Our American work ethic has normally been confined to thoughts about the Protestant work ethic. Specifically, it suggests that hard work is the key to success. Yes, work is a key to some forms of success, especially working hard to get what you are after. It is particularly true when you are in control of what you want to go after. Historically, people had a great idea of what they were after, it was a strong pastoral lifestyle of open air and open opportunities formed from living on the land. In today’s post-industrial climate, the setting for work is quite different and at least equal in challenge to the times of the pre-World War Two American farming society.
Many Americans, obviously not all, graduate from college and move into the ranks of normal working stiffs. Everyday, they jump into their cars, scramble aboard buses and trains, even a few ride bikes to work. Once at predetermined workplaces life moves into the scripts of routines. Work is now about doing things which may have consequences for the world, but more than likely the effort goes unnoticed. Farmers grow things, raise animals and hopefully serve as stewards of the land. When you are sitting in an office what are you are you doing that which resembles serving as a steward? Perhaps you are a steward of paper or information!
When I was teaching graduate level business students some years ago, I often asked them who was responsible for their success at work? A few said they were responsible, while others felt it was their supervisors’ responsibility to assure their success. The latter was a very curious response, as it placed the individual’s success in the hands of their supervisors. In so doing the respondents were also setting their own responsibilities for success outside of themselves. Consequently, from their viewpoints, success or failure at work where not their collective responsibility.
I have thought about this paradox for sometime. Unfortunately, I never asked my classes in who was responsible for the successes or failures in the rest of their lives? I now wonder if they would blame their parents, their significant others or even their children? It seems that both domains are now socially acceptable as status markers, they need origination from outside ourselves. Oddly, we seem to place our fates in the hands of those who shadow our lives. Is this simply a practice of each younger generation? Absolutely not! Old and young today harbor senses of dependency on others. Perhaps in a society where you clock in everyday, you sign a tacit agreement where you believe you relinquish your identity to others. Yes, that is what I believe happens when you deed away your success and failures to others. It is an odd work ethic worth exploring carefully and fully.
Let me suggest that if you know someone who is still in his or her twenties, that you sit down and have a heart to heart talk on who controls their lives at work and at home?