September 24, 2006
meaningful work or death
I work pretty much all the time these days. It’s not uncommon for me to start work at 9am and carry on well past midnight, often for days on end.
I don’t have a problem with it; I like what I do. If there were more hours in a day, I’d use those, too.
For countless generations, this was the norm. You got up and you worked your hindquarters off till it was time for bed. If you were lucky you occasionally managed to get laid, fed, drunk etc in the process. All good.
But then in the last hundred years or so we lost the plot. Suddenly “Leisure” started taking over. Suddenly useless things like lying on a beach, reading trashy novels, watching dumb movies, going shopping, attending art openings, and visiting Disneyland started to become not only common, but an end in itself.
Now taking time of from the daily grind in order to recharge our batteries I don’t have a problem with. Heck, that’s what The Sabbath was invented for [“All a child needs to be happy are two things: a hard wooden chair and a Bible” etc].
Where the problem arises is when this “Leisure Time” starts taking over. Becoming no longer a means [recharging], but an end it itself, what we call a [shudder] “Lifestyle”. When your work stops being your “Real Life”, and “Leisure” starts becoming your real life i.e. When your job just becomes this unpleasant “thing”, something with no other meaningful function other than to finance your new “Real Life” i.e your “Lifestyle”… you know, the expensive part with all the shopping, beaches, cocktail parties, vacuous conversations etc.
Sure, I know this Work/Life schism started a long time ago, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the time clock, Marxist-worker alienation from the means of production etc etc [Some people prefer the term “balance” over “schism”; they are deluded], so it’s very ingrained into our culture.
I renounce it, regardless.
Meaningful Work or Death. Any other form of existence doesn’t interest me. Thanks Be To God.
You left out one of the all-time best… “Quality Time” … That which some parents insist is necessary to share with their childeren instead of foundational values of manners and a wholesome work ethic.
You seem to form a straw-man argument equating all non-work activites as mere frivolities (cocktail parties, reading trashy novels)
I wonder, where does family come in the equation? Couldn’t one say raising a child, having a relationship, could also be considered “meaningful work” in the sense that it’s an activity that’ll give you more, depending on how much time and effort you give them.
Juan
This is scary stuff Hugh! Isn’t Antibes or Nice a temptation, a distraction?
Great thoughts, Hugh. Meaningful Work or Death – terrific words to live by.
I think that if you like what you do, then it’s no longer work (in the drudgery sense of the word) even if you’re doing it 80 hours a week.
Also, if you separate everything in to work-time/leisure-time, with clearly defined boxes, it makes it harder to move from one to another. Of course I’m fortunate enough to be working for myself (well for my clients actually, but you get my point). So I can take off in the middle of the day to see my kid’s play, then work at night or on a Sunday (like today). Talking with a lot of home-based business folks seems to reinforce that idea. The concept of balance is important, but that doesn’t mean one hard and fast choice of one vs. the other. It’s more of a flow back and forth. Play in the ocean then run back up to the shore to dry and sun.
Or something like that.
There are people who have a passion for their work but don’t believe it is healthy or useful to spend as much waking time as humanly possible at it. I’m one of them.
Quantity does not equal quality, and for any kind of knowledge work, there is a point of diminishing returns (and, for some work, like software development, I would argue a point of negative returns). For a more thorough discussion, see the books Slack by Tom Demarco, and Peopleware by Tom Demarco and Timothy Lister.
I totally agree with your sentiment Meaningful Work or Death. However, Meaningful Work doesn’t have to be the only meaningful thing in your life.
Be careful when talking about the past Hugh … history is not all just like the Neo-Puritans want to make us believe.
Just two points to get reflection started: Before electric light, work hours were limited in a very powerful natural way and most people would get much more rest than you get now for this simple reason.
A great pitfall is to think that this world did not know anything of entertainment before the rise of Hollywood or that entertainment was limited to a few rich in the past. Read up on popular festivals and traditions in late medioeval Catholic Europe for example … you’d be surprised.
But then … you’re totally right about meaningful work — if you work. Make make all the rest meaningful too
Couldn’t one say raising a child, having a relationship, could also be considered “meaningful work” in the sense that it’s an activity that’ll give you more, depending on how much time and effort you give them.
I think that raising a child is the best, and in the end, the most meaningful work you can have. It’s the whole point of doing everything else.
Hugh, I think this is a dangerous semantic game to be playing. The plain fact of the matter is that it simply isn’t possible for every person in the world to do what you term ‘Meaningful Work’, by which I assume you mean work that is meaningful to you as a person, rather than meaningful in a wider context. Collecting bins is meaningful to the wider society, but I sincerely doubt that there are deeply fulfilled binmen out there. Therefore you writing off anything that isn’t ‘meaningful work’ as frivolous comes off as a bit smug and/or Protestant Work Ethic stylee.
Also, lets be honest, there are a lot of people who simply don’t want to graft their arses off, and quite like reading trashy novels. Your formulation somehow seems to equate that with being somehow lesser people. Frankly, if we weren’t to take advantage of the fact that we no longer live in a society where it was necessary to work constantly simply in order to live, we would be fools.
This post jarred with me Hugh — it seems to run counter to the kind of work ethos you talk about in your Global Microbrand posts. Life is for living, not for working. In my world, the work pays for the life, i.e. doing things with the people I like and love, whether that be a pint down the pub or walking in the Highlands. I disagree strongly with your way of looking at things. But enjoy your work.
For millions of years, in the environment for which we are made, humans only worked a few hours a day. Let’s not take the “good old days” as anything but an infinitesimally-brief, unnatural transitional phase.
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Maybe the whole leisure thing is “taking over the plot” in Europe — but in the states it’s still pretty much “work-a-holic or death”.
Taking time off is frowned on — leaving before 7pm — frowned on — Getting in after 8am — frowned on. We’re “productivity’s” bitch.
There was a recent news item that U.S. Workers leave more unused vacation time on the table annually than workers in any other industrialized country.
With so many U.S. Workers searching for meaningfulness in 12 hour work days and “working vacations” you’d think the market for anti-depressants would be pathetically small.
Oops.
Juan, my thoughts exactly. Hugh apparently thinks that just because he doesn’t consider something meaningful, then it’s useless and a waste of time. But, of course, what someone considers important varies from person to person and to be honest doesn’t often completely coincide with that they do for a living (unless you’re one of the lucky few who gets to do at work exactly what they would do in their spare time).
By that token, spending a day on the beach with friends IS meaningful to someone; so is spending time with your kids (or parents), or taking your girl out for dinner, dancing, travelling. And if someone decides that it’s worth getting paid to do something that they’re not totally excited about, so they can afford to do things that make them happy… I don’t see why anyone would renounce it.
Also, “meaningful work OR death” sounds lovely and all, but “meaningful work” is an entirely subjective term. To some, meaningful work could be reading an interesting book, or watching a great film, or drawing little cartoons, or writing things in their online diaries. And demonizing anything just because YOU don’t consider meaningful is pretty shallow.
A friend of mine is fond of quoting Robert Frost,
“My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation”
I agree fully that when leisure becomes real life, something goes amiss. Velben highlighted that in Conspicous Consumption. However, most people find a good balance in three places — work, family and “something else.”
The problem is only when work becomes incompatible with the other two. But, isn’t that part of the point of the cluetrain? Changing the way we work so it harmonises better with the other two and the relationship between them makes sense. Most of the people I know cluetrain-ing are doing so for a better family life and so they can blend vocation and avocation.
This is the right track IMO for sure. If you have to escape your work, kids, spouse, daily rituals … for a period of artificial frivolity, something’s wrong. When I read Waiting for the Weekend by Witold Rybczynski about a decade ago, it was one of the (many) catalysts that lead me to begin to seek a way to find work that I loved — a decade later I’m finally there. Rybczynski is a great vulgariser (as the French say) of complex concepts … and this slim volume reveals how the artificial (and recent) construct of the ‘weekend’ concept is a societal pacifier for unfulfilling industrialized work.
I guess the question to ask is, if you came into really big money would you radically change what you do every day?
The other thing is that leisure used to mean relaxing, regenerating, reviving, reflecting … now it too often means pre-packaged and scheduled recreation.
Where the problem arises is when this “Leisure Time” starts taking over. Becoming no longer a means [recharging], but an end it itself, what we call a [shudder] “Lifestyle”.
He says, in some way marketing/selling yachts.
Just sayin’.
So right Hugh, and here is what I find in my work in the career/start a biz business …
Those that find themselves the most disconnected or dissatisfied with work are often those that create a lavish and extensive “life of leisure” to make up for it. In this case, an exotic vacation or enormous home becomes a necessity since it is the only time when they feel control and allow themselves to experience pleasure.
These are the people that you see screaming at the airline attendants at the aiport if their flight to Hawaii is delayed 4 hours because this is 4 hours less of carefully budgeted mai tai-swilling and skin frying time. Or those Americans that drag their kids to Europe and ensure they visit every single castle or museum in the guidebook and get furious if one is closed. Or the executive with an enormous home filled with the best of everything who hosts an interminably boring dinner party because he has no true personality and has lost his soul.
I define work simply as an expression of self. So although I may not be typing or talking to a client or giving a presentation, I am always creating something. While I enjoy a stroll down the Champs Elysees or a day on the beach in Mexico as much as anyone, I don’t NEED it anymore. Everyday, work-filled life is emotionally relaxing, as is chasing after my 1-year old son. I may go to bed very tired, but I don’t need fantasies of escape to make me excited for another day.
Glad you feel the same way!
Ethan, you’re confusing Antibes with Monaco. Tsk-tsk!
Thanks for the kind words, Pam. And Everyone Else, too. Seems I hit a nerve with this one
Similar message on this t-shirt I found via Russell Davies’ blog, if you do something you love, you don’t want to stop: https://www.hideoutstore.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=804
some of your best thoughts, Hugh. thank you.
I suppose “we are where we are” (as a society and as individuals) so things have to be in context with our location and the age we live in.
I think Hugh is raising a great point all the same. Should work be a ‘back to the coal face’ industrial age slog so we can feed our family — or should we look to the lifestyle of the Auastralian Aboriginies — the walk-about approach to thoughtful grazing from the natural riches of their pre-colonial utopian world ??
As part Scot, part Australian, I cannot turn back the clock to either position. But working all the days God gave for material baubles simply reduces the real value of those materials ever closer to zero. That’s why, I think, the experience economy, and the open-source ie sharing economy, is going from strength to strength and will eclipse the material economy in time.
I knew a guy who lived by your ethos ‘meaningful work or die’ Hugh. His work was meaningful to him. Then one day it wasn’t (stuff happens, right?). Then he died. Bummer. I think he might have been better off with the more flexible ethos ‘meaningful work, death, meaningless work, life or a nice sit down and a cup of tea’. Doesn’t have the same ring to it though. Probably won’t attract as many followers.
I have to agree with the ones on the side of “meaningful work”. I never feel better, than when I have things to do.
To work is to live.
But this supposes that what you do for work is something that you find meaningful — highly subjective indeed. See, sweeping floors and working at an assembly line are rarely meaningful — hence alienating.
I work — I write, draw, doodle, create, organize stuff — and have a good time doing it. That’s not so bad now, is it?
Post Meaningfulness Grade: 4.4 of 5.0
You clearly need a holiday.
Read your post twice yesterday, it took a day for consideration before responding and it will take at least another day for clarity. Your argument is a bit vague and the choice of phrasing odd. “Meaningful work or death”… I’m sure you are making an effort to communicate something and for some reason based on your thoughts and personal experiences. How about taking another go at it.
I think you have it a little backwards, Hugh. For all but the most recent speck of time that humans have been on this earth, the concept of “meaningful work” hasn’t existed. You went out and killed some meat because you needed to eat. Or you plowed and harvested for the same reason. Or, more recently, you worked on an assembly line. Often your family placed you in a trade without consulting you and you did that work until you died. The purpose of work was to allow you to exist, quite literally, and this is what gave it meaning. People didn’t sit around thinking about what they wanted to do when they grew up. What they wanted was to stay alive, so what they wanted was work, period.
I’m not saying it was better then. Of course it wasn’t. But some of us have started to disrespect or pity our own fathers, who worked all their lives for “the man” and probably hated every hour of every day of it. Well, they did it because they believed their families needed the money. I think what we’ve lost from the bad old days is an appreciation for doing what is distasteful because one believes it’s necessary. We aren’t so hot at that these days.
welcome to the internet
I’m with you hugh — thanks for this post. I realise that my priorities in life are all wrong. I have a three year old and he is doing nothing of economic value for our house hold and regularly whinges for my time and attention when I am doing important work like commenting on people’s blogs.
Meaningful work or death — hurrah for that.
Ethan, you’re confusing Antibes with Monaco. Tsk-tsk!
Not exactly. What I’m saying is, you have an interest in the “leisure class”, so this holier-than-thou stuff is shrouded in at least a whiff of sulphur.
You’re sounding just like Paul Graham:
“Unproductive pleasures pall eventually. After a while you get tired of lying on the beach. If you want to stay happy, you have to do something.”
http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html
Rock on!
Fascinating post. I agree! It must be nice to work at something you actually care about. Amazing!
I understand what you mean. I work in a corporate atmosphere where people leave work before their shift is done… there are layers to the modern work ethic for sure…
I read this post and developed one opinion, basically agreeing (albeit guarded agreement) with Hugh.
Then I read the comments and began to adjust my viewpoint.
Essentially, I want to “have it all.” A job that I work at so passionately because I would be doing it even if I wasn’t being paid for it. A job that allows me the freedom to choose to do the “leisure” things I enjoy, but I need to find time for them because I’m so busy doing what I enjoy.
I think there needs to be a balance, there needs to be a Sabbath, but not at the expense of responsibility. I do agree with you Hugh that for many people the leisure is not the reward but the goal. It is not a “sometime” thing, but a “how do I make this an all the time thing.” This used to be called laziness.
I love spending time with family, friends, and eventually with my children. But too often these days, the families, the friends and the children suffer because people are so focused on their leisure and how they feel that they neglect their responsibilities for their feeling of entitlement.
I believe there needs to be a balance both directions, and hope to someday have a career like yours Hugh, where the lines between work and leisure become so blurred that it’s difficult to tell the difference.
That’s why I don’t trust businesses that give out too many “lifestyle” perks. Perks are the crutches of businesses that can’t get employees to buy into their missions.
I wouldn’t exactly call the people I know in Antibes “members of the leisure class”, Ethan. Heh.
Ryan Cooper ++
Well said Ryan.
I really enjoy my work, and consider myself a hard worker, but there is more to me and my life than work no matter how much I end up liking it. Life is too broad to be so limited.
I understand what you’re pointing at Hugh, but I think you’re WAY off the mark. I don’t believe that people who really make Leisure time a large part of their life are the same people you’re commenting on as being overly materialistic and superficial. Those people are usually the people who put up the illusion of having a Leisure part of their life, but really don’t.
I don’t exactly blame those types of people. We’re raised to give all we can to the glorious company in the sky. We’re raised to look up to those who make such endeavors as role models. Problem is that most of the time those people tend to neglect themselves, their families, and life in general. That’s why there might be an apparent backlash of people desiring Leisure time, but I don’t buy that any significant portion of people are actually living that life. Actually, from some of the research I’ve read (no links, sorry), people are working more and vacationing less, which says to me that any illusion of the opposite is just that.
I don’t want to make any less of your happiness for your work, but I this post as a justification. I wouldn’t be surprised if in all honesty you feel guilty about this, and that’s why you’re expressing your happiness. I’d equate it to this recent post by Pamela Slim: http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/2006/09/is_it_crazy_to_.html
I’m wondering if someone will ever be singing Cat’s in the Cradle to an intern or an apprentice?
I’ve been reading your blog regularly ever since you got plugged on fark (over a year ago) and this is the worst thing you’ve ever written.
How long did it take you to finally find work that you love? Judging from your cartoons, a long time. A bulk of your readers are cubicle dwellers, and it’s safe to say that most of them rather be doing something else. While I agree that unguided leisure won’t bring much meaning, a lot of people have bigger dreams than working for mega-corp to make the elite insiders rich. Some of us want to start our own business, travel and write, experience other cultures, help other people, etc.
Your post reminds me of Who Moved My Cheese, a piece of tripe that tries to make people accept the fact that they will always be an expendable corporate peon. “Work hard, don’t take vacations, stay in the rat race because it’s good for you!!! You really want that BMW don’t you!!”
Good for you that your work has become your hobby, but don’t look down at those of us who haven’t made it there yet, where four weeks of vacation traveling across Europe or South America becomes more enriching and fulfilling that what we could do at work.
“Someone”, I’d take your remarks more seriously if you weren’t posting anonymously. Sovereignty matters etc. Of course, if you also thought that, you wouldn’t be posting anonomously.
It only feels like work when I’d rather be doing something else.
I forget who said it, but it has stuck with me.
Citizen Wilson
Apparently your pretty little picture wasn’t enough to soften the blow this time, Hugh. Too many people surfing to your site to escape the reality of their existence, only to get here and have that existence invalidated? Hell yes! Kill shit. Don’t apologize. Spit and smile.
Meanwhile, I can only feel sorry for those who enjoy their jobs. It means they’ve bought into a fantasy meant only for the enjoyment of their employer.
As I’m fond of saying, “You couldn’t *pay* me to take a day job.”
Because, you know, it would interfere with my actual work. Not enough hours in the day, etc.
I love what I do and I’m lucky that it supports me. But hell, when it didn’t support me, I lived outside and did it anyway. (of course, that was only true because at the time I was a poet… It helps to do work that *other people* also find to be interesting).
Sure, not everyone is so into what they do that everything else seems unimportant. But some of us luck out or are just stubborn enough to make it work. Fine. When you get back from the beach, I’ll still be sitting here working on changing some small part of the world.
Because relaxing makes me tense.
Oh come on, play fair. The comment by “Someone” was justified and there’s no need to demean him/her because they claim anonymity — they could just as well use a nom de souris.
However I don’t think Hugh was judging those not in his fortunate position, rather the pre-packaged leisure industry, the ‘experience economy’, that tells us what we will find fulfilling.
I’ve found myself in the place I am, probably by accident. But I feel I have several fulltime jobs all of which I enjoy, not enough time for my family and frivolous fun (golf, sailing, tennis, theatre). And given the big lottery win, I’d give up most of these things (er, not the family) and try other things.
I think it’s true for most people (especially self-employed or running their own business) they clearly don’t work FOR money but money helps make other things possible. The main motivation is creating, being successful, feeling you’re in control…maybe.
Well, anyway, one of my jobs is writing this book in which I will name check Hugh and his site as inspirational…due out early 2007
Dear Someone,
Does it matter how long it takes you to find something you like? I reckon not.
Sounds to me like you actually agree with Hugh, you’re just pissed off he’s there and you’re not…
*nods* You make a lot of good points.
Your post really exposes real life!
One of the questions I ask my clients when we work on career and finding a job is: Imagine you make a big heritage; find 5 reasons to quit working and find 5 reasons to carry on working. The results are quite interesting and go far beyond party amusement and reading stupid books.
Well I think I’d stop working, obvious!
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http://efioricet.org >Fioricet — is most usable tabblets… Do you know this?
http://efioricet.org >Fioricet — is most usable tabblets… Do you know this?