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I think we still have an outdated work ethic in America based on the Protestant work ethic, which I still fully subscribe to as a foundation for approaching wor

I think we still have an outdated work ethic in America based on the Protestant work ethic, which I still fully subscribe to as a foundation for approaching work. But the issues that arise from over-adherence with these ethics are that we tack on things like valuing formal education, and belief that a combination of education and hard work can take you places. I think these are a proxy to pure objective success which is that the decisions you make and the opportunities available to you lead to what ends you may reap. People see this mismatch all the time when they say things like, “Oh, but he or she is just so smart.” Or why we think it’s interesting that so many formally educated people work jobs that don’t match their level of textbooking. None of that is purely relevant. You have opportunities available to you, you make choices based on those options, and new ones emerge. But that’s not as easy to communicate or really as useful to people as working with these aforementioned proxies that we use today. If you framed these discussions in the light of working towards efforts and end results that others want and can be capitalized on, I think you can get closer to what people are really looking for.

andrekandre 5y ago
its nice to work hard and have a result that speaks for itself (imagine if you were on the team that pulled off the iphone) but i think the flip side of that is, most of us arent making an iphone, and often the fruits of that "hard work" disporportionally benefits those with the leverage and power in other words, yes hard work is "paying off" but often its the person above or at the top (owner) that really reaps it, so then some people become jaded and start to reject that ethic i think we also concentrate too much on the individual and not enough on the organizational/structural issues that prevent teams (and indviduals) from functioning well and moving upwards... those are harder to deal with and concentrating on ones own small chunk if the world is easier to grasp, but conversely the effect individuals can have from "just working hard" is extremely small in alot of cases i guess its a combination... we should work hard but we should also make sure people actually benefit from that proportionally (fairly)... if not, something structurally is wrong...
- mLuby 5y ago
  In other words, workers are alienated from the products of their labor, and are aware that the surplus value (profit) of their labor is being taken from them but aren't able to stop it (individually).

andrekandre 5y ago

its nice to work hard and have a result that speaks for itself (imagine if you were on the team that pulled off the iphone) but i think the flip side of that is, most of us arent making an iphone, and often the fruits of that "hard work" disporportionally benefits those with the leverage and power in other words, yes hard work is "paying off" but often its the person above or at the top (owner) that really reaps it, so then some people become jaded and start to reject that ethic i think we also concentrate too much on the individual and not enough on the organizational/structural issues that prevent teams (and indviduals) from functioning well and moving upwards... those are harder to deal with and concentrating on ones own small chunk if the world is easier to grasp, but conversely the effect individuals can have from "just working hard" is extremely small in alot of cases i guess its a combination... we should work hard but we should also make sure people actually benefit from that proportionally (fairly)... if not, something structurally is wrong...

mLuby 5y ago
In other words, workers are alienated from the products of their labor, and are aware that the surplus value (profit) of their labor is being taken from them but aren't able to stop it (individually).