Rage Against The Machine

I’ve watched with interest the flood of projections and opinions regarding hybrid work. As companies preach the importance of in-office work to building business culture, I can’t help but be cynical about the real intent of the C-Suite. Is it about culture or is it the proclivity of management to equate buts-in-chairs to productivity and control. I really don’t know; however, I am suspicious, and my suspicion seems to weave its way through all sorts of institutions and top-down mandates.

Cal Newport – author and professor at Georgetown – recently commented on the four-day work week. Although some corporations and media point to this idea as an indicator of a growing sensitivity by corporate America to the health and happiness of workers, Newport described the shortened work week as a corporate PR ploy that costs employers nothing and promises no relief to the unyielding demands on workers from above. As Newport argues, if you want to enhance the happiness, efficacy, and productivity of the workforce, change business processes and expectations.

As so many spend time on YouTube thinking the solution lies in finding their passion, Newport argues that most people don’t have a clue what their passions are and even if they did, passions turn into another job. Back to square-one. Instead, Newport argues that we should develop specific skills and unique masteries in our jobs and use these skills to negotiate a work environment that aligns with how we want to live our lives. In other words, develop leverage so your employer must be flexible to keep you. Of course, you as the worker may also have to adjust your monetary expectations, but most of us would be willing to take less money for a work/life balance that feeds our souls as opposed to having our life sucked out of us by the Dementors in Harry Potter.

Yep, I don’t like Big, regardless of if its corporate or government. I don’t believe anyone has my best interest in mind and therefore outside mandates, decrees, and recommendations are suspect at best. In the end, my destiny is controlled by having marketable skills and the leverage to tell employers to take it or leave it. I’ve got to buckle down to develop these skills and mastery.