Did you see that recent survey about work that revealed more than 60% of us either hate our jobs or couldn’t care less?
You’d think that maybe bosses and managers might be a keener, but even they weren’t bubbling over with enthusiasm. Nearly 20% of them said they hated their jobs, 48% were neutral and only 28% said they loved what they did.
What sort of way is that to live our lives? Bored, dissatisfied, resentful – whatever mood we’re in, it ain’t no way to be passing the best years of our lives.
What’s gone wrong in the work world? Do we fail to get an education that gives us good choices, or do we just stumble into positions that give us no joy at all and then get stuck there because the bills need paying.
If things are going to get better in the world, wouldn’t it help for us to actually love what we do? Imagine how things would whizz along if more of us couldn’t wait to get out of bed in the morning.
This idea that work is generally miserable is what has led to the tedious cliché about our need for better work/life balance.
What does that even mean – that because life is good then its opposite, work, represents death? The survey is saying that trudging to work does represent a sort of death for most people. What a sad thing that is. Of course work is about money - the stuff we need to get on in life - but it should also feed our talents and satisfy the soul. Work should be a good part of life. Evidently, it’s not.
And the work/life balance idea has to change. Instead, let’s call for better work/leisure balance. Now that’s an idea I can believe in.
