what most of us do because other people expect it of us. We need to rethink that mindset. When we put effort into what we believe in, that we really want to see get done, we are energized. When we do work that we don’t believe in but feel required to do, we are drained.
Every year you spend “work work working” takes a toll on you physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If you still need a paycheck as you move into the last third of your life, find something that feels like play if you want to thrive.