Exam time has struck again. And other items to make you think.
They work hard for the money
As some of you may know, I’m a lecturer in strategy and enterprise at a leading university in the UK (not Oxbridge, but up there). My research specialty is “work and well-being,” but I call myself an otiumologist.
What the eff is that, you ask?
Otium, from the Latin: fulfilling activities, done for their own sake or the sake of society, knowledge, etc. Inherently intrinsically rewarding.
The opposite of otium, literally, is neg-otium: work. Activities done for the sake of earning a living.
From this, we can infer that the Romans saw satisfying, enhancing activities as the entire point of one’s life, with work-for-pay being a lesser occupation that’s merely tolerated on the way to leisure or otium.
Which is pretty much the opposite of how the Global North views life these days. If the world can be split into “live to work” or “work to live,” places like the US are very dominant in the idea that you should live to work.
That idea is increasingly being exported, with more countries hopping on the negotium bandwagon and said bandwagon picking up steam even in the already overworked US. You ain’t nothin’ if you don’t have a side hustle on top of your 1-3 regularly paying jobs, you know.
When you get down to it, that’s a pretty psychotic mindset, to say nothing of unsustainable.
The backlash to this is gathering steam in many nations: in the US (and increasingly, Canada and the UK) you have “anti-work” and “The Great Resignation;” in China, you have the “lying flat” movement, or tang ping, which is pushing back against 9-9-6 work culture.
Lately, these movements have resulted in a whole bunch of posts across social media about people walking out of job interviews after discovering the paltry pay on offer. Interviewers insist “we’re after someone who’s not just here for the money,” to which wags often respond “oh? What money?”
But working for “more than money” isn’t a necessity to the worker—only to the business. This is toxic late-stage capitalism at its finest: offering “flex work” and “a sense of community/purpose” instead of paying appropriate rates.
It’s like tech-bro companies installing a foosball table and a coffee bar in order to get you to work 18-hour days.
Thing is, this mindset has seeped into most of the world, if my impression from this term’s MBA exams is worth a lick.
I have students responding in agreement to the prompt “Workers are motivated intrinsically or extrinsically, never both.”
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrongity wrong wrong.
We all work for the money. It’s been demonstrated in a number of studies (including by Deci & Ryan, some of my theory idols) that extrinsic rewards like bonuses don’t help productivity when you’re asking for a creative task to be completed. But that’s a bonus. You’re doing these tasks for money in the first place.
In this sense, an older theory, hygiene factor motivation, is actually validated. Purpose, passion, community, etc. mean jack shit in the workplace if you’re unable to keep the lights on or make rent that month.
As any artist out there knows, you can’t eat “exposure.” Your rent isn’t “8 exposures.” It’s $800, and your social media shout-out ain’t gonna pay the bills.
Purpose, passion, and community are added incentives; we work for cold, hard cash first.
It frightens me, really, that some of my future CFO and CEO students think that it’s okay to pay the least possible to others, when they themselves complain about not receiving what they’re worth.
This, dear reader, is how we ended up in a world where your average CEO makes more than 300x more than the company average. I guarantee they’re not creating 300-500 times more value than the person making the product, selling it, troubleshooting it, etc.
But hey, let’s leave someone working a full-time job on food stamps so we can get a second plane.
Days like today, reading headlines about the blooming recession and cost of living crisis, I wish for a return to Roman times. Otium, then negotium. Better the world, then your coffers.
How Did We Get Here?
I’m marking a metric butt-tonne of MBA exams (in old money, approximately 2.3 craploads) and they’re due far too soon. And they make so many of the same mistakes: misapprehending a question, failing to offer critical analysis, etc.
But there’s a distressing trend towards thinking that you can’t find your pay packet important and also want to have a sense of purpose and mastery and belonging at work.
No. It’s both. You should be paid fairly, have opportunities for growth and promotion, and be able to explore concepts that interest you in a group of supportive people.
But apparently thinking that makes me cray-cray these days.
However, Professor of Anti-Work has a nice ring to it…
Sources
What is the Great Resignation?
Otium: a brief guide
Buffet of Knowledge
So what are you up to this week? Let me know in the comments!
Reading
Exams. So many exams. All the exams (actually, not all of them, which is even more frightening)
Listening
Watching
Bill Bailey clips, after seeing his FANTASTIC show in town last night
Making
At the moment, only a mess. I have a new crochet book on the way, though, to learn an Ecuadorian tapestry technique.
Ooh, Squirrel!
Time to do the things!