A few months ago Fast Company Magazine featured an article on extreme jobs. I don't have an extreme job, thank god, although I used to. But I have worked in the investment business for many, many years and I am continuously shocked at how the collective consciousness of the industry seems to push people to accept greater and greater infringement of their professional lives into their private lives, all in the name of success.
Today was a startling day for me at the office. I had someone agree to speak at a conference I am currently planning that is scheduled for this summer. No biggie there, right? Well I learned that he's willing to attend the conference slap-dab in the middle of a three-week vacation he has planned. I had another potential speaker pick up the phone, tell me his wife's water just broke, and to make my speaking invitation pitch quick. Yesterday, I had another speaker call me from his car as he drove his kids to a school social, while his kids were jabbering away in the background. And finally, I have another industry contact whose voicemail at work encourages the caller to call him at home at night and on the weekends.
We're all so afraid of losing control. I think that our pursuit of bigger, better, faster, richer comes at a price.
I would venture that the answer to what happened to the 9-5 has to do with capitalism and the United States of Advertising. We have been taught by our society to want things outside of ourselves. We are taught that if we work very hard and get the promotion and buy the BMW we will achieve happiness. The only problem is, BMW isn't the only thing that can bring happiness, so we need to work very hard to earn money to buy clothes, jewelry, vacations, houses, etc. Cash is king.
That we believe this is very, very important for our society. It is the only way for a capitalistic society to prosper.
Michael Pollan's _Botany of Desire_ talks about this in his very good essay on marijuana. He basically says the reason it isn't legal is because we would be poor worker bees if we were high and happy.
Is the lose of the 9-5 then because we are a national of unhappy people, all working very very hard to buy that BMW? It makes me sad that family and personal fulfillment aren't more valued.
HOWEVER, it is within us all to get off the workaholic bus.
In the ever-so-wise words of Chuck Palahniuk via Tyler Durden: "Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may." (Fight Club)
Posted by: April | March 08, 2007 at 07:34 AM