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?
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I can tell you that as a teacher I have seen the work ethic of students (and parents) in decline over the past 11 years; many of my 6th graders had no chores or responsibilities in the household at all, not even keeping their rooms neat. Parents do a HUGE disservice to their kids when they do this.
I agree that if work is fulfilling and productive (however one defines those terms), that I would be more likely to continue to want to work or “semi-retire.” Makes it seem a little more realistic to think that I might have some income in those years instead of having to have a huge wad of cash to last me for the rest of my life!
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I actually think of this often and made reference to my desire to take part in physical labor (since all of my work is mental) in a recent post about doing my own auto repair on Debt Free Adventure dot com.
On a similar note, I have long been considering taking an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and believe I would enjoy working for a tree service much more than I enjoy working as an IT technician.
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Speechless with regard to the video. Thank you for sharing.
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Great post on the meaning of “real” work.
Too many folks these days consider some type of manual labor to be demeaning and lower class. Lower class if may be, but work has dignity. Manual work has value beyond just making a paycheck. Working at a trade, knowing how to make “stuff” with your hands, gives one real do-it-yourself skills and confidence in the personal arena, the knowledge or willingness to get dirty and do an oil change yourself, or frame up a wall or put in a toilet.
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I keep thinking that all this fits into Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Csikszentmihalyi the professor from U of Chicago who wrote it, has been studying states of “flow,” when daily activities bring optimum states of satisfaction.
If we don’t have something to work toward that is meaningful, the author says, then we don’t have a way of organizing our own consciousness, and fall into despair.
Great discussion, I’ve really enjoyed most of the comments, even the Tyler/Jamie interchange. That last paragraph on post 100 is negative in sentiment. Doesn’t bother me, I’ve felt that way before too. Except the person writing it is accusing another of negativity. And the apology? Another chance to take pot shots. I read “I sorry I critized you but sometimes you deserve it!” Whee!…projection is fun when you see it right there in print.
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@103 Lisa– I’ve been waiting for whoever has the two copies of the Csikszentmihalyi book to hurry up and return it– I’ve recalled it. It is very interesting how flow is used to keep people playing video games. That reward system is similar to the debt snowball, though the feeling of pleasantness is probably not applicable.
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It’s interesting, because almost no-one at work complains ABOUT WORK. We complain about pay, and a few people in a chronically over-worked department complain (less than they should, in my opinion) about hours, but no-one complains about the work. I work in a white-collar job, but it’s still intensely creative, and I definitely do get a sense of accomplishment from it.
I’m fortunate enough to earn around the magic $75,000 per year that usually is enough to cover all of my needs and most of my wants and provide some savings for retirement.
It’s interesting that people fear work because my wife could “retire” right now and we could live off my salary. Instead she has chosen to work, partially for financial freedom (in case I was to lose my job,) but also for the fulfillment and positive experiences it can provide.
As far as retirement goes, I think it’s stated correctly that the financial goal is to be ABLE to retire. This, again, is about choices and freedom. When you’re free of debt and have a good (and growing) savings pool, you have the cash to do the things you want to do, be that travel, boating on the weekends, or whatever else you consider valuable in your free time.
Having enough money to retire is the ultimate in financial freedom. Once you have enough cash that you never NEED to work, you are in the enviable economic position of being able to spend your time doing whatever you want. At that point, if you are in a fulfilling job, then you keep doing it. The money then is gravy, and can also provide some freedom from worries that some stock market crash is going to destroy your savings.
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Just as #29 mentioned…..someone should do a tv series on “The Millionaire Next Door”. Sounds like a great idea to me.
It would finally be a reality show worth watching.
And just to show how we are all different…I normally like Tyler’s comments… He often shows “the other side” to popular opinion.
It is my opinion that he’s not a negative person. Hardly. He likes living where he does (not far from the beach in CA if I remember right) and he doesn’t mind his job and he makes a lot of money (I believe–at least as I define it). That much I’ve gleaned from his posts.
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@JKC #79 Great minds think alike. I am reading Drive right now. In fact, I sent the video to Dan Pink and JD at the same time.
@Dink #86 I love your comment. I have read all the comments and I like yours the best!
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I’ve discussed the idea of work, and why we work, twice on my own site recently. In “What do we want to be? A few thoughts on labor,” I pointed out (among other things) that we want our kids to give the RIGHT answers when we say “What do you want to be when you grow up?” You know: Doctor, architect, lawyer. If a kid says, “I wanna drive a garbage truck” we laugh and think it’s cute. But secretly we hope he doesn’t ever have to drive a garbage truck, even though it’s a vital job and pays well.
And in “If life is the currency, I’m already rich,” I noted that it’s precisely because I’m NOT chasing wealth that I’ve been able to craft a life that works for me.
To some extent I can say these things because I’ve gotten paid to do what I wanted to do (write) for much of my adult life. But when I was doing other jobs — such as cleaning houses, working in a glass factory, picking tomatoes, or typesetting and proofreading — I didn’t feel shame or self-loathing. I was bringing home a salary. At one point I was supporting myself and a baby with no help from anyone or any government agency. It was hard. But it was simply necessary.
Now when people hear about/read these stories they act like I’m some kind of hero. That’s true only if everyone else who gets up and goes to work and brings home a paycheck is a hero, too. Some jobs are harder than others. Some jobs, frankly, stink. Like, say, driving a garbage truck. But they all have to be done.
If it’s kosher to post URLs, here are the links to those two pieces:
http://www.donnafreedman.com/2010/09/05/what-do-we-want-to-be-a-few-thoughts-on-labor/
http://www.donnafreedman.com/2010/09/16/if-life-is-the-currency-im-already-rich/
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Atlas Shrugged is my favorite novel/handbook. I ended up being a stay at home Mom and have found fulfillment years after reading it the first time. My husband is my John Galt and he appreciates me and my children appreciate me far more than any employer ever did (well except one). I take my job quite seriously and am very grateful for it and I do it very well. I also know that I could be happy working for a bank, something where I don’t have to take my work home. Once the kids get older I may just have time for that.
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Maybe we’ve swung the balance too far towards not working and made that glamourous. I have to think high unemployment and ridiculous corporate greed has something to do with that. Seems in the not to recent past working 50-60 hours weekly was some badge of honor….not to me, but I’ve heard others speak of it. Everyone shared in the excess, but now only the C-suite is doing so, therefore the rank and file are re-evaluating their attitude toward work.
Somewhere in the middle is working and taking pride in that work. I really think that is what we’ve lost as a society. I get a certain satisfaction out of some aspects of work, not only at my day job, but doing other tasks like building furniture or even something as simple as mowing the lawn. I’d love to see America get that back, I think the positive effects would flow through to a lot of other problems we face.
EDIT – I identify a lot with comment #42 from Brenton. Maybe it’s the “grass is greener” syndrome creeping into my head, but I wish someone would have told me when I was 16, 17 that there were blue-collar jobs out there that paid that well. Like other commenters, I sometimes fantasize about working with my hands rather than sitting at a desk all day.
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I think that society’s idea of what work should be often conflicts with what the individuals idea of work should be. Each person should work to find the right fit. It’s just not the work that’s important but the whole package and I’m not talking about benefit packages. If the fits right you probably don’t mind working. In fact, you might like a majority of what you do.
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Financial freedom for me is about having the possibility to choose if you want to work or not and on the quantity of the work.
In my full-time job, which is mostly about analyzing companies, I have noticed that the richest business owners are the ones that are most busy. But mostly in a good way. They are full of ideas and eager to get on with the next big thing.
Even though this could be a generalization, I think that it shows that being financially free offer you possibilities to enjoy your life in a different way than if you have to fight for the money every month. And above all I think that the confidence of knowing that they will survive in all situations adds up to the well-being of these persons.
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@Kevin M. – me too. I think I’d be a great electrician.
But I’m also a really good secretary, and it’s safe, mostly easy work, so I’m not complaining. Except on the days when I don’t get out of my chair enough and then I feel like I’m wrapped up in rubber bands.
I do think that many people would benefit from a mind shift. I know a lot of folks who *expect* to hate their jobs. And, glory be, they do! They go in with that attitude, and no matter how much fun they have with their work pals or how generous their boss is, it’s still “oh my job sucks.” I’ve done it myself.
People can build their whole persona around how much they want to be doing something else, but in their free time, what do they do? NOT work on projects that might lead them away from the hated job.
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@Jem 46: Hear hear!!
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My Grandpa always said, “There is a lot of money in muck”.
Lots of people out there who do not want to do the dirty jobs and will pay big money for it to be done.
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@ Jaime – I hear what you are saying about many companies not seeming to care about their employees and people being replaceable; I worked for a large multinational company that was like that. As much as I didn’t like the work, I was there for a purpose, to earn as much as I could before going on maternity leave permanently (at least from that company). I found that by taking my own emotions out of the equation, it gave me the opportunity to see that the job really was – just a job that I was in at that time, not good, not bad, just a job. The conditions weren’t great and I felt quite under appreciated before I realised that it was my emotional loyalty to this company that these feelings stemmed from. I spoke out against someone who was not treating those under his supervision ethically (including myself), and received a response that let me know that we just had to put up with it, as management would not address the issue (the person in question was a person friend of the EO). At first I was greatly upset by this, until I realised that I just needed to see me as they did – a person easily replaced. This changed my perspective on the company completely – I was not a person to them, I did not feel part of a community within the organisation, I did not feel valued as an employee, so why was I giving them my loyalty? I stayed in the position for the duration of my pregnancy and then left, knowing that I wouldn’t be back and happy in my decision. At the time I didn’t much like the work, but I did like the regular income, so it was a trade off. Work was no longer my enemy, nor were my employers, they were a multinational that worked the way they did to make maximum profit. This didn’t fit for me, so I didn’t continue there after I no longer had a need for that position.
You say in your post that people want to ‘escape from cubicle nation’; this still sounds like running away. If so many people are unhappy, which they are, why do we continue to be treated this way in the work place? Companies treat their employers as they do because they can, and because they are often ignorant to exactly how their company runs. We as a workforce in general, have given up our power to our employers, allowing them to dictate the terms of employment. But without employees, these companies would be nowhere… so I ask the question, if so many people in a workplace feel the conditions are so bad, why are they not speaking up and communicating their needs/concerns to their employers? The bosses often don’t know how conditions are for the people doing the day to day running of a business as they never get to see it. They are often quite distant from the operations, either physically (management is in a seperate building etc) or psychologically (they are busy with their own jobs that they never go near or ignore the operations area). Employees should be asking or even demanding that their employers see first hand the operations from all areas so they can see for themselves how their company functions – the good, the bad and the ugly. It is hard for anyone to ignore issues if they are forced to face them head on. This appearance of ignorance from management stems from a lack of open communication and awareness, which makes employees feel resentment etc. If employees do not speak out though, I am not sure we should be feeling resentment, dislike etc, as we are allowing these working conditions to perpetuate by not speaking out about them.
War doesn’t solve anything – it just makes something/someone your enemy and you make judgement against it/them. Once you have done that, you have closed down any opportunity to resolve the problems you face. I feel that it is only when you look at something with openness and without judgement that you can start to see others points of view and start to communicate and begin the process of working things out for the betterment of the organisation as a whole (or any other situation you are in).
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from an article in the Tulsa World in 2007:
“Downward arc: Skilled jobs go unfilled: Welder shortage hampers firms”
……… Wells and his type are becoming more of a minority every day in the United States. The nation’s welder shortage is reaching a proportion that is slowing down projects and yet heating up salaries for those who choose the oft-neglected trade.
The American Welding Society estimates that the industry is losing thousands of skilled welders every year. The deficit could leave more than 400,000 potential jobs unfilled by 2014, the AWS reports.
“The younger generation doesn’t want to get dirty,” said Mickey McPhetridge, steel-shop supervisor at HydroHoist International Inc. “They’re all into computers and air conditioning.” ………
Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?articleID=070607_238_E1_spanc12208
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To me it’s not the work that bothers me, it’s the relentlessness of it.
If I had been more knowledgeable about all this in my younger years I would have planned better for my future so that I could afford to back off a little when I got overwhelmed (like when my son had one of his 16 surgeries) or to just change course without having to worry about the whole thing crashing down on me.
It’s that whole “balance” thing.
I’m glad to see young people here who have caught on to this so that maybe they have more options than I have provided for myself.
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This is sort of tangentially related, but what you said about jobs being social made me think of something:
I make a point of keeping my personal life separate from my professional one. Many of the choices I make in my personal life are societally unpopular (read: I live an alternative lifestyle), and aside from gender I am not part of a protected class. Therefore, when everyone else is meeting up for a drink after work or to go to a party together, I don’t join them. Aside from concern over backlash and discrimination, I feel it’s unprofessional and inappropriate. I also generally make a point not to hire or work for friends–and not to “make friends” with my coworkers, employees, and bosses. I prefer to keep the professional relationships strictly that.
I think it’s getting me into trouble career-wise. I’m afraid that I limit my networking capabilities. All the good networkers I know are just friends with everyone–at least in part because they make people feel like they are not just meeting people to evaluate “how can you be of use to me?”
I want to maintain a professional decorum at work without my staff blasting my personal information around the crew, but I want to be warm and welcoming, because the best managers are the ones people like AS A PERSON. How do I find a balance?
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At a party recently, I was speaking with my wife’s freind who is a carpenter. I was telling him how much I wish I had a job where I built things with my own hands, sweat a little, and at the end of the project, could have the satisfaction of knowing I built something out of nothing. He then told me how much he wished he had a job like mine where he sat in front of a computer all day, in a temperature regulated office, where there was little chance of him putting a nail through his thumb and where his back would not hurt from hunching and bending all day.
I thought that this was very interesting and that there are good and bad things about all jobs. Maybe we could reorganize our work culture to have more jobs that provided both experiences, but I will have to leave that up to smarter guys than me to figure out. In the mean time, I need to put my jacket on because the office AC still thinks its summer.
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Much to explore here, and excellent comments. Who isn’t ambivalent about work? No one has brought up Karl Marx – he who articulated how work (employment) is when we sell our time, literally our life, for money; how we can become alienated when we are many times removed from the results of our labor. I think this is often as true in a modern office as it was in a factory.
The other thought that came to me is the old parable about a fisherman sitting idly by a creek in the sun, with a pail full of caught fish nearby. A businessman on vacation sees him there and says, “Why aren’t you working harder and still fishing?” The fishman asks, “Why would I want to do that?” and the passerby tells him, “Well, if you worked harder and caught more fish you could sell them to other people, and then you’d have money and could invest and become rich!”
They go back and forth for awhile and the businessman explains that once you’re rich you can kick back and relax, spend your time the way you like — and the fisherman replies, “But that’s what I’m doing NOW!”
In the age-old tension between time and money, I initially valued money. The older I get, the more I value time. My job is okay; like most, it has good and bad aspects. But you can bet I’d love to stop working…or to have the CHOICE to choose work that is most rewarding, even if it pays less.
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I adore this video. I strive hard to put my mind in the place that trade school is competely acceptable for my kids instead of what will be a humongous government loan to pay off at the end of college when they graduate (circa 2025).
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@Emma-that was a great reply, it can be really hard to not take things personally, but I do see your point, that was a really good response, you write very well =)
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@Brigitte – That’s a fascinating question! I’m a little uncomfortable getting too personal with business associates myself.
Generally speaking, I find that if I don’t want to give out information about me, the best thing to do is to ask people about themselves. I think most people love to talk about themselves, and think you’re a great conversationalist when you let them do so! =)
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@Mark @Rose – This is where I think the problem lies. Notice that the folks Mike works with are often just working amount a small group of people or alone. They are not caught up in an enormous corporate bureaucracy. When the worker loses individuality, meaning is lost as well.
Remember, America isn’t a manufacturing economy anymore. Our jobs are more cerebral. It’s only natural that we should seek happiness working at a desk and using our minds to do the majority of work. Mental jobs are hard to leave at the office when you go home at day’s end.
Working on an assembly line is a physical job that starts when you get there and you leave it behind you when you go home. That kind of simplicity is likely to draw a lot less griping.
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