I write a lot at Get Rich Slowly about Financial Independence, by which I essentially mean early retirement (or semi-retirement). That is, accumulating enough money that I no longer have to work. To me, escape from work has always seemed like the ultimate goal.
This is probably because my father held out retirement as a sort of Promised Land. He worked hard — if not always effectively — and he always made retirement and the end of work seem like the goal of life. And the sooner one reached retirement, the better.
But whenever I write about early retirement or Financial Independence, I get e-mail and comments from readers who never want to stop working. They love their jobs. Others write to say that we’re not supposed like the work that we do, but we’re supposed to do it anyhow. It builds character, and helps us pay the bills.
I’ve never found these arguments convincing. To me, early retirement has remained the goal.
Dirty jobs
Last week, Eileen e-mailed a link to a video with a one-line explanation. “This video is WEIRD and COOL and speaks to many GRS ideas like working and satisfaction,” she wrote. Yesterday, I finally had a chance to watch it. This video made me pause to reconsider my notion of work:
I didn’t know what to think at first. Mike Rowe, the host of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and the voice of Deadliest Catch, starts by relating an anecdote about castrating lambs with his teeth. “What does this have to do with Get Rich Slowly?” I wondered — but because his story was so compelling, I kept watching for all 20 minutes, 34 seconds. Turns out there is a connection.
It takes about half the presentation for Rowe to make his point, but eventually he does. “People with dirty jobs are happier than you think,” he says. “As a group, they’re the happiest people I know.” And his work on Dirty Jobs has led him to realize that there are a lot of misconceptions about work in the United States.
We hear these messages over and over and over again so that we, too, come to believe that work is something to be fought against. It’s something to be avoided or escaped. Work has been marginalized. It’s looked down upon. In essence, there’s a war on work.
The War on Work
“We’ve declared war on work. As a society. All of us,” Rowe says. “We didn’t set out to do it [...] but we’ve done it. And we’ve waged this war on at least four fronts.” The war on work is being fought:
- In Hollywood. “The way we portray working people on TV — it’s laughable,” Rowe says. “We turn them into heroes, or we turn them into punch-lines.” Television and movies don’t do a good job of making work complex and three-dimensional.
- On Madison Avenue. The central message of so many commercials is, “your life would be better if you could work a little less, if you didn’t have to work so hard, if you could get home a little earlier, if you could retire a little faster, if you could punch out a little sooner.”
- In Washington. Lawmakers use work as a political tool, exploiting our notions of work for their own gain. And the policies they implement shape the way we view work.
- In Silicon Valley. New technology changes the way we think about work, and changes the way we actually do our work. Not all of these changes are bad, Rowe says, but overall technological advancement contributes to the war on work.
“The collective effect of all of that has been this marginalization of lots and lots of jobs,” Rowe says. “Somebody needs to be out there talking about the forgotten benefits [of work].” He believes that what’s needed is a PR campaign for work.
Rowe says that the war on work has casualties, just like any other war. For one, the U.S. infrastructure is a shambles. To make matters worse, trade school enrollment is dropping fast, meaning we won’t have enough workers to rebuild that infrastructure. In order for this to change, we have to stop marginalizing work and start talking about the benefits.
The forgotten benefits of work
I’m disappointed that Rowe’s presentation ends before he can explore this topic further. I’d like to know more about what he thinks are the hidden benefits of work. After thinking about it most of the day, I have a short list of my own:
- Work gives us meaning. I know plenty of people who hate their jobs. I’ve had shitty jobs too — jobs I’ve hated and wanted desperately to leave. But almost without exception, the folks I know who are happiest are those who work hard, even if they don’t have jobs they love. And those who are unhappiest? They’re the ones without jobs for one reason or another. Does the unhappiness lead to the lack of work? Or does the lack of work make people unhappy? I’m not sure, but they seem to be connected.
- Work gives us money. For most people, their career will be the single largest source of income they have in their life. Your health is your most important asset, but your career is a close second. Your career is your cash machine, which is why I stress the importance of networking and learning how to negotiate your salary. Without work, you probably don’t have the resources for anything else either.
- Work builds relationships. Again, for most people, their jobs are their primary social activity. I’m not saying this is good or bad, but it’s true. When you spend 40 hours a week with a group of people, you come to know them. In many cases, your co-workers become your friends. And work also teaches you how to build other relationships, especially through networking.
- Work builds skills. And, of course, work teaches us to do stuff. I wasn’t born knowing how to write. Sure, I learned some theoretical stuff about writing in all of the classes I’ve taken, but most of what I know (which still isn’t much) is a result of tens of thousands of hours of actual writing. By doing the work, I’ve built the skills. The same is true of any work we do.
Though I found Rowe’s presentation entertaining and thought-provoking, I don’t agree with him completely. (I rarely agree with anyone completely.) For one, I still think that you ought to follow your passions, if it’s feasible. Yes, people can get into trouble if they’re slavish to this advice, but I truly believe that work you love can be tremendously fulfilling.
Still, I may have to re-evaluate my dogged pursuit of Financial Independence. I’ve already been shifting my aim from an ideal of early retirement to one of simply semi-retirement (in which I’d continue to work in some fashion). Maybe work isn’t the enemy. Maybe there are reasons to keep doing something I love.
What do you think about work? Is it marginalized in our society? Do you think there’s a war on work? If so, what should we do about it? What sorts of benefits does work provide? Do you love your work, or do you hope to retire as soon as possible? Or both?
This article is about Career
I ‘m not sure I agree that work has been devalued. I think we have a work ethic that encourages people to work for the sake of work, and I’ve lived that to some degree. At the same time, this idea of working hard as the savior has made us hate work. So work is supposed to be both incredibly important and full of suffering at the same time.
I think often the people with the ‘dirty’ jobs are happiest because they don’t obsess about work. In a way, the best job I had was doing manual labor for a landscaping company. If you spend the day digging ditches, you1e happy when the day is over. You feel accomplished that you did a day’s work, but then you don’t give it another thought. You think about your family, or you think about grabbing a beer from the fridge and watching the game. There’s no blackberry to check, and even if there were you wouldn’t check it.
In other words, I think if you have a blue collar job, you don’t as much of a tendency to tie your whole happiness and state of mind to what’s going with your work. And maybe that’s good.
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I have never thought of work as the enemy but I do still aspire to retire someday. But for me, retirement isn’t about quitting work. It is about have the OPTION to quit work if I want to. Or go part time. Or change my work to something that pays less but that I want to try out. It is about having choices. Giving myself flexibility. No matter how much I may love my job, I may not always be able to work full time for some reason (my health, a loved one’s health, ageism etc. etc.).
I am always a little taken aback by people who say they never want to quit working. It is like they have this vision of retirement as just sitting around watching TV until you die. Don’t these people see ever wanting to do ANYTHING else in their lives? Try a new career? Go part-time so they have time to devote to a volunteer cause they are passionate about? Visit a location they have always wanted to go to and spend more than a week there?
And, as far as pursuing your passion…well, that is all well and good but I don’t think that it has to be the end all be all. I worked in advertising for 11 years. Was it my passion? Nope…in fact by the end of that portion of my career there were aspects of it that I just loathed. However, I met a lot of amazing people and got to do a lot of things that I would not have been able to do in another field. Even if you are in a field that you are passionate about there are going to be things about it that you don’t like – a co-worker or a specific task that needs to be completed. Your job is like most things in life…it is mostly what you make of it.
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As with everything, I believe there is a balance that one must find. If you work in a job you hate, waiting for the end of the day, the end of the week, the vacation, and retirement, you are not living, you are surviving: You are in the future and wasting the present, which is where life is…
No matter what one does for a living, whether it is short-term or long-term, if there is life balance and attention to the present moment, one is enabled to LIVE the day, not just survive it.
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I got my dream job (the one I had been dreaming of since I was a kid) when I was 23. I’ve been there ever since.
A few thoughts on it:
1) All is not always sunshine and roses, even at your dream job. Dream jobs occasionally come with crazy bosses, for example. My mum used to say “if you like 80% of your job, that’s enough. You’ll never love 100% of it”.
2) We (royal we) have set ourselves up on a strange treadmill. We spend elementary school preparing for high school, high school competing to get into a “good” university, university trying to get a “good” job when we graduate, then many of our working years trying to get to our “dream” job. What happens when you get your dream job at 23? I really found myself quite confused and lost without having something to be continually chasing after.
3) You are not your work. Even if you’re working at your dream job, you have to take time to develop yourself away from it. Building from point #2, I actually had to deliberately force myself to do things outside of work.
It was initially a confusing sell for me. So many blogs (like, for example GRS and TSD), advocate spending your time building your skills, and always striving towards the next big thing. I had to do the opposite- train myself to enjoy my free time, without any real purpose, other than enjoyment. In my case, I took up cycling, yoga, and cooking. It’s still a work in progress though.
4) It can be remarkably isolating. Your dream job is not everybody else’s dream job. When your colleagues are gathered around the water cooler complaining, it can be tough to be the one that says “actually, I kinda like it.” or “yeah, it’s kinda rough right now, but I think it’s worth it overall”. Or one of the (seemingly) few people on these blogs who DOESN’T see retirement or entrepreneurship as the ultimate goal.
5) Even people in their “dream jobs” need and appreciate time off from those jobs. One of the reasons I’ve worked so hard on sorting out our finances is so that we have choices. I appreciate my job all the more when I’m not burned out and sick of it. I buy a few extra weeks vacation every year (unpaid time, in short) so that I can come back to work rested, refreshed, and ready to go again. Meanwhile, getting our finances in order means that my husband can have the means and choices available to him to chase HIS dream job.
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Sorry…I apparently have a lot to say about this topic today…
Another thing to consider is that what you are passionate about or what you consider your dream job today can change dramatically. Our lives are not static – circumstances change. I said above that my work in advertising was not my passion. However, when I graduated from college getting a job in advertising was my idea of a dream job. It was fun and exciting for awhile. Then I decided I wanted to have kids. Working in an ad agency is a grind – I routinely worked 10 – 12 hour days with a lot of stress (and don’t get me started on the issue of why people in advertising are so stressed out and pressured when they really shouldn’t be – I realize it is not medicine or some other equally important and stressful job. But the reality is that advertising is a high pressure field). I could not work those kinds of hours every week and have small children at home. So, my life changed and my idea of a dream job changed.
This is, for me, why flexibility is key. Hard to be flexible when you are tied down by financial issues…
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Don’t usually nitpick the grammar and spelling on a website, but thought I’d point out something the spell checker missed:
“accumulating enough money that I know longer have to work.”
I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be “I no longer have to work”
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I believe the ultimate goal in life is not necessarily retirement, but complete control over one’s actions. For me at least, my unhappiness at work stems mostly from tasks I “have to do” while I actually enjoy the moments where I’m free to work on something I choose to do. I want to feel like I’m controlling my own destiny.
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I think the view on work has shifted in the United States. I was talking to someone last week that was complaining about their job, and I know I complained plenty about my job when I was working. During our discussion, I thought about my friend’s father that worked in a steel mill. He NEVER complained about work. It was something you did, and you accepted it. It wasn’t a requirement that work emotionally and intellectually fulfilled you. It was a means to provide for your family. I think people are looking for their job to fulfill so many aspects of their life, and also provide a fantastic income. That isn’t going to happen for everyone, even when following your passion.
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Financial independence doesn’t necessarily exclude work or even work for pay. It means being able to do what you want rather than what you have to do for money. In YMoYL the authors talk about how FI can make the job more pleasant because you’re more willing to take risks or do what you want because walking away isn’t a bad option anymore. That can lead to being a better worker.
I did finish a rant on following your dream career last night, but it’s queued up for our blog sometime in October. Really most people aren’t passionate enough about one thing to give up everything to do it. Some are, and some aren’t.
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@Jennifer B (#6)
Oh, good grief. That’s terrible! I’m not sure how I even made that error. It always amazes me how I can make the stupidest mistakes sometimes.
Fortunately, you folks are pretty good about letting me know when I have a blatant spelling or grammar mistake. I appreciate it.
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That was one of the best motivational speeches I think I’ve ever seen. Wow, Mike Rowe is a great public speaker.
My opinion is that we need to be constantly reminding ourselves that we should appreciate the jobs we have and learn to value the things that are fun about them. All jobs have aspects that are grueling and stressful, but if they are more good than bad, then that’s good enough for me.
We need to get rid of entitlement. It wasn’t that long ago when people worked until the day they died. People didn’t retire, they wore out. So, let’s work AND enjoy life at the same time. We shouldn’t wait until retirement to pursue things we enjoy.
Sometimes it’s hard to fit the fun in with a hectic life, but if scheduling it in once in a while is the only way to get it done, then it’s better than nothing.
Thanks for the great article.
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What a thought-provoking post. Like some of your readers, I have thought that pursuing one’s passion as a career is the pinnacle of success (especially if you get paid well to do so). This can be a limiting belief if you start to tell yourself that you cannot be satisfied doing work that is NOT your passion. The idea of doing tough work AND being satisfied even if it’s not your passion opens up a lot of possibilities. For one thing, you could do hard work outside of your passion – AND work on your passion during non-work hours – and be very happy.
This reminds me of a time in my life when I was doing a lot of hard jobs that were DEFINITELY NOT my passion (waiting tables, painting houses, etc.) I was poor, but my time was my own, and I was very happy.
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I want the freedom to not have to be in a job I don’t like. I’ve had jobs where I was frustrated, where my talents were not appreciated, where I had to wear things I hated to work and had a couple of bosses who were really verbally abusive and just bizarre, and my co-workers and I had to pretend it was normal. They were dysfunctional jobs!
I have my own business now, and I work hard.
It’s a lot of stuff I enjoy, like marketing houses and renting out properties to people.
There’s also bad parts, like having to tell people their house isn’t worth what they think it is or that they are not qualified to rent the apt they want.
My main goal is not to stop working but to have enough financial security that I will not have to take another job I hate and to keep doing what I enjoy. When I get older and wish to slow down I may downsize my business but I don’t have the goal of sitting on a tropical island somewhere doing nothing.
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I think the war on work has less to do with not working and has more to do with having meaningful work.
One thing you have to ask yourself is why do we work. Let’s remove the “passion” part of the equation and look strictly at the monetary aspect. We work to live and provide for ourselves and our family. None of us wake up with the option to choose not to work unless you come from a family of wealth.
So understanding that work comes from necessity then it would seem that if we have to work, let’s atleast find work doing something we enjoy since we’re going to spend more than half our lives doing it. It’s your life and you should be chasing your dreams and your passions.
Looking at the overall state of the economy people want to work but they also want meaning and sustainability with what they do. They want to have time to spend with their family and on the activities that they enjoy while creating value to the world. And if you can find work that does that. Work that JD has created for himself like here at GRS. Then you truly don’t have to work another day in your life because you’ve found your meaning and have created value while taking care of yourself all at the same time.
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I definitely fantasize about having a blue-collar job, something that I can create or change at the end of the day instead of the rather abstract consulting work that I do. I also think that I am coming from a position of privilege (read: choice) in this, in that I have the experience and education to exercise the option to not have a blue-collar job.
I really think that JD, you hit it on the head for me when you mentioned building a skill. I can absolutely build skills in my current area, but those skills are so abstract and useful to such a limited audience, there is not much inherent satisfaction. When I succeed in my current career I feel a sense of achievement.
When I do things with my hands, when I improve on a more everyday skill like cooking, writing, or sewing — skills that translate to most people, I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
I think that achievement is sort-of like the pretty but hollow stepsister of accomplishment, and the idea of feeling accomplished as a result of my actual job/career is what is really enticing about what Mike Rowe is saying
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What a magnificent post, JD. I think it’s absolutely true that we have waged a war on work. Some of the commenters above me made some excellent points: #8 said “He NEVER complained about work. It was something you did, and you accepted it.” And Sandy in # 11 said “We need to get rid of entitlement.”
Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables “Work is the law of life, and to reject it as boredom is to submit to it as torment.” As Ami says in #12, I think many of us fantasize about finding our “dream job” and let that dream turn us sour about anything that doesn’t match.
I moved to Japan 2 months ago and have encountered a completely different attitude towards work here. There is no concept of “work-life balance”; “work” takes priority, and that’s the end of it. Work is how you earn money and contribute to the community and form your identity. People have no qualms about staying until 7 or 8 o’clock. Most of the time, I think this is insane. But observing them, reading this post and listening to Mike Rowe make me wonder if perhaps I’ve got it wrong. As an American, maybe I’ve gone too far to the other extreme, expecting to do only what makes me happy.
People say my generation, the Millenials, are afflicted with a gross sense of entitlement. Maybe they’re right.
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The best advice I ever got:
“Do what you are good at for a living so you can afford to do what you love”
I don’t love my job. But I am very, very good at it, and I make a very good living doing it.
That good living allows me to do the things I love.
The goal of retirement I think is too simple. The goal should be the ability and independence to do what you want, instead of doing it because you must.
Put yourself in a financial position where if you were to get laid off tomorrow, you would shrug your shoulders and move on to do something else you want to do.
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Infrastructure is failing because people don’t want to work? Really? So if you wanted to repair all the bridges in the US and put out some job adverts, you wouldn’t get thousands of replies, then?
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Russel Honore, Work is a Blessing: This I Believe: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101267379
Work is wonderful and fulfilling and good in so many ways. But I watch myself constantly that work does not become my life or who I am. My father did that, and he spent the last five years of his life, those years when he was no longer strong enough to work, miserable. He would walk around telling anyone who would listen how awful retirement was. The real issue was that he never had any sense of accomplishment or achievement outside of his job. As one of his seven children, I can’t tell you how heart wrenching it was that his family was not enough on its own toward the end (I’m not spending my life wounded, and I understand he probably had issues with depression, etc that drove much of his behavior, but the point remains).
My job is a good thing. But it is not my entire life nor is it my entire sense of accomplishment, achievement, or fulfillment.
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Everyday Tips (@8) – good point; I agree. And I think it’s culturally expected that we complain about our work. And it’s dangerous for me to complain, or to listen to coworkers’ complaints, too much, because the complaints become self-fulfilling. I like my job better when I just try to do it well, and avoid the bitching. I also like Sandi’s comments (@11).
Nicole (@9) – I strongly agree with your last paragraph! I often feel like I’m in some defensive underclass of people, The Ones Without a Guiding Passion. The whole “follow your bliss” thing used to tie me in knots, because I couldn’t figure out what my One True Passion was. And the way the “follow your bliss” people talk, it’s like you can’t possibly be happy in life until you’ve identified your One True Passion and chased after it. How can you have a fulfilling career if it’s not your Passion? But as Ami (@12) said, that’s a very limiting belief.
I now understand that I don’t have one passion, I have 20 strong likes. I get to employ some of them at work, and I get to do good work, and that’s satisfying.
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I think our society has devalued general labor and the importance it has as a “cog in the wheel”. We have taken the stand that everyone has a right to attend college and turned it into everyone should attend college. Some trades I would contend don’t warrent a college education and we desperately need people to do them. But this has been frowned upon to the younger population as a less than desirable career. Funny thing is some of the wealthiest people I know are not college educated but highly skilled through years of experience in general labor fields, such as brick masonary. And they love what they do. Then I see some of my “college educated” friends who are stuck in jobs they hate, and make less today than they did 10 years ago. I think this is directly attributable to the notion that Government has shaped our view on work. We need some deprogramming!
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@20 There just aren’t that many positions available for sleeping in and reading novels (my passions…)
And you’re right, life is a lot better if you can be happy doing many things rather than only ever trying out one specific thing. If you can find employment doing it, great, but there’s something to be said for flexibility and variety and quiet happiness. Not that there’s anything wrong with passion, but nobody wants to burn out either. The best kind of marriage is domestic bliss punctuated by short bouts of passion. (And it’s more socially acceptable to change partners or have multiple partners in the job market than in the marriage market.)
Does anybody else have the lumberjack song stuck in their head right now? “I never wanted to be a weather forecaster, I wanted to be a lumberjack!” (Or how about the For Now song from Avenue Q. “Maybe you’ll never find your purpose…Lots of people don’t…” “But then- I don’t know why I’m even alive!” “Well, who does, really?…Everyone’s a little bit unsatisfied…Everyone goes ’round a little empty inside…”)
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A thought provoking article. Work is without question one of the necessities of life. We work and exchange our labor for the fruits of other people’s labor.
Shortly after I graduated from college, I set a goal to retire at 50. I missed that goal by 4 months! I spent a year in retirement and that turned out to be the most boring year of my life. I hadn’t planned what to do and so just drifted from travel to projects to staring at the TV.
I went back to work. When I worked previously, I had worked in my own businesses and for others. In these situations I managed people for over 25 years. Now, I am an individual contributor, responsible only for me and I love it. I also do some hobby blogging on the side.
I will never stop working as long as I am healthy. And, I consider myself to be retired.
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I think there is a war against hard work. I believe a lot of young people over the past 10-15 years that grew up working with their fathers, grandfathers, and uncles in a skilled trade like carpentry, concrete, plumbing, house building, etc. have abandoned the family trade to get into high tech jobs or other non-labor related careers.
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I was definitely happiest when working construction jobs – there’s a feeling of accomplishment on site, and then the whole evening was available for personal growth.
But, we need to recognize that most of the folks in the jobs Rowe is talking about will HAVE to retire at some point. The body can only take so much physical work before it begins to break down. That’s why I shifted to grad school and white-collar career, to make sure I can work long enough to support myself.
The reason retirement was the big dream at the end of the road for many was because they were tired. Remember that when you’re fantasizing about packing it all in for a labor intensive gig.
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Ive not read all the responses. I think for many people, retirement means working if and when you choose, rather than because you have to. Personally, im not financially independent and never will be even in retirement, but that seems to be the general consensus. That said, I have a brother whose a Salmon fisherman on the alaska coast. He’s forty nine. If you asked him, he would tell you that it’s what he does and he loves it.
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I think the point is that once you reach Financial Independence, working becomes a choice rather than an obligation. Retirement is not freedom FROM work, but rather freedom TO work (if you so desire.)
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I’m with #13. When you work at a job you loathe, it doesn’t matter what you are actually doing from 9-5. It’s the attitude of the workplace that makes a huge difference.
That being said, I was taught that work = paycheck, and nothing more. I think that leads to a dismal attitude, and that it will be almost impossible to come in to work every morning.
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I’m going to say, to me at least, there is a stigma involved with “work” and I blame media. Also I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. We see on TV, the internet, magazines and newspapers millions of stories of people who “made it” with a get rich quick scheme or a lucky break (right place right time syndrome). We see athletes, actors, and musicians with enormous decadent homes living these completely indulgent, above the law lifestyles. We are constantly blasted with images of these people who seem to be doing what they want and getting paid by the buckets for doing so. And we wonder why can’t that be me? Add to that the internet which has kicked open the door to fifteen minutes of fame in a way no one ever imagined! We just really seem to feel that million dollar homes, luxury vehicles, and designer bags should be staples in one’s life and because they are so prevalent in the media and society around us, we assume they should be easy to obtain.
I remember when I read “The Millionaire Next Door” and he mentioned that perhaps there should be a TV show on these people in answer to the show “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” and I completely agree. We live in such a distorted world that creates such a conflict with the idealized and the realistic it’s not surprising so many people are so unhappy.
Both of my grandfathers worked (and invested) until they physically couldn’t and it wasn’t in a regretful bitter fashion. They had to work and working gave them a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Both of them fled Castro’s Cuba to come here so they could work for themselves in jobs of their choice. They saw it as a priviledge they excercised to their dying day. I think of them often when I get tired of working. Yeah, the kinds of jobs I’ve had aren’t flashy. They don’t get me designer bags and clothes free from the labels. They don’t pack me off in jets to exotic locations. But they let me live a pretty satisfying existence with my children, allow me to fund their future college educations, and will allow me to slow down and work less as I get older and less physically able. The work I do is not an ethically divisive job, allows opportunities for recognition and accomplishments, gives me the chance to constantly learn, and gives me access to a whole lot of people. Personally, I don’t really need much more.
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I followed my passion, which was languages, and I went to grad school to become a linguist. It didn’t work out because this interest of mine did not translate into work that I liked or was good at. Then I went to library school. This was a professional degree with hands-on field work and training. I got a job that I love, but which I leave at work when it’s time to go home. Then I wrote a novel about a linguist, a fiction of work, which has taken more energy and focus than most of my at-the-office tasks. I do not want to make a living writing; I am happy to do my library job and then go home and write. “Work” does not equal “Job”. I have both and both are satisfying.
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The Bible right from the start says that God created work for us. First in Genesis 1:26…
By being made in His image we like to work too.
Further on, in Genesis 2:15…
There is never any mention of “retirement” in the Bible. In fact, after Adam and Eve sinned, God says is Genesis 3:17…
(emphasis mine).
NIV Bible passages courtesy of Biblegateway.com.
I think America underwent a shift in the understanding of work around the time when Social Security came into being. Early settlers and pioneers understood work and the fulfillment that came from it, but industrialization and technology have definitely had a negative impact of our understanding of work.
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It is called work no fun for a reason, something someone told me along the way. I generally enjoy my career and the work that goes along with it, but I spend too many horus at work and too much time working (my boss and my clients expect me to repond to e-mails 24 hours a day, on weekends and on vacation). My schedule has gotten more demanding during the recession since we have been doing more with less. We did finally hire a couple of new people which over time will help.
I’m not sure what I would do without my career and the mental stimulation that goes along with it, I’m sure I would figure out something but I very much enjoy what I do and prefer to be busy.
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I do think that work – specifically “labor” – is undervalued in America, both literally and figuratively. In the most general sense – amongst people with college degrees and non-labor intensive jobs – the idea of working as a tradesman or otherwise performing manual labor is anathema. These jobs are often seen as menial – despite the fact that they usually require a tremendous amount of training, effort, skill and artistry.
However, I think much of the “fault” for this lies with the people who made careers of these jobs and raised their children to strive for and expect more. Everyone hopes their children will “do better” than them in life, and for children that were raised by skilled laborers, that usually means not having to work so hard, or so much – and by “work”, I mean in the physical sense.
While there is a tremendous amount of pride amongst most who work hard (again, physically) for a living, there are few people in those professions who would be delighted to hear that their child hopes to grow up to be a plumber, or an electrician, or someone who works on the assembly line for General Motors. They want “more” than that for them, and that sends a pretty strong message to their children about what kind of work is of value and what kind of work is not.
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I think along the lines of Leslie #2 and Melissa #13 (love Melissa’s want for “freedom to not have a job I don’t like”). The option to leave the working world and retire is what I am looking for. The option to follow my passion without having to worry about the money being generated except as a nice-to-have. In numerous positions throughout my career, I have had to force myself to get out of bed each morning, not knowing what awaited me when I walked in the door but fearing the worst. There were always benefits such as the people I work with and the feeling of accomplishment upon completion of a job well done. But I sure would like the option to not work if I did not have to. aka – retirement!
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I love what I do, but have been doing it for the past 32 years, 26 of them in my current position. I have about 8 years to go to retirement, and now that the kids are grown, want to do something else. It isn’t really feasible to leave at this point, and actually, we don’t want to do so. I am taking graduate classes now in a related field, so that when we retire, I can take small contracts around the country, and we can go live different places and explore different areas without going much into our retirement funds. Work, travel, frugality — sounds like the best kind of life to me!
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Interesting that I’m finishing up Atlus Shrugged right now. I got a “This is John Galt speaking…” vibe from this entire article.
“There is no such thing as a lousy job – only lousy men who don’t care to do it.”
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this was a very thought provoking article for me. i am currently unemployed and looking. my situation has caused me to re-evaluate the very concepts you are talking about. i don’t want to be that schlep that works at a job i hate for thirty years just to get the retirement benefits. i would rather do the things i want to do now, rather than wait for a retirement that may or may not come. i have always believed, up until now, that work is something you are not supposed to like but do because you have to. fortunately for me, i don’t have a big family to support and i can use this hiatus to think about and go after what i really want to do for work. if you can find a way to get paid for doing something you love and would do anyway, is it really “work?” i refuse to believe that sitting at a cubicle for decades and then retiring is the way life is supposed to go.
at the same time, we are currently living with my parents and our dogs are being boarded, so we are willing to take jobs doing things we don’t like in order to get a place to live and have our family back together again. fortunately, we were have been preparing to be unemployed for quite a while and have eliminated non-mortgage debt. that gives us a little more freedom.
great post!
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I think that JD’s four benefits are all equally available in retirement:
MEANING: Perhaps if I’d been a brain surgeon I might have found more meaning in what I did, but really, defining myself through my job would not have provided much meaning for me. It’s only since I’ve retired that I’ve been able to pursue most completely the real meaning of my life. I’m more myself, more able to “know myself” as the philosophers encourage us to do, and I’m more aware of what is important in life (surprise — it doesn’t seem to be meeting meaningless deadlines!).
MONEY: true, my investments don’t earn me as much as working did, but as long as there is “enough” money, I don’t think work wins over non work.
RELATIONSHIPS: my primary relationship and all of my other social ties have only been strengthened by not having to put work first. Perhaps there are people who manage to not put work first, but it is hard in the current state of work demands, especially in jobs that don’t have set time limits. My social life does include some people I met at work, but it also expands far beyond that world and thus is much richer.
SKILLS: Retirement means time to build skills in any area, not just those that are associated with a particular job.
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I remember my first real thinking about work years ago when I was reading John Grisham’s The Firm. In it, there is a piece from the main character where he talks about how his life will go. Paraphrasing, it goes something like I’ll work 100 hours a week for 10 or 15 years and then retire a rich man.
I thought about this section quite a bit. First of all, 100 hours a week sounds miserable no matter what you’re doing, except perhaps breathing. Second, he must hate being a lawyer, his chosen profession for those of you who didn’t read the book. I thought there is a second option…how about you do something you love and you do it forever. Then, the race to stop doing what you’re doing never needs to occur. I don’t follow that advice of course. I know I should.
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As someone who was a manager at a Fortune 100 company, the biggest problem I had with my employees was finding enough *meaningful* work for them to do. At the end of the day, most of the people that worked for me felt like they had accomplished nothing, as our group was caught up in the bureaucracy and inertia that comes with working for any large organization.
I think what it really comes down to is this: no one wants to be stuck in a job they can’t quit (for whatever reason — mortgage, student loans, family obligations, etc) which does not give them some sort of feeling of accomplishment or satisfaction at the end of the day. And I think that describes a lot of America that works in cubicles and offices, and why in general people tend to want to leave the office early, retire early, etc.
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I’m also getting an Ayn Rand vibe from the comments more than the article, and frankly it seems myopic. Yes, the trades have been devalued throughout the years, but don’t blame that on the government. Corporations have continuously eroded consumer rights and consumer information (by buying up media until even the news is owned and operated by partisan interests) through the decades, while keeping downward pressure on low to middle-class wages and trying to force out unions – the same unions whose members, blue-collar workers in the thousands, fought and stood up for their rights.
It seems that many people have their rose-colored glasses on when they look back at the ‘simpler’ lives our ancestors led – well, they didn’t necessarily prefer to spend their lives working 10 hours a day 6 days a week in a mine or factory, or cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children 7 days a week, instead of a 9 to 5 office job, and many would have chosen otherwise if they could. It’s our luxury that we can choose, but with that choice comes more indecision about what is best, what will fulfill us the most, which I think leads to this navel-gazing.
The article itself was interesting, but some of the comments scare me in that they seem to assume that less choice in work was good, or that people didn’t want time off or healthcare when the default was blue-collar jobs. Read some history, where do you think powerful unions like the Teamsters and UAW started from? From blue-collar workers who wanted to ensure they got the right to a regulated work week, wages, healthcare, etc. and who had to organize to stand up against the owners of industry.
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I’ve loved reading the comments, they have been as thought provoking as the original post.
I do what I do because I was good at it when I started my career. I dont like what I do, though, and because of that I havent kept up on the latest and greatest theories, practices, and technology. Now, I just sort of cruise along, working just hard enough to keep my job. I peruse the want ads on a weekly basis, looking for something I *want* to do that pays close to what I make now.
I also fantasize about a blue collar job, where I can work outside and develop real skills. I saw a job for a lineman(electrical worker) that paid $36/hour yesterday and immediately wondered why no one told me about these sorts of jobs when I was a teen. I grew up thinking the only options were college and a desk job or working at the grocery store stocking shelves.
Finally, last thought, is that work is the enemy because it keeps you from doing what you love. I dont know how many times I have sat at work feeling like I’m wasting my time. I work in IT, so like another poster above said, the skills I acquire are very abstract and not something I use in everyday situations, so there is no fulfillment at the end of the day.
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@41 Great comment! There never was a rosy back-in-the-day. Like the Daily Show pointed out, back-in-the-day you were a kid, and being a kid everything seems a lot simpler.
I’d also like to add that I never heard my grandfathers complain about work, mainly because they were dead long before I was born. Not saying that heart attacks at prime age are work related, but…
And back-in-the-day a lot of women weren’t allowed to work, especially if they were married. It’s hard to complain about something you’re not allowed to do. And my grandma did occasionally complain about her job… apparently picking out detached fingers from piles of sawdust in the shop room was not one of the more pleasant aspects of her nursing job.
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“Yes, the trades have been devalued throughout the years, but don’t blame that on the government. Corporations have continuously eroded consumer rights and consumer information (by buying up media until even the news is owned and operated by partisan interests)…”
How can you not blame that on the government? You said it yourself that the media and news were bought up and are now owned and operated by partisan interests.
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I think there’s been a war on work waged by managers – they want to think that their employees are all replaceable, unskilled, and lazy/needing to be constantly micromanaged and harangued, because that makes the supervisors and managers feel like their own work is more important.
I’ve had a number of jobs that were automated out of existence – but the automated version is not better. It’s not even always cheaper. And it hardly ever makes the customers happier (just try using any company’s “voice recognition” call router and see how you feel – phone receptionist was the first job I ever lost to a machine and, since I moved to another job inside the company, I got to also spend the next six months listening to customers complain about our new system.) But it does make the remaining workers more nervous and easier to boss around.
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There is no concept of “work-life balance”; “work” takes priority, and that’s the end of it. Work is how you earn money and contribute to the community and form your identity. People have no qualms about staying until 7 or 8 o’clock. Most of the time, I think this is insane. But observing them, reading this post and listening to Mike Rowe make me wonder if perhaps I’ve got it wrong. As an American, maybe I’ve gone too far to the other extreme, expecting to do only what makes me happy.
We actually aren’t tipping the other way in the United States, if you look at the numbers. In the past few years, there have been an increasing number of editorial news items about the laziness and the so-called entitlement attitude that is coming alive in our workplaces, but this is nothing new. Every generation feels that those that come after it do not work as hard and have things too easy. It is so cliche at this point that I sometimes have trouble believing that they can even publish these items and still pretend that they are sharing some kind of “news.”
The truth is that the United States has some of the lowest paid vacation time of any developed nation; we also spend some of the longest hours in the office. We are also included on the list of countries without laws about how much time off workers are entitled to. We have trusted employers to determine what they give their employees and while some employers treat their employees very well, this has still left us behind other countries. Even workers Japan, which was discussed in the quoted example, have more time off (again, on average) than workers in the United States.
In my opinion, one of the reasons that we seem to be increasingly hearing stories about the laziness of various categories of workers is because people are starting to get a little tired of the demands placed on them by employers. When I was working in my corporate jobs, I wasn’t asked to come in early and stay late every so often; it was part of the office culture that you were there by eight and you stayed until eight or sometimes even later. The office stayed open on all holidays with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I mean literally, Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. If you requested to use some of your vacation time, you had to ask repeatedly for approval; otherwise they would ignore you and hope you’d forget about it. Sick days translated to working from home days. This was not unique to one job. It wasn’t even unique to one industry; everyone I know deals with this sort of thing to varying degrees.
The United States is a country that was founded in large part by Purtians, who believed that no matter how hard you worked, it wasn’t hard enough. Hard work is part of the whole being American thing, but so is believing that we are, at our core, lazy people who need to be treated quite harshly lest we run amok. And, at least in my opinion, this is hurting us.
If you look around, there are a lot of people trying to very hard not to think about their lives. Whether they are overspending or losing hours watching reality television, I think a lot of people have just had it and are looking for any way they can to fill the void. Maybe if we stopped acting like we are lazy, good-for-nothing people who need to be kept in line, and started acting like we can trust ourselves to do what needs to be done, these things would start improving. It’s like when you try to diet and tell yourself that you aren’t allowed to eat certain things, you only want those things more. However, if you think about eating in a way that makes you feel best and healthiest, without demonizing the act of having a slice of chocolate cake, you find that you eat a lot more salads and a lot less cake.
Some food for thought
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Work is not my enemy, but since I am on disability (don’t plan to stay on it forever) I do view it differently than it did a few years ago. My physical health is a factor now. Retirement with financial stability would be grand, but I’m only 31.
Growing up yes, I didn’t hear my elders complain about the work they had to do. My mother started working when she was 13 in convalescent hospitals and my dad was a sharecropper in the south (picking cotton daily since he was a small kid). They didn’t complain per se, but it was something that they would occasionally “throw” in our faces (ie. look how good you have it). They didn’t have a choice.
My friend’s dad worked in the mill his entire life. He took his sons there on a tour one day as lesson on what NOT to do with your life. They saw men in their 40s with broken bodies, fatigued, a few with missing fingers, deep permanent scars and so on. He insisted that they go to college so that the highlight of their job/career isn’t spending an afternoon in the emergency room wondering if you will ever have use of a body part again from a work related accident. After work there was no energy for personal interests that involved physical activity. It was all about home, shower, beer, dinner, a little TV and sleep.
About the infrastructure, Lindsay at #18 said it best. Like, give me a break! Though its not a glamor job, you will always find people everywhere that want to work, period.
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Really good article. Thank you for reminding us that work is actually a good thing! We will likely spend 40 years doing it, 5 days per week…we’d certainly be happier if we looked forward to it than always trying to get out of it.
Thanks again.
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I believe that working is very important to a fulfilling life and it should be something that we can take pride in. But at the same time I don’t believe that it should be something that takes over the majority of our lives. I work at home because I would resent any job that kept me away from my family for long hours.
I also think that anyone who has the desire for financial freedom should pursue that dream. My grandpa had the dream of early retirement because his parents died young and he achieved that. He spent many years working part time in business ventures with his children so he still did work but it was for enjoyment. He was also able to spend many decades living as a ‘snowbird’ spending many months in the southern part of the country enjoying sports and relaxation. He almost made it to 90 so he really had a full and happy life, spending most of it doing what he wanted to do.
Of all of the retired people that I have known, the happiest ones are those who either take on a part time job that they enjoy or who take up some sort of volunteer work that they feel is important. Those who don’t do anything often are unhappy with retirement.
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Our economy shed over 8 million jobs in this recession and a lot of them are not coming back. There is a LOT of pain out there. People who desperately need and want jobs to keep from falling off a cliff, and they don’t really care if they are personally fulfilled or not!
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