From time to time, I’ll be sharing some aphorisms about leadership, management, higher education, and human nature passed along to me by a professional mentor. I’ll not reveal his identity specifically. But in his honor, I’ve dubbed these aphorisms “Earlyisms.” Some who know me well will understand who this person is. Still, I will leave most of you to guess as to whom I refer specifically by this moniker. I repeat these maxims here out of respect for this mentor and appreciation for the wisdom he attempted to pass along to me over the years. So here we go with the first one.
Earlyism #1: The people who will work are the people who will work are the people who will work. And the reward for doing good work is always . . . more work.
And that’s just the way it works.
On one level, it’s obvious. Some people in an organization are willing to work, and some are not. Some employees are diligent; others are slackers. But on a deeper level, this Earlyism uses “work” as a reference to something that is a physical extension of meaning in a person’s life, as in the expression “life’s work.” Hence, by “work” I don’t mean simply showing up at the office/plant/showroom, etc., punching the clock/signing in, and putting in hours. While many employees work the clock or the calendar, relatively few workers actually work the job. (More about this distinction in a later post.) And I’m not only talking about workers who are lazy and looking for opportunities to slack off.
Alienated Labor
Instead, I’m thinking of what Marx called “alienated labor“: tasks performed by workers who feel separated from their jobs and what they’re producing. These workers feel objectified by their work because they don’t see how it contributes positively to their lives other than by earning them a paycheck. Instead, these workers check in, perform their tasks, and check out dutifully at the appointed time, submitting themselves to the idea that they are merely a cog in a machine of production, an object and never a subject.
I feel very fortunate to have worked my entire career in a field in which I never felt alienated from my work. Instead, I have found deep meaning in my careers of teaching and academic administration. When I worked on behalf of my students, I knew that meant pouring my life into their education and training. This task I did gladly, even in those cases where students didn’t understand or appreciate it. Later, as a chief academic officer, I worked on behalf of faculty. Once again, I myself into them, even though when I had to tell them “no” they sometimes didn’t see my decision as a noble effort on their behalf.
Generally, people perform poorly at jobs that don’t provide them with this sort of fulfillment. Conversely, just because you love your job doesn’t mean you’re good at it or work hard at it. In my business, I haven’t known many faculty or academic staff who weren’t pouring their lives into their work. At least in my teaching field (biblical studies), the pay is too low, the hours too long, and the teachers far too intelligent for them to spend their lives doing what they do while feeling disconnected from it. If they had found this sort of work to be alienating, they would have switched to some other career long ago. I have known only a few colleagues who persisted long in our profession after their heart was no longer in it.
Finding the Golden Mean of Work
All this may be why those who do work hard are often handed even more work in return. Some work simply cannot be performed by the halfhearted, no matter how virtuous or gifted those persons are. I have been passed over for this type of work on occasion, and I consider that a mixed blessing. I take comfort in telling myself that I was not overlooked for my lack of drive or devotion. I have lacked for many gifts in my career: patience, forbearance, compassion, and balance, among others. But nobody has ever accused me of not being committed to the cause. I have the open heart surgery scar to prove it. Still, if I had not been passed over on those occasions, I might have worked myself into an early grave. And that is not the reward I hope to realize when all is said and done. Instead, I hope to find the golden mean between finding work that is truly meaningful and having the life balance that will lead to fulfillment.
If you’re in a leadership position, try to make sure your employees feel connected to and fulfilled by their work, even if you have to work them hard. And if you’re one of those laboring away in the trenches of college teaching, always remember that your work with students will eventually bear fruit, even though it might take years or even decades.