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We’ve all accepted the assumption that each of us needs a job. Yet, those jobs seem to come in only two flavors: you get to make a lot of money, or you get to make a difference and like what you do. Translation: choose between economic priorities, or doing something fulfilling that potentially helps make a better world. If this choice seems extreme, I’d be willing to bet you and your colleagues frequently cite all the perks you get in your job, maybe rationalizing by saying “I really should be grateful it’s not manual labor, or it’s easy, or it’s really not a bad job.”
Of course, just because it’s not a bad job, doesn’t mean it’s a good one, either. Being able to point to others who have it far worse helps make it excusable to stay where you are. It’s easy to become trapped, fearing what happens if you were to do the unthinkable and quit. Instead, you wake up every day looking forward to 5pm. Looking forward to the weekend, to the next small break in the never-ending treadmill of work, weekend, repeat. The fact everyone else seems to be doing it, too, fools us into thinking it’s normal. But what if it’s not?
Given the ubiquitous nature of corporations nowadays, combined with bills, rising inflation, taxes, and our obsession with consuming more and more, we’ve all signed on to a monthly subscription society that literally charges us for being alive. If we want to prove the workaholic syndrome to no longer be the norm, it’s time for us to collectively talk about refusing to pay the bill. The first step is realizing how ingrained work is in our individual and collective psyches.
Our Early Work Ethic Education
From the age of 4 or 5 onward, you were taught how to survive in the 40-hour work week simply by attending school. School usually started at 8am, and ended by 3:30 or 4pm. If, like me, your parents worked, you then spent the next hour or two at daycare, after school care or at friend’s house doing your homework. All in all, the regular cycle of get up, eat (or not), go to school, come home, do homework, go to bed was taught from before you were given an option. As you got older, perhaps hobbies were added to liven up the day, but they conveniently always occurred after you had already worked all day in school. In short, work first, then you deserve to have some pleasure.
No Sick Days from the Start
If your mother was anything like mine, if you said you felt sick, you first had to prove it by showing visible symptoms, like a fever. I shudder now thinking, in a post Covid 19 world, how often we as children used to go to school sick. In fact, when I tell my kids about it, I imagine I’ll do so in the same lore that my father used to explain how he walked uphill both ways to school, only to find out as a teenager the nearest bus stop was at the end of his driveway.
When you reflect on it, isn’t it weird that we still track absences, rather than outcome? If a kid misses 10 days of school, should we really care? Does he still know his stuff? Can she pass her tests? Similarly, if you can do your job in 2 days or 3 days, why does your boss still insist you show up for 5? It’s like we’re so addicted to metrics, we’ve lost sight on which ones matter.
Will AI Bring Change?
Adding to our past indoctrination is the constant buzz, dread and sometimes flat-out denial about the potential and coming economic changes caused by AI. In reality, technology replacing people’s jobs is nothing new. In 1964, Henry Ford made headlines by rolling out the 40-hour
work week. At the time, there was anywhere from 3-5 million unionized workers, producing 2.2-5 million cars a year. Today, we have 370,000 unionized number of workers, producing more.
Taking the past and present conditions into consideration, hacking this corporate society is going to mean questioning how much people need to work, if at all, and what they should do with their time instead. More importantly, it’s going to require you to figure out what you want to do with your time, if you no longer have an 8-5 schedule mandated from childhood through adulthood.
As technology, politics and economics continue to rapidly evolve, this is a perfect time for you to start reevaluating.
Hacking 101
Step 1: Get creative on a schedule
You’re a human being, and human beings need to do more than just work. Look at your weekly calendar and make sure you have a physical activity, hobby and community time allotted, ideally once a week, or at the least every other week.
Be creative and combine categories, if needed, to get it all in. For example, to combine your physical activity with work, go for a walk with your boss. To get quality time with family, go on a walk together after dinner. Schedule a massage early Monday morning, instead of having those multiple cups of coffee; you’ll be much more alert throughout the rest of the day anyway, and you won’t have to spend nearly so much time in the bathroom.
Step 2: Change your frame of mind
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to justify your worth by working so hard. You’re human, and that means you already have worth. Ultimately, it will be cheaper for all of us, if you take time to care for yourself. No one benefits from you going to the hospital from exhaustion, especially when one considers our already taxed healthcare system.
Step 3: Delete what doesn’t serve you
It can be nice having a weekly team meeting every Monday morning, if for no other reason than it makes you feel like you’re working. But are you? In my experience, most Monday morning meetings simply cover what everyone did over their weekends. Spend that time getting a jump on your week by finishing that report, reading a book or getting a massage (see step 1). Sometimes, the most productive thing for work, is not working.
Take Time to Start Living
Human beings are complex creatures, and the best way you can start hacking this work-focused society is to start practicing living instead of existing as an autonomous corporate robot. After all, the real robots might be coming soon, and you may have no choice but to rethink your work-life balance. So why not start now, when the choice of how you want to live your life is up to you!
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Sean McMann was recruited right out of college to work at one of the largest data firms, and then embarked on an eight-year journey from new grad to consulting director. Privileged to see behind the curtain of some of the largest corporations today, he recognized the system was broken and quit at the height of his career, when working the least but making the most money he ever had, betting everything, including his money, reputation, and time, on trying to fix the problem of the corporate jungle. He shares his insights in his new book, Hacking the Corporate Jungle: How to Work Less, Make More and Actually Like Your Life. When he’s not writing, researching, and speaking, McMann spends his time riding his bike, visiting art museums, snowboarding, and playing with his two young sons. Learn more at seanmcmann.com.
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