Experience of corporate change
- Thread starter nosos
- Start date
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
This is getting off the topic a bit, but I think there are two different but related 'myths' (fwoabw) that are part of our socialisation into the world of work. One I've mentioned: 'If you believe in yourself you can do whatever you want'. The other is 'If you look hard enough you will find a fulfilling job'. They are both about following a dream and self-fulfillment but the emphasis is quite different. Historically speaking I wonder when the two ideas arose, and did one precede the other? Just musing to myself here....
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
(imo) they arose with the baby boomers when most people for the first time had access to healthcare, education and there was massive economic growth and there was probably a grain of truth behind it, certainly compared to their parents who had lived through the war and rationing.Brainaddict said:
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
Oh I agree - there's a grain of truth behind most myths. That's what makes them so compelling.sleaterkinney said:
nosos perhaps I should clarify that people don't necessarily actually say things like 'you can find a fulfilling job' - a lot of it is implied. I find it hard to believe you are immune from the idea - in fact your posts on this thread suggest you're not.
How so? I'm not sure the idea "you can find a fulfilling job" is a myth per se. The idea that if you work hard enough, if you display sufficient perseverence and integrity, then you'll be rewarded with a fufilling job, is though iyswim about the difference: the former is a suggestion about the world, the latter is an invitation to adopt an ethos. I still say I've never knowingly taken this suggestion away from anyone though.Brainaddict said:
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
I don't agree there's such a strong distinction. Whether you *find* a fulfilling job, *work your way up to it* or even find fulfillment in *working towards* the ideal job - all depend on the idea that a job that will fulfil you exists somewhere.nosos said:
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
Just to follow on from BA's point, isn't that second part protestant work ethic?nosos said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic
That's what I thought when I first read it as "if you work hard at your work you'll find it satisfying". Goes in hand-in-hand with the affirmation of ordinary life: "it's not what you do that matters, it's how you do it". At the time it was a great levelling idea, toppling the old religious heirarchies by claiming that everyone could have a direct relationship to God if they lived thier live in the right way. Of course if you transport the attitude into industrial capitalism it ceases to be so progressive: if you don't gain satisfaction from your work it's because you're not trying hard enough. Both this and BA's other myth locate the source of moral satisfaction internally. If you work at making yourself in the right way, everything else will just fall into place.sleaterkinney said:
Of course this is entirely academic because "If you look hard enough you will find a fulfilling job" is something else entirely isn't it? I'm still not deeply sure what it's saying.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
I've experiences a certain amount of change, both my choice (I gave up one job to do a phd) and the choice of others - resignation by 'mutual agreement', organisational change.
One things that stands out is the attitude of my parents to both my brother and I deciding to resign when we had no other jobs to go on to immediately. This was met with abject horror, especially by my mother. Both parents have always worked, Dad was with the same company for 35 years, and Mum was with the same company for around 17 years. We were seen as reckless, and told 'just to put up with it' whereas my brother and I resigned for the same reasons - we just couldn't take any more shit from the companies we were with.
It is scary, but only the first time. Like many things, it becomes easier the more you do it. Only one of my friends has been with the same company since he graduated, and even he has been seconded out on occasion, depending on the projects.
nosos, forgive my natural suspicious nature, but you've not got an essay due on this topic, have you?
One things that stands out is the attitude of my parents to both my brother and I deciding to resign when we had no other jobs to go on to immediately. This was met with abject horror, especially by my mother. Both parents have always worked, Dad was with the same company for 35 years, and Mum was with the same company for around 17 years. We were seen as reckless, and told 'just to put up with it' whereas my brother and I resigned for the same reasons - we just couldn't take any more shit from the companies we were with.
It is scary, but only the first time. Like many things, it becomes easier the more you do it. Only one of my friends has been with the same company since he graduated, and even he has been seconded out on occasion, depending on the projects.
nosos, forgive my natural suspicious nature, but you've not got an essay due on this topic, have you?
I think the 'job for life' idea certainly persists in vocational jobs. Like nursing/ midwifery/ medicine/ teaching. Although even with these jobs there is more movement in and out of the profession than previously.
I don't really get the 'job for life' idea. It reminds me of near retirement blokes who have climbed the career ladder due to time spent and are kept on because of this rather than because they are good at their jobs. My old boss was a case in point, he knew the data inside out but he couldn't manage for shit. The only reason he was a manager, as far as I could work out, was cos he'd been there for donkeys.
I don't really get the 'job for life' idea. It reminds me of near retirement blokes who have climbed the career ladder due to time spent and are kept on because of this rather than because they are good at their jobs. My old boss was a case in point, he knew the data inside out but he couldn't manage for shit. The only reason he was a manager, as far as I could work out, was cos he'd been there for donkeys.
