“Work is simply another playground in which to explore our personal evolution.” ~ Mark Darren Gregor
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If you’re like me, you have probably thought to yourself some form of the following heresy, “I’d get so much more done with my life if I didn’t have to go to work.”
It’s a thought we don’t say out loud because we’re told pretty absolutely that work is good for us, and that it’s our job to have a job in this society. But if we’re honest and we really cared, we could probably do our jobs in about 25-50% of the time we usually spend.
How much more could we be freed up to do if we all worked half the time we do now? Would we get deeper into education? Would we write those novels? Would we be in better physical condition? Would we actually parent our own children? If you ask me, Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. Wouldn’t that be a better society all around?
In fact, it’s not a new idea. Back in 1970, the great American genius was R. Buckminster Fuller.
“We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living.
“We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist.” ~ Buckminster Fuller
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We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.”
One in 10,000 of us – in 1970. What does that ratio look like 44 years later?
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Using the data provided by the United State Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erik Rauch has estimated productivity to have increased by nearly 400% since 1950. According to Rauch, “if productivity means anything at all, a worker should be able to earn the same standard of living as a 1950 worker in only 11 hours per week.” (Source: Wikipedia)
We ought to be able to earn the 1950’s golden era of standard of living in only 11 working hours per week.
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Did you hear that? We ought to be able to earn the 1950’s golden era of standard of living in only 11 working hours per week. And yet we are around 33 hours on average in the U.S.
Interestingly, the New Economics Foundation has recommended moving to a 21 hour standard work week to address problems with unemployment, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, overworking, family care, and the general lack of free time. (Source: Wikipedia)
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Okay, so maybe we can’t go from a 40 hour standard to a 21 hour standard, but what can we do to start making the switch to at least enjoying our jobs?
In the 1923 book “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran, we find a spiritual approach to work that questions the purpose behind the labor:
“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
“For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.” ~ Khalil Gibran
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For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.”
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I asked Mark Darren Gregor, career strategist, speaker & scholar at TheAlignedCareer.com, about how his clients make the leap from a job filled with drudgery to a career filled with purpose.
“‘Work’ is simply another playground in which to explore our personal evolution. The more our work is aligned with our individual sense of purpose, the more that purpose permeates our life experience. And in turn, the more we experience purpose in our life experience, the more motivated, committed and effective we become in not just our work, but in all aspects of life.”
I asked him if men experience any unique challenges because of the “maleness” associated with “working hard.”
“The ‘male’ identity comes with it a freight train of cultural and sociological beliefs that are no more real than any one of the millions of cultural or social labels we attach to ourselves every day.”
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“Men, like women, are challenged with their belief that being their gender means anything. Whether favorably associated or not, the “male” identity comes with it a freight train of cultural and sociological beliefs that are no more real than any one of the millions of cultural or social labels we attach to ourselves every day.”
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So what do you think? Have I convinced you to quit your job? What can we do as a society to ratchet back the work? How have you achieved a work/life balance? How much of your identity as a male comes from your career? What would you do with 20-30 extra hours in the week? Hit me @NextGent
Photo by Flickr/Seattle Municipal Archives
Your value in this society is measured in dollars. Until we create a different society that measures human value differently, this will be consistent. And in a world of economic scarcity, things that exist in abundance are considered to have less value than things that exist in scarcity. There are 7 billion people on this planet…. talk about less valued.
Lots of us over 40 (Disclaimer: I’m almost 59) have ended up unemployable even with a college degree. I can think of lots of ways people like me can help the world if we can but survive to do it. When you send out 200+ resumes in all kinds of fields with no responses as I have, the message you get is that you and your family don’t matter to anyone. And we wonder why the suicide rate is spiking in people over 40?
I love this concept. I just heard today that Ontario is considering the implementation of a minimum salary given even to people who don’t have a job. It’s interesting. It would be great not to have to work to make certain that there’s enough to eat, a place to live, and disaster insurance. I think it’s the kind of thing mankind could have easily achieved by now were it not for both greed and stupidity holding us back. As the world becomes more automated, human labor becomes less necessary, and people are left without means of support; either this problem… Read more »
It would be nice not to work and enjoy life; unfortunately, it is not that way. American workers have been made slaves for a long time until 1929 and then they were able to have better wages and working condition to enjoy life until Reagan came along and started taking everything away.
Lots of our Wine Guides feel the same way – work doesn’t have to be the traditional 40-hour/week standard anymore. Life and work can end up being more fulfilling in a non-traditional job. But then again, it’s hard not to like hosting wine tastings. 😉
That’s part of the reason for this blog post: http://www.travelingvineyard.com/2014/12/home-based-business-ideas/
The need or want to work is an individual preference. If you want to get stuff, you have to work hard. If your life is simple, you can put in less hours and have a full life. There is no ri or wrong answer here but one of preference. I have had a life filled with stuff and it necessitated me spending long hours at work. Now I have a very simple life and work no more than I have to. Both parts of my life were and are good. It corresponded to the stage of my life at the… Read more »
The developed world today consists of the wealthiest, most productive societies in history. The fact that the majority of people in these societies are miserable suggests to me that something about the way we manage our economies is seriously wrong. What’s the point of wealth if it doesn’t help us live happily? Why are we producing so many goods and services if they make no difference, or even reduce our net happiness?
Love this point. This thought keeps me up late into the night wondering what the world would be like if the goal of constant economic growth were debunked.
I am a mum and I work my arse off in two separate, part-time, jobs (which equate to full time employment). My partner studies full time, from home, as to look after our three boys. We work day in, day out. Tired, stressed, hardly spending the quality of our lives together enough to enjoy the “spoils” of our hard labour. We just found out that the landlords of the house we are currently renting, are wanting to move in as to renovate the house for them to live in. They already have a house elsewhere, that they have sold, as… Read more »
Great read. I’ve been wrestling with the idea being able to work part time and earn enough to get by. My kids are young and I’ve got some education I’d like to finish up but its near impossible working 40 hours a week. Articles like this and the comments left by other readers help me to stay positive in thinking that there is a way to find that work life balance and make you work, work for you, not you work for your work.
“We ought to be able to earn the 1950′s golden era of standard of living in only 11 working hours per week.”
Sure, if we limit ourselves to a 1950’s level of health care, limit our use of technologies to those that existed in the 1950’s, spend no more on our cars, houses, gas, and groceries than our parents or grandparents did in the 1950’s, etc.
Go into business for yourself. Successful entrepeneurs tend to make more money than an employee anyways.
Great article! I wrote a similar post of my own a few months back, inspired by the same Fuller quote.
Did you forget the part where people need to work for MONEY?
Productivity has to be matched against competing countries, btw. See, this is why the no work movement is ridiculed by every economist imaginable.
And who is is that controls WAGES?
market forces largely control wages. Who do you think controls them?
Dear… who controls the market forces?
How many low-wage employees you think get stock options?
Market forces = supply and demand. Low wage workers are low wage because there is a low demand for their services as opposed to supply. Why on earth would they get stock options? The value low wage workers provide do not justify high compensation.
You are bought and sold by Fox News if you really believe that Market forces, such as pure supply and pure demand, actually feed into wages and earnings. The real value of money has been modified and blurred so fully by the wealthy that we have no sense of what is a fair wage.
Low demand for their services? Then why is a significant part of our work force made up of low wage workers? And to not confuse the issue, low wage is what you earn NET, at the end of the pay period, which includes people earning high pay but working few hours. All the people that work pretty much invisibly, because people have been taught by our power structure that anyone working for such pay is essentially worthless. What bull crap.
I work 10-20 hours per week, because I choose to. I don’t buy into the society belief that we have to work fullime, I now run 2 companies, that I setup so that i can spend more time with my kids, which i do. I do the work that needs to done, when it needs to be done and feel challenged by the idea that you have to sit in a fulltime job doing 40 hrs/week. Most non service industry workers that I’ve worked with (especially in government) are lucky to do 20hrs/ week worth of work, and many spend… Read more »
What you don’t seem to realize is that, 1, you are in a very small, privileged minority, and 2, you got there by taking advantage of this very same system. Whether you approve of it or not, it is these exact market conditions that allow you to get away with paying workers what you do and having them work as long as you do, so that you can enjoy a profit and your extra 20-30 hours of free time. So congrats to you for having had the foresight in investing in your own businesses, and for having them succeed, but… Read more »
You honestly believe that over 50% of one’s success is due to “luck?” That’s kind of depressing. I don’t agree- it plays a role but usually its pretty obvious why successful people are successful. If your POV was correct gambling would have a far higher expected value and casinos would be the largest single industry.
Yes, luck timing whatever you call it is probably the single biggest factor of individual success. The hard work equals success is a way outdated puritan ethic, great for farming at best, less for anything else.
I enjoy talking about this topic. I had a lively discussion with friends on my Facebook wall in October after I posted this article arguing the same thing you are:
http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/
Thanks for the link, that was a good article too.
What was the standard of living for a 1950’s worker?
How much more stuff do you (we) have at home today that we “need” to earn?
I Think the short answer to your question is “consumerism”.
Real adjusted income for the average worker in the late 1950s is higher than today’s average worker’s income. So, whether or not we consume more items now (which I agree with you, we probably do), clearly something is very wrong if we’re 400% more productive but make less money.
We are rich beyond what any plutocrat in 1950 could imagine. We all have someone to answer our phone. Hell we all have phones. In the 50’s a handful of people could watch a movie in their own homes- now even poor people can watch on a variety of devices… Microwaves, Tang and Teflon. In the 70s there were articles in Time, Life & Newsweek wondering how Americas would occupy their time while working only 16 hrs a week. Moms entered the workforce and families got new cars, vacations and swimming pools…. Now with 2 parents working families fall further… Read more »
Plus, when you add to that increased population… Global economy is in my opinion predetermined with one global value, value of everything, its just an illusion that economy can grow endlessly.
If only it could be so easy. I currently enjoy the so-called luxury of a short work week, but with the cost of not being able to pay my bills reliably. The problem here, I think, is that we’re stuck in an economic recession that’s left way too many people in low-wage jobs (the average fast food employee is 29 according to Bill Maher), while about 14% of the country remains unemployed. And good luck convincing the average business to raise salaries while cutting hours.