Oh no! is it that time already?

Work. It’s almost a certainty to be able to say, hand on heart, that we wake up nearly every day wishing we didn’t have to do it, to go there, to be able to pull the duvet over our heads, bury our head in the pillow again, close our eyes, and wish it all away.

And with equal certainty, a short time later, we emerge from that Nirvana-ish cocoon, wide awake, not frustrated, not even angry, but resigned to facing the pragmatic reality that work is an inescapable reality. We may well, in that moment, also wonder what we have done to merit our Sisyphean existence from the Ancient Greek mythology. If you have never heard of him, Sisyphus, the Corintian King was punished by the Gods for his failings, and made to push a giant boulder uphill until, just short of the peak, when distracted, he would let it roll again to the bottom of the hill, and he would have to start all over again, in perpetuity. Many of us feel that way about our work.

Especially in larger work environments, such as the civil service and multi-nationals, employees must find it difficult to feel they are functioning effectively when they are alienated, or distanced, from any ‘meaningful’ contributions because their tasks are simply cogs in very large, very complex, systems, with the Russian novelist Feodor Dostoevsky writing of man being “crushed and destroyed,” if his work was “devoid of usefulness and meaning.” So, what about so-called ‘meaningful work?’

The Mckinsey Report (2019), found that more than 80 per cent of us need purpose in our work, and need to feel that we ‘make a difference.’ Where do we look for inspiration or direction. Are we motivated to get out of bed by what is meaningful to ourselves, to others, to our communities, or societies? Are we driven by platitudes like “Work smarter, not harder,” “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail,” “Don’t wish for it, work for it,” or maybe “The harder you work, the luckier you’ll get.” They aren’t really encouraging, are they? They are more like reprimands, more like not-so-gentle slaps, and who needs that rubbish? Still, it could be worse, for as the ever-acerbic Oscar Wilde noted, “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” And are there implications for us if we set ourselves towards loftier objectives and fail to achieve them? Does our ‘fall,’ our ‘failure,’ then have far greater implications for our individual wellbeing?

One of the key elements in understanding how we need to see ourselves, to get the best from ourselves, is to understand that our ability to be successful is not a matter of talent or ability, but of character, resilience, and reliability. Why? Because ability without those qualities doesn’t just suggest fragility... but scream it out loud.

That resilience, at the beginning of the day, is what makes us more complete, and better, in the workplace, whatever or wherever it is. I read once where the great Michael Jordan said he had missed 9,000 shots during his career, lost 300 games, and in 26 games he had been trusted to make the game-winning shot and missed. Yet, he believed it was those failures that driven his success. “Others keep telling me about my wins, but without that ability to bounce back, quickly, I would be nothing!” If we need to feel better about ourselves in those minutes after the alarm goes off, we can take solace from the philosopher Albert Camus, who saw Sisyphus as one who, while an absurd personification of humanity, was one whose uphill struggle was clearly one he revelled in, as it gave him the chance to be something, someone, over, and over again, maybe not making a difference, but being what he wanted to be... and who’s to say he is wrong.

I don’t know if I have changed your thinking, put you on the right track, or if tomorrow it will be ‘same old, same old,’ but I’ll leave you with this thought, “Everyone brings joy to their place of work. Some when they arrive... and others when they leave.”