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Birth
Pangs in the World of Work
by Tanis Helliwell
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When we are
no longer able to change a situation...we are challenged
to change ourselves.
-Viktor Frankl
We are experiencing a great
deal of pain presently because of the upheaval of all
the life and work values and roles on which we have
based our security. Because of this loss of "knowns"
in our lives many of us are suffering loss, confusion,
frustration and often anxiety and panic. We might dearly
love to retreat to the safety of the "old"
system where it was safe, but this cannot be. Painful
though this experience is, the shake up of old values
and ways of working are the birth pangs of a new way of
working.
Pain
Success, as our society
perceives it, is frequently accompanied by a great deal
of pain. Dr. Howard Hess, then corporate psychiatrist
for Western Electric, said that people were promoted to
their level of pain. The pain of what he called
"success trauma" is caused by guilt, loss of
peer acceptance, fear of increased expectations and
responsibility, identity confusion and addiction to
success. And psychological pain and disillusionment with
our culture’s view of success appears to be happening
at even younger ages. University of California
psychologist Robert Perry has stated that he’s seeing
more 25 to 35 year olds who "have made it and don’t
like it."
I believe that people often do
not change until the pain of changing is less than the
pain of staying in the painful situation. We have come
to this point now in the work world. Workers are
crumbling with the pressure of doing always more with
always less. Those employed in shrinking organizations
envy those who receive retirement or severance packages,
and individuals who receive these packages envy those
who still have jobs. At the risk of appearing sadistic,
I am hopeful precisely because so many people are in
pain and will, as a result, put pressure on
organizations to revise work policies that are unhealthy
for almost everyone.
Many addictions arise in people
who are afraid to heed the call of the soul. One man I
know works 12 hours a day and spends the rest of his
time making home improvements. He is a good provider for
his wife and children, goes home each night and visits
his elderly parents regularly. He is considerate of his
fellow employees and is devoted to his employer. But he
can’t stop working. His workaholism is an attempt to
dull his soul’s call.
Addiction to overwork, as
described in Diane Fassel’s book Working Ourselves
to Death, can kill our soul if not our body.
Characteristics of workaholics include denial,
self-esteem problems, looking to others for approval,
inability to relax, and obsessiveness. According to
Fassel, this results in dishonesty, self-centeredness,
isolation, control, perfectionism, lack of intimacy,
self-abuse, physical and psychological problems and
spiritual bankruptcy. These conditions of workaholism
are soul destroying and the opposite of qualities that
consist of living a soul-infused life. All of us
ultimately come to a stage in our growth where the
personality desires must submit to the needs of the
soul. Workaholism is a refusal of the personality to
relinquish control. The personality attempts—by doing
more—to shut out the soul’s voice that calls the
person to reflect both on what they are doing and how
they are doing their work.
Dr. Larry Dossey, medical
doctor and author of several books on the importance of
the way we think about our health, points out that the
largest number of heart attacks occur between 8:00 and
9:00 A.M. on Monday mornings. What are we doing then?
Going to work. Doing work we don’t love is literally
killing us. Some individuals numb their pain through
television, cigarettes and alcohol addiction, while
others become compulsive neat freaks, changing their
clothes twice a day and keeping their homes spotless, in
an attempt to control their lives. Still others have
settled into a complacency—a learned helplessness—and
in a numb semi-awake state walk through the motions of
life without joy.
What all these people have in
common is a desire not to think of their pain, nor to
allow, the pain of their lives to assert itself. Sitting
quietly without any stimulation would be almost
impossible because the emptiness of their lives would
rise and cause them considerable distress. Yet, if this
is our situation, this is exactly what we need to do. We
need to go cold turkey, depriving ourselves of outside
stimulations and numbing addictions so that our distress
becomes so great that the soul breaks through to be
heard. These are the questions that it continually asks,
"Do you really like your work?" and "Is
there something else that you’d rather do with your
life?"
It takes an incredible amount
of courage to listen to the soul because, once we have
heard its questions and answers, we can no longer
pretend ignorance. This is not an easy process, but the
pain we feel is the labour pain of birthing our higher
selves into the world. What are the physical, emotional,
mental and spiritual costs, of refusing to meet the
soul's needs? We may believe that it is a great risk to
leave an unsatisfying job, but most often we are at even
greater risk if we don't leave. Short term gain and
security often cause long term pain.
The late Mother Teresa comes to
my mind when I think of risks we might be asked to take
to heed the soul’s call. She was 38 years old and
teaching geography in a convent school for the Loretta
Sisters in Calcutta when she heard her soul’s call.
Priests and her fellow sisters say that she was well
liked by the students, good humored, a bit clumsy, but
"not anything extraordinary." On September 10,
1946 on a train on the way to her annual retreat in
Darjeeling she knew suddenly what her life purpose was.
"I realized I had a call to take care of the sick,
the dying, the homeless. To be God’s love in action to
the poorest of the poor." She returned to the
sisters and asked to form the Missionaries of Charity.
As she says of her call, "Vocation is like a little
seed. It has to be nourished; it cannot be forced. It
has to come from above."
I believe that we, like Mother
Teresa, have the seed of greatness within us no matter
which form it takes, but if we do not listen and act on
that small inner voice within us we will be unsatisfied
with our lives no matter how great our acclaim from
others.
Women and Men
Besides the first trend—the
increase in psychological pain—a second trend having a
large impact on the world of work is women's changing
roles and preferences. In North America, women business
owners are the fastest growing sector of the business
community and now account for one-third of all small
business owners compared with only five percent in 1970.
Linda Tarr-Walen of the Center for Policy Alternatives
in Washington DC was quoted as saying that women are
choosing self-employment at a rate five times faster
than men and are far more successful at it. In fact,
about 80 percent of businesses started by women survive.
Women are leaving traditional
organizations because they are seldom friendly to the
qualities with which women typically excel. A 1997 study
by Catalyst Inc. of New York and The Conference Board of
Canada called Closing the Gap: Women’s Advancement
in Corporate and Professional Canada states that
there are two main factors that senior women managers
credit for their success. One is doing more than people
expected and the other is developing a style with which
male managers are comfortable. Women might be unwilling
and/or unable to do this and regardless of their talent
may not be promoted in traditional organizations. Recent
statistics state that although women managers account
for 42 percent of all managers, according to the
International Labour Organization, fewer than 3 percent
of the top managerial jobs in Canada and only 2.4
percent in the US are held by women.
It is unfortunate that women
need to replicate male management styles in order to
succeed because this neutralizes the gift that women can
bring to the workplace. Women have a more collegial
management style and seek to promote harmony, consensus
and look for the best solution to a problem regardless
of whether they, or someone else, thought of it. Women,
more often believe in life balance and prefer beautiful
work environments with plants and windows that nurture
the soul. Traditional male-dominated workplaces more
often subscribe to working long hours in a stark
environment. To succeed in traditional male-oriented
organizations women often have to suppress their natural
talents and soul values. This does not serve them and it
does not serve the organization; the organization is not
getting the best of that woman. Now, I appreciate that I
am making sweeping generalizations about men and women.
There are women, whose management style is more
masculine, and men, whose style is more feminine, but
these are exceptions to the rule.
I do not wish to see
female-dominated organizations any more than
male-dominated ones. Neither is better. I am suggesting
a restoration of balance of female and male qualities
and gifts that both the personality and soul value. The
soul is holistic, not dualistic, neither masculine nor
feminine. By striking this balance in our workplaces we
foster the quality of interdependence on which the new
age we are entering is based.
Age
As well as changing women’s
roles, another trend affecting the workplace is that we
are working fewer years within traditional
organizations. We have made a grave error in the last
five to ten years by forcing retirement on people at an
earlier age. People in their fifties often hold the
experience, the history and the wisdom of the
organization and this is being lost. Nor does this
policy benefit individuals who, at the peak of their
lives, find themselves too old to find a job. This is
devastating both for them and for society. By delaying
entry into the workforce and by forcing an exit from the
workforce earlier, we have shortened the number of years
people work to about 30. In a society where people are
identified by what work they do, this erodes the very
foundation of how they value themselves as human beings.
So individuals are discovering
work alternatives. Many people, forced to retire at age
55, seek ways to stay in the workforce. Some become
consultants and hire themselves back, either to their
previous employers or to their competitors, and often at
a higher fee than when they were full-time employees.
Other retirees use the money from their retirement
packages to set up businesses they have always wanted.
In other words, they take their souls to work.
It is not only the older worker
who is affected by the changing work world, the young
are also. It is critical for the health of both them and
our society that young people have positive initial
experiences at work. This does not happen when
individuals in their twenties cannot find suitable
employment. Recently, The Toronto Star spoke
directly to 1000 young people between the ages of 18 and
30 and the results from their interviews are startling.
Although nine out of ten of these young men and women
studied at college or university, they couldn’t move
beyond entry-level jobs. Six out of ten worked as retail
clerks, waiters, clerical staff, drivers, labourers,
factory workers, data entry clerks, telemarketers and
company service representatives.
It has become increasingly
difficult for young people to find work—any work.
Kevin Fabian, one of these interviewed, worked for five
years after high school—as a clerk in a warehouse and
then in a law firm. Thinking a degree would get him
ahead, he went to university and studied international
politics. At 29 years of age, Kevin finds himself
unemployed and $45,000 in debt because of the loans he
needed to finance his five years of study. If people do
not find employment within the first few years of
leaving school, it becomes much more difficult for them
because their self-esteem decreases and they become
bitter and frustrated and often give up. Even if they
continue to seek employment there may be a tendency for
a potential employer to think that there is something
wrong with the young person that they haven’t found a
job.
Yes, there are jobs available.
However, the choices might not suit either the talents
or soul of all people. Paul Martin, the Minister of
Finance in Canada, recently reported that 20,000
computer programming and high tech jobs can’t be
filled and that there aren’t enough electricians,
plumbers, welders and stone masons. Each person needs to
match his or her interests and talents to growing
occupational trends. Education, by itself, will
guarantee neither job nor happiness. Universities, and
society as a whole, have been training youth for jobs
that are in short supply. We need to reverse this
practice before young people lose whatever hope they
have for a future.
Yet, there is hope and much of
it stems from eliminating the barriers that exist
between the worlds of education and work. Boston's City
Year Workshop and New York's High School of Economics
and Finance are doing just that. All of the 1000 New
York students have summer internships at local financial
firms. This creates opportunities for students from the
Bronx, Queens or Harlem to meet Wall Street’s business
leaders. Manuel Martinez, a teenager from the Bronx,
attends the high school located across the street from
the World Trade Centre. He hopes to be an accountant and
has an apprenticeship at Oppenheimer and Company.
"I’ve made a lot of contacts with big accounting
firms like KPNG and Smith Barney," he says,
"and could call these people up for a job."
But given the large numbers of
unemployed and under-employed youth, these programs are
just scratching the surface. By delaying entry of youth
into the workforce, and by giving them jobs below their
potential, we are risking damaging their sense of
themselves. This could take years or even a lifetime to
repair. I'd like to see more programs offering youth
opportunities for challenging work to give them a chance
to develop their personalities. A strong personality is
necessary to house the soul, and if individuals never
satisfy their personality needs, it is unlikely they’ll
satisfy their souls.
Entrepreneurs
Some young people who have had
difficulty finding meaningful work are starting up their
own businesses or banding together with like-minded
partners to form companies to compete in niches not
covered by larger companies. This is what happened when
Steve Jobs and Stephen Wasniak, in their twenties and
fresh out of university, started what was to become one
of the world’s best known computer companies—Apple.
Another example of
entrepreneurship was exhibited by Matt Damon and Ben
Affleck, the two screenwriters/actors of one of 1998’s
best loved films, Good Will Hunting. Matt and
Ben, both in their twenties and struggling actors, found
that no Hollywood studio would take them seriously. So
they wrote their own screenplay, included a role for
well known actor Robin Williams, and became an overnight
success.
However, it is not only the
young, unable to find work in traditional organizations,
who opt for self-employment. Many individuals are
leaving organizations of their own accord to start up
their own businesses. Why? Because they are seeking
soulful work. Entrepreneurs are not interested in
squeezing themselves into organizational boxes, but are
more interested in determining where they can take the
whole of themselves to work. And they seem to be happier
in doing so according to a poll conducted in April 1997
by Angus Reid, which stated that 77 percent of
self-employed people said that their job satisfaction
improved since they became their own boss.
Entrepreneurs think in a way
that makes them both successful and happy in their work.
They have a knack for identifying their talents,
interests and skills and then either finding, or
creating, work that agrees with these characteristics.
This thinking is contrary to the way the job search is
traditionally done whereby we attempt to fit ourselves
into the shape of the job we seek. So, if the
organization is a square and we are a star, we attempt
to make ourselves look like a square in order to land
the job.
Squeezing
Into the Organizational Box
We will never find soulful work
by squeezing into a box that doesn’t fit because we
bring only a small part of who we are to that work. The
remainder of our unrealized potential, skills and
interests have no place to go, which leaves us
unfulfilled and frustrated. I am not suggesting that any
job meets all of our needs. We require a variety of
things to satisfy us: work, relationships, hobbies,
faith, but most of us can find or create a job that
comes close to fulfilling the work needs of both soul
and personality. This path will lead to
self-actualization, which is one of the defining
qualities of individuals who have a soul-infused
personality. The high road of work will create health
not only for individuals, but for society as a whole.
Tanis Helliwell, author of best
selling book Take Your Soul to Work, is the
founder of the International Institute for
Transformation whose programs are being taught by 20
focalizers in North American cities. As organizational
a consultant, keynote speaker and workshop leader, she
has worked globally to help individuals and
organizations to develop their potential.
Her corporate clients include
IBM, CBC, The Banff Centre for Management, The World
Future Society in Washington D.C., David Suzuki
Foundation, TransCanada Pipelines, World Business
Academy, University of Calgary, MICA.
A bridge between traditional
and new age worlds, Tanis teaches internationally at
Christian, Buddhist, New Age Centers as well as leading
tours to sacred sites of the world for 17 years.
Tanis's personal website is www.tanishelliwell.com.
For information on public programs by the International
Institute for Transformation contact www.iitransform.com.
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