Rethinking work

Before I get to this week’s thoughts on work, a quick update on….

Lime Down Solar Park

The proposed Lime Down Solar Park continues to dominate many conversations in Wiltshire. Claire Coutinho, the Energy Security Secretary, has gone a tiny bit of the way towards what’s needed, by saying that solar panels must not be put on high quality farmland (which was actually already the case) and by saying that councils should take into account how much solar provision already exists in the area (but the mega-farms being proposed don’t fall under the remit of local councils – anything over 50MW goes to the Secretary of State, the aforementioned Claire Coutinho).

So we still don’t have a coherent national strategy for solar farms, which would need to cover size, location, and ownership, with support for community-led and community-owned installation of renewables in ways that are sympathetic to the unique circumstances of each area. We need this with the greatest possible urgency so we as a country can move rapidly towards meeting our climate targets while not allowing foreign-owned companies to destroy our countryside while reaping massive profits at our expense. 

Right, now onto the world of work.

More than a fifth of working age adults are not looking for work, and the government is determined to get them back into jobs. Citing “sick note culture”, they are actively considering changing disability benefits to force people back into employment.

The underlying reasons for not working are many and complex, but the one thing that we can say for sure is that there is no single reason, so there is unlikely to be one single solution.

The blunt instrument of impoverishing people back into work will cause at least as many problems as it solves.

The right-wing press would have us believe that these people are shirkers, spongers, grifters, and malingerers. No doubt a few of them are, but I’m curious to know more about the actual causes. If somebody has seen the detailed analysis conducted by the government into these underlying reasons, please let me know. Because I can’t find it.

Some questions I would like answered:

How many people are genuinely ill, waiting inordinate amounts of time on NHS waiting lists to get a diagnosis, treatment, or operation?

How many people can’t get access to the childcare they would need in order to return to work?

Especially in rural areas, how many people don’t have access to adequate, affordable public transport in order to travel to work?

How many people are genuinely suffering from mental health issues, exacerbated by loneliness during lockdowns?

How many people have lost their confidence, and would respond well to gentle coaching to build their confidence back up again if only they had access to the right kind of professionals?

And how many people simply look at the jobs available to them, and make a fair assessment that they would prefer to stay home? If your options were to work in a call centre being harangued by frustrated customers, or driving a delivery van on an impossible bladder-busting schedule, or even being a tiny and largely irrelevant cog in a big corporate machine…. or stay on benefits, what would you choose?

If you have no direct relationship with your customers, no sense of loyalty to your employer or colleagues, no sense of purpose or connection or joy in your work…. wouldn’t you just take a handout if you could?

Gallup polls of employee engagement in the UK from 2020 to 2022 show 10% were engaged, 76% were not engaged, and 14% were actively disengaged (meaning they were proactively undermining morale in their workplace).

In other words, 90% of people believe their jobs suck. And if you believe your job sucks, you’re not going to try, you’re not going to take the initiative, you’re not going to thrive.

Too many jobs are what the American anthropologist David Graeber called “bullshit jobs”. Maybe more and more people are simply calling time on BS.

Whether you are on benefits, or in work that breaks your back and sucks your soul, that is a heartbreaking waste of human potential.

There is much that can be done about this. Within companies, managers can keep in mind the 5 Cs: Care, Connect, Coach, Contribute, and Congratulate. (This might go a long way in Job Centres too.)

And we also know that people who start their own companies have massively higher levels of job satisfaction, but rates of business failure are high. More could be done to support budding entrepreneurs to succeed.

UBI (which I wrote about last week) would give more people the safety net they need to risk going it alone.

UBI, business coaches, startup grants and mental health professionals all cost money, sure.

But investing in people and developing their potential actually makes economic sense. Surely politicians all across the political spectrum would agree on this. Happy, highly motivated people work harder, are more successful, and pay more taxes.

It’s a corporate cliché to say that our people are our greatest asset. But it’s true. When people succeed, when businesses succeed, the country succeeds.

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