3 ms·

>We all need a reason to get up in the morning, preferably one to which we can attach some meaning. Author makes a generalization here - one I have seen first

>We all need a reason to get up in the morning, preferably one to which we can attach some meaning. Author makes a generalization here - one I have seen first hand not to be true on many occasions. My first job was effectively working 2-3 hours a day in a medium sized company (>400 employees). The company inherited local market monopoly and a lot of employees had shares after privatization from communist era - which kept the communist hiring/work policy for almost 15 years after the fall of the regime. Very few people actually disliked the fact that they accomplished little to nothing in their 8 hours at work, a lot of them were involved in stealing (drivers using company gas for their cars, reselling raw materials, stealing product labeled as "defective", etc.) I would say 95% of the people were not only happy but probably proud that they were getting decent salaries for below reasonable amount of work (by any standard). There were people who didn't like that kind of environment and incentives (myself included) but we were in minority. I would say that what separated us from the others was ambition - we actually wanted to accomplish something in our career and majority of people working there were perfectly happy where they were. Eventually the financial crisis hit, the market shifted, company profits went to shit, employees dumped their shares in panic and all of those incompetent people found themselves on the street with no career prospects after 20+ years of doing practically no work. The guys who were semi competent were long gone by then. My point is - this sentiment of needing to accomplish something at work is not shared by everyone (some may pay lip service to it but in practice won't behave accordingly) it's not something I would generalize.

loxs 11y ago
I can confirm. This is the case in the whole "Eastern Block". Most people do no work and are perfectly fine with that. At the same time they complain about their low salaries and shitty countries.
gutnor 11y ago
It does not mean they didn't have a reason to get up in the morning, just that those reasons were unrelated to the business line they "worked" in. I have known a bunch of such people, in a variety of mostly governmental jobs (but one high level banker too and even one in a tiny 5 employees company !). They were going to work like you go to the pub. They went to socialise, engage in petty status/influence wars, and indeed, there was this competition to see how to profit from the system. And even then, all of that is relative. Money alone is a powerful reason to get up in the morning for the vast majority of the world. That's really a first world problem that you want to be paid to do something with meaning. Hiring people to do nothing all is routinely done in third world outsource centre. You keep team around for months before a project starts and you don't hear much whining.
- moonchrome 11y ago
  > It does not mean they didn't have a reason to get up in the morning, just that those reasons were unrelated to the business line they "worked" in. I agree - but it seems implied in the text (maybe I am misreading it). I would say people who actually want meaningful work are an exception not the rule - most see it as a way to get money. Which I am not criticizing btw. - everyone has their own values - I am just saying you shouldn't assume that people care about the work they do on their jobs (and I've seen many people idealistically assume it, even I believed it before I started working).

loxs 11y ago

I can confirm. This is the case in the whole "Eastern Block". Most people do no work and are perfectly fine with that. At the same time they complain about their low salaries and shitty countries.

gutnor 11y ago

It does not mean they didn't have a reason to get up in the morning, just that those reasons were unrelated to the business line they "worked" in. I have known a bunch of such people, in a variety of mostly governmental jobs (but one high level banker too and even one in a tiny 5 employees company !). They were going to work like you go to the pub. They went to socialise, engage in petty status/influence wars, and indeed, there was this competition to see how to profit from the system. And even then, all of that is relative. Money alone is a powerful reason to get up in the morning for the vast majority of the world. That's really a first world problem that you want to be paid to do something with meaning. Hiring people to do nothing all is routinely done in third world outsource centre. You keep team around for months before a project starts and you don't hear much whining.

moonchrome 11y ago
> It does not mean they didn't have a reason to get up in the morning, just that those reasons were unrelated to the business line they "worked" in. I agree - but it seems implied in the text (maybe I am misreading it). I would say people who actually want meaningful work are an exception not the rule - most see it as a way to get money. Which I am not criticizing btw. - everyone has their own values - I am just saying you shouldn't assume that people care about the work they do on their jobs (and I've seen many people idealistically assume it, even I believed it before I started working).