As I sat down at the table of the EU outdoors office this morning, I suddenly felt a sensation of how great it was to be at home on a lovely sunny Saturday, and outside in Sonic's private kingdom where he roamed and hunted as king of the urban jungle. Sonic? That's the furry guy pictured above in one of his favorite spots out here - one of two EU macho mascots who ruled with an iron fist, errr, paw!
It's probably a combination of the bad weather recently and having been very busy at work that made me feel so lucky to be out at my table, almost as if I hadn't been here in months. It got me thinking on the subject of how much importance we place on work, and how totally dominating it basically always is in almost everyone's lives. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and more - we go to work. Why? Or why exactly?
The obvious answer is money, of course. I might vouchsafe that a healthy (is it?!) 90% (or more) of people who I know state quite clearly that they do their jobs primarily and principally for the money. Cold hard cash is what we need to pay the bills, and this means we work to generate that cold hard cash. The percentage of people who would leave their jobs if they won the lottery is probably much closer to 100 than 90, which sort of underllines the point that it's always about the money.
But as much as I sat here thinking about how great it would be to be able to come out here on a Monday morning and doodle on my blog over coffee instead of drinking coffee en route to an office, I simultaneously realized that the feeling I had (and have) this morning would simply not be there if I was free to be here every morning. That would become the new norm, and the sense of freedom I feel on a Saturday would evaporate quicker than the steam from my Costa Rica deepest dark royal roast.
Ergo, we go to work to pay the bills, and then society dictates that by and large we get the weekends to ourselves to finally taste some freedom again, and boy does it taste good. Then Sunday afternoon rolls into the station, out of nowhere, from the very back of our minds on a Friday night over dinner, all the way to that familiar sound of the carriages whizzing by on the tracks, and thoughts of tomorrow and work converting the magic of the weekend into the misery of Monday.
Now that's one physicochemical conversion that many could do without! But one has to get to a place where one realizes that this is looking at it all wrong. Yes, it is true that basically from the age where we are capable of walking and talking, we are shepherded off into the cold, cruel reality of life very quickly: by being forced to wake up when we don't want to, to bathe when we don't want to, to put on respectable clothes we don't feel comfy in, and then forced out to some public place (prison-like) where we get incarcerated until mid-afternoon at the earliest. This is our early life.
That early life tends to simply turn into the extension of that phase, where the rules change a bit but the lesson is essentially the same. Yes, we know, we don't want to go to work either, it's not just you, but no one has a choice, if they want to have a life, so suck it up and get over it. Daycare became primary school became high school became college became a job. Then the die is cast and that's it until you retire, or die, whichever comes first.
But you know, work has a much more significant role in our existence than we often think. The stories of lottery winners don't really apply (although they can) because for them it's not just a quiestion of not having to work, but also that they have enough cash to buy and do all sorts of things to camouflage the boredom of being free all the time. But what about a typical life, lived at the same level as today's salary allows, but with the money coming in without having to work for it? So, your very same lifestyle as today, but you are free to live it seven days a week with no office on Monday mornings.
It's funny, but it suddenly seems overwhelmingly boring to me. When everyday is a Saturday, what are you supposed to do? Especially with all your buddies at work! Yes, you could catch up on car repairs, fixing that broken door, etcetc. but eventually it would come back to the same thing - purpose. One can never underestimate the purpose of a life, and work surely gives us some sense of real worth and purpose. I might suggest that it makes an enormous difference in fact. Given how much time we spend at work every year, and what it provides for, I think work is understandably important and something to be proud of - our self-confidence depends on it to a large extent.
Yes, as a society we may tend to place too much importance in what we do as work, but it is undeniably a key aspect of the accumulated definition of who we are as people. I cannot help but feel that if we switched it around so that we went to the office on Saturday and Sunday, and were home Monday-Friday, we might actually be looking forward to the office on Friday nights. Yes, I said looking forward to work on a Friday night! Wild!
So, I think the key is maybe a shorter work week. There are so many unemployed today and various social programs are stretched to the limit, so I feel that work sharing is going to become more common in the future, in some types of jobs. Work four days, get three off. Maybe we would return more refreshed after the "weekend" and enjoy it more? Who knows?
But of course, as I come to the close, there is one key element that I have not alluded to as yet. Almost certainly, the most important aspect of how work can be combined into a fulfilling and happy life is the potential in us to find something to do that we actually love doing, and we get paid for it - what a concept! Jumping out of bed with a smile on a Monday morning, and rushing off to the office full of beans (make that coffee beans!) and ready to go and have a great day - now that's the way to go!
I know that not everyone is lucky enough to get paid for doing what they love to do, but one should try as hard as one can to get there. Or to find a way to love doing what might be quite mundane, task-wise, but challenging oneself each day to do it better, faster, cheaper, and so on. Taking a real interest in the company and employer tather than just clocking in and clocking out, while being checked out most of the time. It really is the case that the more you put in, the more you tend to get back out of it.
When I head off to the laboratory (which is one of my offices!) on a Monday morning, leaving a home that I feel comfortable in, with my health intact and my job waiting for me? Well, I always remind myself that I have won the lottery, already, the real one, and the other lottery is only about the money and nothing else. A healthy day's work provides purpose, self-respect and a level of pride in achievement: something with which no mountain of money could ever compete. Work is a benefit and a gift, after all!
Money only pays the bills, but it's in work that we find a higher purpose in the elaboration of our huge potential. Every day. On that note, and given how I started this post, well, the sun is beaming down on the table and I feel that I have earned some downtime under it - curled up like the furry devil himself - for a solid Saturday midday power nap - ah, now that's what I call real life - on a Saturday! ;) - Kevin Mc
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