Ducks in a Row: the Dark Side of Adam Smith
by Miki Saxon
Gallup regularly polls workers around the world to find out. Its survey last year found that almost 90 percent of workers were either “not engaged” with or “actively disengaged” from their jobs. Think about that: Nine out of 10 workers spend half their waking lives doing things they don’t really want to do in places they don’t particularly want to be.
Pretty sad, but what happened to bring us to this sorry state?
Not what, but who.
Disengagement was born in 1776 with Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations, became the father of industrial capitalism, and gave birth to the belief that “people were naturally lazy and would work only for pay.”
The more that philosophy was embraced over the centuries the more it became a self-fulfilling prophecy — in other words, people live up or down to expectations.
An excellent essay by Barry Schwartzauga, professor of psychology at Swarthmore College, provides great insight to how much damage has been done by this one assumption.
When money is made the measure of all things, it becomes the measure of all things.
To be sure, people should be adequately compensated for their work. (…) But in securing such victories for working people, we should not lose sight of the aspiration to make work the kind of activity people embrace, rather than the kind of activity they shun.
For decades, study after study and survey after survey have placed money (assuming a living wage) around number five on what’s important to workers.
How can we do this? By giving employees more of a say in how they do their jobs. By making sure we offer them opportunities to learn and grow. And by encouraging them to suggest improvements to the work process and listening to what they say.
Work that is adequately compensated is an important social good. But so is work that is worth doing. Half of our waking lives is a terrible thing to waste.
Autonomy. Challenge. Learning and growth. The chance to make a difference. Compensation.
If you want your people engaged then provide them reasons to engage.
If not, just pay them and don’t complain.
Flickr image credit: Airwolfhound
