On employment [and selfishness]
I meet a lot of young kids in my job, so I see this a lot; it is the same attitude that I had years ago. People think of a job as a reward you get for being smart or doing well in school or acing the interview.
No: a job is not that.
A job is an opportunity, extended to you by someone, to help that someone make money.
That’s it. Someone out there is in the business of making money, and by offering you a job, they are inviting you to help them do it.
One of the problems in a highly specialized [capitalist] society is that there is so much abstract crap in the way we rarely see this picture. Instead, the notion is pervasive that a job (i.e., a salary) is a reward for a job well done. “Way to go on the entrance exams! Here’s $100,000 per year for the rest of your life! Woo!”
Yeah, no, it doesn’t work like that, and when you put it this way it’s kind of silly that anybody ever thinks of it differently, but I have to say that almost nobody I know thinks of a job as anything but a reward. And the problem with that is people tend to squander rewards, so the nationwide norm today is for people to maybe accomplish 2-3 hours of work in an 8-hour work day. And even that figure is maybe a bit high …
But this is one of the primary reasons the economy has tanked, people!
A job is an opportunity, extended to you by someone, to help that someone make money.
I know tons of people who work for the government, and because there is no bottom line, they think nothing of taking a day off for golf, leaving early to play with the kids, coming in late because they went out for a long breakfast with the spouse, taking extended lunches to go nap in the park. Really? Mind you, it is not restricted to the government sector; it’s just more widespread there. And today’s youth think that is what is expected of them — the salary is the lifetime reward.
People cry out that Obama is ushering in socialism. I’m sorry, but that is just too funny for words. People who spout this nonsense have obviously never talked to a 20-year-old in the last decade. 20-year-olds? Those people are socialists. Like I said, I was one when I was young and naive. Well, at least I’m no longer young.
A job is an opportunity, extended to you by someone, to help that someone make money.
If there’s one thing I want to get across to my students these days it is the following: guys, the future is in your hands. You can either work your ass off and make it great, or you can focus on yourself and waste it. The temptation towards selfishness is powerful, and “ME!” seems to be the banner I’ve seen flying overhead for the last few decades, but we have already recognized that selfishness is the cause of many of our present woes. It’s not about the individual anymore, and it is quite unfortunate that it ever was about the individual, because that notion has corrupted so many people that it continues to reverberate nearly everywhere. No, it’s not about you. Forget that. A job is about somebody else: the guy offering you the job. As Judge Judy used to say, “he’s the boss, applesauce!” I have no idea what that means, but it just works.
[12 April 2010: Added “and selfishness” to the title at the suggestion of one of my awesomer students.]
