A BBC article discusses people seeking meaning in their work.
It pays the mortgage and gets you up in the morning, but these days workers want more from a job – they want meaning. Just don’t go looking for it, says Lucy Kellaway.
It’s an interesting article as it causes some brief introspection. I’ve discussed my own somewhat chequered career before, so won’t go into it again. However, I noticed that Rachel has stumbled across the same article and makes a pertinent observation:
I see my friends exhausted by internal meetings and office politics and I worry about them. So many people who loved their jobs in their late twenties have ended up managers in their thirties – then found that they can’t do the things they are good at because they are stuck in the office going over spreadsheets and taking the punches from senior management, who are taking the punches from shareholders. Although the money is better all of the joy and most of the satisfaction is gone.
One of her commenters makes the same observation that I noticed during my rail career; that people are often promoted into unsuitable jobs for all the wrong reasons – both for them and their employer. It was not unusual for an excellent signaller to be groomed as a signalling manager. And, all too frequently, to fail in the latter role. I was one of the few who went for this move in the full knowledge that I would be a better manager than I was a signaller – partly self-awareness and partly my background in training gave me a grounding in people management. I was happy as a signalling manager because I was able to manage my team with a deft touch and encourage them to perform well and develop themselves where and when the opportunity arose. Equally my promotion to competence management was ideal given my ability to see the larger picture – my weakness being the eye for detail. Others were able to fill the gap.
But… But… Rachel is so right. By the time I was working in the headquarters, company politics became overwhelming; that and traipsing up to London every day. Redundancy and self-employment may have brought hardships, but by and large, I am happier for it. I really don’t want a career. I can work at my own pace, doing work that I enjoy at a daily rate that ensures I don’t need to work full time. Now that is job satisfaction.
Isn’t this a restatement of the Peter Principle: that everyone is promoted to their level of incompetence. Not that it was intended that way, but most organisations promote someone as a reward for doing the last job well, rather than because they are likely to be able to do the next one well.
The problem is that in most careers the only way to get more money is to move in to management. I have been involved with trying to find a solution for this problem in the Army and since I left in Telecoms companies. The problem is that pay structures in big organisations don’t allow the opportunity to reward people who are good at their jobs.
In my world its engineers who need rewarding. I have come across numerous people who are brilliant at their jobs and add real value to the company but we couldn’t reward them. This meant they either left to get a management post with another company or internally. In both cases the organisation loses out.
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Indeed so – back in the eighties my father worked as an instructor in the skill centres (remember them?). During a review, he was told that now would be a good time to apply to be a chief instructor. Unfortunately, the job title did not reflect the job as it had nothing to do with instructing; it was a management role. He declined, making the same observations that both of you have made here.
In the case of railway signalling, a lower grade signaller can apply to go into a higher grade box, but again, there is a cut off point when the only next step is a management role and that usually means less money in exchange for office hours. I took it because office hours suited me and I knew full well that I had the necessary skills and wanted an opportunity to demonstrate it.
I am reminded of a similar waste of talent from my Army days. Serving in Cyprus in 1987 we had a very good Corporal. Whenever there was a problem with any of the comms links that those on shift couldn’t resolve he would be called out. He was never going any further than Corporal and was quite content.
The Army, well Royal Signals, in its infinite wisdom adopted a policy of “up or out” and he was made redundant as “services no longer required”. I tackled my Commanding Officer and the Signal Officer-in-Chief on his tour to no avail. they claimed he was blocking promotion but that was nonsense, in his trade promotion to Corporal was by passing exams and there was no restriction on the numbers.
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Royal Signals, eh? My father served with them during his national service. Did a tour in Libya and Germany, attached to the Rifles. He loved it.