Ethics of Work pt. 1

I think we’re walking into a future where people won’t have jobs anymore. People will always perform ‘work’ (as all living things in nature do). They will string different types of work together for survival and for celebration. Some will focus on highly specified work others work will vary widely. But the idea of having a ‘job’ will be fade into history. People will follow leaders and work together with others but there will be no more bosses. Some people will still be miserable when they have to do work, some will always resent working, some people will die working. Some people will do certain kind of work in order to avoid other kinds. (Sweeping is this for me.) But working will just feel like living.  - Sarah Ryhanen

For the longest time, professionalism felt sexy. To wear the proverbial suit, drink coffee, be recognized, feel intelligent, you know… that your work mattered. Did you want that? Do you still?

Did we really need Covid for so many people to reconcile what was most important? We know what it did to so many businesses and that the only socially acceptable response is to be sad about so many closings. But does anyone dare admit that maybe, to some extent, for some closing was for the best? Can we challenge ourselves to admit that with the effects of covid, the raising costs of rent, materials, shipping, etc are convincing excuses to help us ignore the need to address poor work environment, pay rates, or unsustainable business concepts that contributed to the continuation of this once applauded, now outdated view of work. In this post-covid aftermath, is it possible that more owners are overflowing with excitement at the opportunity to just move on to something else?

We always joke about that saying that we don’t want to, “wait until something bad happens before making a change”. No one wants to be responsible for a wrong move when it could’ve been avoided. So it shouldn’t have taken something as debilitating as covid for the business world to start making better decisions. Why are people so reluctant to change when the current model doesn’t work well?

It may appear that most businesses are created to solve a problem by offering a product or service. However, once it’s running, many of us coexist in the business of managing people. So it seems natural that we establish good leadership, proper ethics, and a healthy, safe, empowering environment for staff. In order for a service or retail-based business to sustain, the customer cannot always be right or somewhere an employee is at risk physically, mentally, or financially (job replacement). It is totally unsustainable to adhere to, “I want what I want, and I want it now!”, but most of us try (or are forced to) anyway.

The need for creating a healthy relationship with work seems like a natural expectation, that nearly no side (ownership nor employee) holds up. It is more expensive to deal with employee turnover than it is to keep existing employees healthy. If your business still hasn’t grown to participate in the needs of modern (work) culture or taken into consideration the relevance it plays on the success of your business, then perhaps you need not be in business. Leadership must have clear communication on where it’s failing and what will be done about it. Or in other words, leadership must reflect the same growth mentality it seeks for its employees to have.

The Post 40-hour Era. In 1965, a U.S. Senate subcommittee projected that thanks to advancements in technology, workers would be so productive that we’d all enjoy a 14-hour workweek by the year 2000. Sheesh. We got that real wrong.

Why are we expected to lower our expectation of pleasure in the workplace? Do you think the person who came up with the slogan, “case of the Mondays” or “hump day”, thought that through? To normalize subpar work vibes is just terrible and a perfect example of subtle aggressions we accept that really don’t serve or empower.

Our individual responsibility is to reposition the role work plays in our lives including people with padded salaries because finances can’t replace the necessity of good working conditions. The need has always been for the nature of our work to align with self so also put vision to what the future of work could hold. Less travel, space for children to coexist, comfortable clothes, authentically diverse culture, systems for what to do when there’s communication breakdowns (so we don’t all hate each other), proper pay and support, flexible, more efficient workdays, proper autonomy, trust, owning mistakes, good water (ban Deer Park!).

So many of us are overworked but what’s less obvious is the importance of the work you do; the emphasis on the grooming and refining required of you to become the healthier, excellent version of yourself. If you want, you can feel encouraged or empowered in your relationship with it; i.e. your life’s work. What you do for money should look like how you show up for friends and family because whether you enjoy it or not, you are here to serve more and take less; to listen well, be thoughtful, vision cast, facilitate, encourage, equip. If you are on a journey to discover what that thing you do is or is supposed to be, do good work where you are until it finds you. We’ve been pushed to think we all need to work smarter, to delegate, or be efficient but the reality is, you can’t get to the smarter until you do the harder. It’s really annoying but facts nonetheless. Submit to the nature, at times of aversion, to get (life) work done.

We started BIRD with the reality that we can only do what we can do. We didn’t have to consider customer needs in the same way most businesses do. Opening with only us two as employees, we were reliant on the stretch of our capacity vs. meeting needs of customers. Though at times it was conflicting and still can be, saying no was a reality that had to be accepted by everyone. Where many would have been scared of kickback or loss of business, we witnessed a rallying of support around it. If a customer heard us telling another how we work or what we were unable to do, they would jump in, “you better get here earlier next time!” or “yes there’s a wait, but it’s worth it!”. That’s honest connection. That’s culture that can’t be compromised. So we’re stuck here now, continuing to explore this other side - remaining completely conscious and honest with our capacity, submitting to it and the work that must be done to create something meaningful.