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What it did spark was an obsession with what makes work worth it, interviewing dozens of people in search of the answers.. We all have to pay our bills, of course, but there are, as Baréz-Brown says, “a million ways to make money” and “a downside with every job”. “The question is how much downside versus good.” He doesn’t have much patience with those who stay and moan. “If you’ve chosen this job, it’s your choice,” he says. “Don’t be a victim.”
Writer, broadcaster and comedian Viv Groskop agrees. “There’s this expression,” she told me, “and forgive the crudeness, but what flavour of s— sandwich do you want to eat? Sometimes it might be a very low salary. If you absolutely love the job and can either live on a fairly low amount of money or have a partner with a better earning job, then that flavour’s OK for you. For other people it may be that you earn a lot of money, but you’re really beholden to other people and have to do what they say. That’s a flavour I cannot stomach.”
Hear, hear. For Groskop, as for me, freedom trumps security. Baréz-Brown, too, is a natural free spirit. He has, he says, done some “laborious jobs”, but has built a career around the things he’s good at. “We craft our careers to fit us better,” he says. “What do I need to get my energy right, so I can do great work? And what am I good at? There’s an element of autonomy in any job. Focus on those bits and grow them.” He’s also a fan of building a “f— it fund”. When you have one, he says, you “stay for the right reasons. And the wrong reason to stay is money.”
Tech entrepreneur and bestselling author Margaret Heffernan agrees that mental attitude is key. “The way you think about work changes how you experience it,” she says. As a documentary maker, she once livened up a boring project about the history of the rabbit (a subject that didn’t interest her at all) by making sure that she had footage of live rabbits in every shot. “I think that that’s a good approach to take,” she says, “to think, OK, so what can I add to it, or how can I think about it, that identifies an element that does really matter to me?”
Perhaps part of the trouble is that the stakes are now so high. Most of the people I’ve interviewed, both for my podcast and in my journalism, have felt that it’s important to have at least an element of work you enjoy. But so many youngsters are now told to “follow your passion” and find “meaning” and “purpose” at work that they might reasonably expect to spend their working days with their hearts and souls on fire. If you’re lucky, you’ll sometimes get a deep sense of satisfaction. But most jobs involve boring bits. Admin. Emails. Oh my God, the emails. And if you’re freelance, no one pays you to do them. Freedom certainly has its downsides.
“We need to convince others that we have a value. “And most of the time, work is how we do it.”
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For Jan Lucassen, one of the world’s leading experts on the history of work and author of a new book, The Story of Work, the fashion for a freewheeling entrepreneurial life is pernicious. “I’m against the selling of the illusion,” he tells me. The figures tell their own story. In the UK, for example, around half of self-employed adults earn less than the average wage. Lucassen believes that job satisfaction depends on a balance between autonomy and recognition. Like Baréz-Brown, he thinks it’s important not to behave like a victim. “Don’t allow yourself to stay in any job that’s terrible for your self-esteem,” he says.
None of this is easy. We need to work. We need to cook and clean and shop. We also need space and time to eat, drink and laugh with the people we love, walk in the park and breathe. All work may well make Jack a dull boy, but boundless leisure won’t always cheer him up. “We need to convince others that we have a value,” says Lucassen. “And most of the time, work is how we do it.”
This, presumably, is why many people choose to work well beyond retirement age, and also why so many have heart attacks or strokes just after they retire. We all need to be needed. Leisure time, like everything, is more precious when it’s rationed.
Listen to Prince Harry if you want to. Follow your passion. Quit your job. Find your joy. Just make damn sure you have a “f— it fund” – or a very solid Plan B.
Christina Patterson is a writer, coach and host of the podcast The Art of Work: theartofwork.co
The Telegraph, London
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What Prince Harry doesn’t get about finding joy at work
Source: Philippines Alive
