Tag: work

Avoid inhuman work

Autopilots are inhuman. They take away all responsibility. All tension. This is great if you have to travel from A to B – a well defined path with a roadmap. Not so good if you have to build something great. Something that people need to relate to. Something that needs a response. That needs responsibility and effort.

Any great art comes with humanity built in. That means it has a tension built in. To be human is to be constantly in a state of tension. Light and shade. Contrast.

Think of any great story you have heard. The hero likely wasn’t all good. Similarly you could probably identify with the villain to an uncomfortable degree. If not, there is no tension and a boring lack of humanity.

Will it work out? Despite all the forces against us (think of gravity, atrophy, ageing) we can create wonderful art (think of blues music, Shakespeare, skyscrapers). But it will never happen without recognising the imperfect humanity in everyone. That should be step one.

Step two is turning off your phone and getting to work.

Emotional labour – extremes

Emotional labour is hard because we don’t feel like doing it. Put yourself in the shoes of another on purpose. It takes effort. By doing this you can make things easier for them to understand and to enjoy your company. They are more likely to listen to you.

At its easiest this process is smooth – Showing your child the stars and the moon. Explaining something to someone you already love. Maybe this doesn’t even count as labour, but it is rewarding – it gives as much as it takes – I saw the Milky Way with fresh eyes after taking it for granted for so long. I was proud and confident to sell our night skies to her.

At the business end of the spectrum emotional labour is often incredibly difficult and the crux of any transaction. To understand what drives another person – what will affect their status and their emotions? And to convince them of your ability to add value – that is work indeed. Marketing at its core. Do they need you? What are they thinking?

I market the galaxy to my daughter and it’s simple. I market a service to a bank and it’s brutally hard.

Creative piece – Look around

The low hum of air conditioners filled the room. No talking or laughter could be heard. If you closed your eyes, the only sign of life from a room full of people was the click-clacking of fingers on keyboards. The paint on the ceiling and walls was an efficient and completely nondescript colour. Stale coffee smells filled the air.

Garth let out a deep, anxious sigh. He wondered how long it was until lunch. Lifting his head he stretched his neck to peer over the top of his cubicle. Rows of people at desks, wearing collars and pretending to be interested in what was happening on their computer screen. The coffee cups at their sides, a last ditch effort to get a buzz from the day. A corporate drone army.

How did it come to this? What made it even more unbelievable was that Garth knew he wasn’t alone in his disengagement from daily life. In a recent survey the company had found that only four out of ten employees knew what they were selling. And yet they stayed at their desks.

Garth wondered what Mandy was doing. He had noticed her new haircut this morning when she arrived at work. She seemed chuffed to hear his remarks. Or maybe that was annoying for her?

As if prompted by his thoughts, Garth saw a familiar brown hairdo rise from a cubicle at the other side of the room. Mandy was on the move. She walked purposefully down her aisle and then, Holy Cow! She turned down the aisle that Garth was sat in. She was headed straight towards him!

Garth panicked and ducked back down in front of his computer. What to say? Another hair comment? No too much. A joke of some sort? No…..Oh please dear Gods give me something to say to her!

Garth looked up again. As she passed his desk Garth managed to let out a small sound that somewhat reminded him of a stray cat living on his block. Mandy smiled and kept moving. Garth resorted to holding his head in his hands and beating himself up in his mind a million different ways.

Breaking the moment of exasperation, Garth heard quick footsteps coming back towards him, and then a little piece of scrunched up paper landed on his desk in front of his face (which was still in his hands). Garth looked up to see Mandy trotting away, disappearing round the bend.

It’s from her?!! Garth’s heart pounded like he was running a marathon. His palms secreted a layer of fine sweat. Must open it.

Uncrinkling and unfolding the paper, Garth saw her smooth hand writing in green ink. The sweat layer doubled up on his palms.

There in front of his eyes a little message lay: “Let’s leave here now and go get an ice cream…xx M”

 

 

 

Leaving a corporate job

Soul sucking, boring, dull, dreary and full of people in strange suits? Difficult to break away? In my experience (2 years away from the corporate world) you need to have a few bases covered to successfully leave a corporate job, but it’s no panacea… stress and hard work remain a constant.

Firstly you need to have something to move to. Don’t just leave without a supplementary income. I built up a small business on the sidelines while I spent my days at the corporate office. It grew into something sustainable over 2 years to the point that I could focus on it full time.

Second, get rid of debt. My wife and I went overseas and built up capital in a stronger foreign currency to pay off everything in South Africa before leaving the corporate world. It was probably the best idea we ever had. Debt will drown the best laid plans and entrepreneurial dreams.

Third, be realistic and do it for the right reasons. Chasing one’s passions is different to building a financially sustainable business model. I would love to be a writer or a music producer, but it wasn’t a clear business path for me compared to running a (admittedly boring) risk assessment business. My point is – the life away from the corporate world is not without stress or hard work – and it is not filled with pleasurable activity all day – this is not the aim. The aim is freedom to plan your own day, to answer to yourself and to reap the benefits of hard work. Most pleasure seeking is still on the sidelines even if you leave the corporate life. What I can do now is spend valuable time with my children each morning and evening without the overhanging pressure from a relative stranger back at HQ.

It’s worth it, but work is work no matter who you work for.

 

Asking

There is a fine line between asking for consideration, for attention as part of a smart marketing campaign, and becoming annoying with pestering. I have been asked by an ex-colleague I trust and like to vote for his work in a survey for his piece on diesel emissions. This is fine by me because I know him and he had my attention anyways. But self-promotion is often not so clearcut.

I am of the belief that given a choice it is always preferable to let the work speak for itself. That way if you are good enough, others will take the time to knock on your door to find out what you do. You won’t have to bother anyone out of the blue.

Of course this is not the only method for selling something to someone, but it is probably the pinnacle I am trying to aim for.

Trawling for peers

If I follow you on Twitter, I have been trawling through your followers and people you follow with a feverish obsession!

You see, I just re-joined twitter after a long break. Although @chimpwithcans was posting my blog posts automatically, I was not using the service actively. Now I have started actively following and posting, I am trying to find the best people to follow. Trying to find peers.

I am not interested in how many followers a person has, but I am interested in whether they are my type of person. This is hard to measure though. It involves experimentation, dedication to reading posts, trying out following people who I think may be of interest. Dropping those who are not.

I think it could be worth it. Finding a peer group and working with them, intentionally and on a regular basis, would be a great thing to get out of social media.

 

Bit by bit

When you are trying to make a contribution, there is not shortcut – particularly if you are not part of an ‘old boys network’ automatically getting your foot into the door – instead you have to start with becoming skilled. This takes practice and effort. Nothing more, nothing less.

Take the wildlife artist who can show a progression from school day sketches to celebrated conservation art: see link

Or the ESG researcher who has worked their way up to be in charge of a whole department: see link

The question then becomes not “who do you know” but “what can you do”. That is far more fair on all involved.

Networking

The concept of ‘networking’ has always been a hard pill for me to swallow. It always seemed like it was forcing something that wasn’t there naturally. The smooth handshake and business card, wearing a suit with a flash smile to win someone over – it’s just not me.

I have a different perspective now. Networking and leveraging your network is something that defines us as humans. It calls back to our tribal roots and it is unavoidable. Essential.

However, the pace at which networking operates is much slower than I thought when I was younger. A good impression here and there adds up over time, until you get referrals, or you give referrals to someone in your network.

A strong network should have some key attributes:

  • Everyone you feel is in your network needs to trust you
  • You need to be able to contact anyone in the network at any time
  • Autonomy is key – a pyramid is not a network. Networks are best when they are flat structures, with everyone feeling equal peers within the network.

A network is extremely valuable. Greater than the sum of its parts, it is a safety net to weather any storm.

Recovery of strategic position

Some options for how to approach a situation that is not working out as you planned:

A scorched-earth policy brutally removes resources from the game – starving the competition (and any bystanders) as you flee the battle ground.

Offensive moves take the conflict to the ‘enemy’. The aim here is to destroy the enemy’s resources to make them easier targets for domination.

A third option is to not compete for resources at all – instead put in the groundwork to build a network that encourages flexibility and stability during volatile times.

All three are valid, but you can only do one at a time.