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We've got to end the Harvard MBA program before it ruins more lives. They have the entire planet in their crosshairs, but they may do the most damage to their own graduates. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
Also, see @JonMalesic's latest installment in his explorations of work and happiness at The New Republic, drawing on the same NYTimes article, I leap from. newrepublic.com/article/153205…
I believe the route towards people being happy in their work (and lives) and avoiding burnout is through structural changes, not individual actions. There's no self-help program about work/life balance that's going to cure what ails us, and yet...
I like my work, almost always have, and I spend a lot of time thinking about why, what conditions allow for me to like my work, find contentment and fulfillment in it, while also not courting crushing burnout (though I am sometimes overworked). Thinking out loud here...
One big cause of my work contentment is that I'm economically secure. Not rich, but quite secure. At the same time, the kind of work I do (writing) has almost no potential to generate significant wealth. The idea of chasing wealth through writing is absurd.
So, unlike someone in finance, the "how much do you make?" scorecard is irrelevant in my life. That I can make a modest living as a writer is a victory, period. If I wasn't secure economically, I'm not sure the following aspects of enjoying work would matter so much.
1. I enjoy writing. Writing is obviously frustrating, but it is fundamentally the kind of problem I like to try to solve, so even when frustrating, it's fun. I felt the same way about teaching. 2. I write about things that matter to me. I believe in what I do and why I do it.
3. I'm given almost total freedom to explore the ideas I find most interesting. Because I'm well below the upper echelons, I don't have to worry about the kind of scrutiny that would influence me or my writing. I don't have to be careerist because there is no other career.
4. My time is my own. I work a lot if you count up the hours I'm at my desk per week, but I schedule it all myself. That autonomy is priceless. 5. I like who I work for and report to. My editors at the Chicago Tribune and @insidehighered are professionals whom I respect.
6. I get enough affirmation and attention for my work through interacting with audiences who are impacted by it. Again, I'm a very small fry, but I do hear from readers who say things I've written resonate with them. This is always heartening.
The story on the unhappy Harvard MBA folks makes it clear they have almost no access to no. 6 above. Their work drops into a bucket and they have no feedback on what the implications of that work is beyond their very sizable paychecks.
Back to the list. 7. I've had many professional disappointments. This is an underrated aspect of my happiness with work. My novel barely sold and I'll have a hard time publishing another one. (I think my agent winces when I email him that I have a new manuscript)...
7. cont...I never secured a tenure track teaching job and was even rejected by the institution where I'd been successfully visiting. My publishing imprint imploded when none of the books I thought were slam dunks sold in sufficient numbers. The book that was going to sell big...
...was torpedoed at the 11th hour by a threatened lawsuit (long story). Those disappointments have allowed me to reaffirm that it is not the success that drives me, but the work itself. Those failures were painful, but highly illuminating.
8. I've been allowed to explore and morph my work with the times. I have the oddest Amazon author page you've ever seen. I've never had enough success with any one thing to make that the focus of my career, so my career is rooted in the doing of whatever is in front of me.
9. Lastly, I've been very conscious of monitoring my own happiness with my work and checking in with my values. I left teaching because I feared bitterness and burnout. I took a new job because I missed being part of the team. To the extent self-help helps, this is my advice.
But...none of those things matter without the underlying conditions that makes me following those values possible, my economic security, my good, liberal arts education that makes me adaptable, my network of people who can help me seize opportunities.
I think work can be the main source of fulfillment for people, though for this to be the case, we've got a lot of work to do to make that opportunity available to more people. I've been enormously lucky to be in a situation where I can live with this kind of intention.
