"As Bee Collecting, nectar does not harm the color and the
fragrance of the blossom; so do the wise move through the existence "
– Buddha.
Our occupation takes up the most active part of our adult life. A time filled with busy work schedules, cherished memories of travels, forming lifelong friendships, Finding clarity in our most profound doubts, and life-altering learnings from mistakes. The personal growth we feel in our bones and making us who we are. What we do is a matter of pride for our family and us. Working and earning a living by Sweat and grind is dignity. While earning to live and taking care of ourselves and our families, we strive to find a real purpose and meaning in the work we do.
Since the start of the Twenty-First Century, we all had a collective sense of rapid changes happening in our workplace. How we work and the nature of work itself is profoundly changing. The speed of changes seems like a decade compressed in a time capsule of years. Especially in the last couple of years, changes all around us are like blurry passing scenes from a fast-moving train. Now with the Pandemic effect, everything seems to be accelerating to supersonic speed. The companies, professions already at a breakpoint before Pandemic, are now breaking apart. We could hear the rumblings of tectonic plates shifting. In the past, the societal changes of this magnitude felt when agrarian society turned to the industrialized economy. In the 20th century, the Industrialized economy transitioned to the Service economy and now rapid change to the Digital economy. In the next two decades, everything humans could do physically can be Automated, and what we do with our minds could be augmented.
In most cases, Artificial intelligence will supersede humans. We have significant shifts in the Economic and Geopolitical conditions of the world. Ecological degradation is at its tipping point. The anxieties are building up around the future of Jobs. There is a deep fear in both low skilled job workers and Knowledge workers that Automation will eventually take their jobs. Also, Fears of continuous shifting of economic activity to lower-cost regions and the influx of migrant workers from troubled areas, adding up to the anxiety, and now Pandemic will quicken the changes.
MODERN WORKPLACE DYNAMICS :
My Neighbour Rodrigo is in his eighties. He is very active, and I see him working all day with his hands in his garage or Yard. Rodrigo makes beautiful Boat replicas from used aluminum cans and old mechanical parts. He worked Fifty plus years in the Aerospace industry as a machinist. Sometimes we catch up and chat about our work and careers. He shares his work stories very fondly with a twinkle in his eyes. As a skilled worker, his entire work life was spent working with machines, and the way he conveys shows a sense of devotion to his work. Once he punches the clock and enters the workplace, for him, it is a communion, like going to a church or temple. Work and social life are interwoven, catching up with everyone and Chit chatting before getting warmed up for work; it is a close-knit group; work shared without being asked. If someone is stuck with a complicated machining job, fellow workers show up without even asking for help, to give a helping hand and spend extra hours. When someone is sick, others fill in to cover extra shifts. People will bring in Morning Breakfast and jugs of coffee. They all worked hard, sweat a lot, suffered together, and shared many celebratory moments. The work is “what a fun ride “in his words. It sounded like a Joie de Vivre. He and his co-workers still stay in touch. They keep an eye on what’s going on in their personal life.
In our modern office workplace, we don’t see any time punching machines or Time Tracking. Indeed, we put more time into our work than our prior generations. Do we put the same level of heart and soul into our work?. As Management Guru Peter Drucker predicted at the turn of the century that “knowledge workers work as volunteers’. ‘How much heart and soul they put into our work is volitional. Despite modern management approaches of treating humans as Assets with setting up the performance standards and measures of success, Just like how we manage machine productivity, it is tough to measure real productivity of how much of a heart put into the work. How do we measure the joy of work and Happiness in the workplace? The devotion and communion aspects of the work?
Every day we could see and read media stories about soul-crushing workplaces. Toxic Workplace cultures with difficult people, Self-centered, and unsupportive leaders. The job that does not provide enough and forces people to do multiple jobs. The triple pressure of Highly demanding work schedules, a Toxic work environment, and more demanding domestic life creates enormous stress and one of the significant contributors to physical and mental health challenges.
At individual levels, many professionals are challenged with a lack of personal fulfillment in work. Some feel they are not getting the right recognition and the reward despite working so hard. Younger people feel they are not advancing fast enough and waiting in a perpetual queue for their turn to get promoted or opening up a new job position. Many millennials are shunning the corporate jobs and migrating to small towns to find more meaningful work. Working with Hands and makers movement is a cultural trend. Getting stuck in windowless office cubicles in high rise buildings is the last thing anyone wants to do. The Gig economy workers freed themselves from corporate meritocracy and associated political traps. Nevertheless, the stress of Constantly looking and worrying about the next assignment, and getting paid on time, finding meaning in their short stint of work, is a daunting challenge.
None of these challenges go away until we look deep inside of us. Change starts with each of us when we change, and the next person around us changes in many different ways, and the world around us changes. The best way to start any transformation is starting from ourselves.
WHAT IS THE REAL MOTIVATION FOR OUR WORK:
If work is to earn our living, we could be doing any job, what pulls us into our current occupation? Whether accidentally or intentionally, we drift towards our current profession. There is a constant gravitational pull to do something we are interested in and our skills best expressed in what we do.
At the most fundamental level, the work allows living in comfort by giving shelter and food and also allows us to build our relationships to serve social instincts and live in a community with dignity. I still remember when I received my first ever paycheck; suddenly, it gave a measure of freedom, a sense of independence from my parents, and self-worth. How we see our work also evolves along with us, anyone with a long career can tell us the difference in how we see our paycheck between the first paycheck and last paycheck is enormous.
Once we settle in and start earning a steady income, we tend to show and shape our character through our work, our sense of grounding in the world, the rewards, a pat on the back by a respected leader, all of these small acts enhance our self worth and confidence in our strides. As we grow in our work, we look for more fulfillment in what we do; We look for avenues to align the work to our core values and our personality and character. It shows up in pursuing higher learning, Deepening the professional knowledge, and striving for eminence. Some express themselves by making the objects they love, Mentoring novice, Coaching, and building teams,
At some point, we transcend our self; the work becomes a way of expressing ourselves and going beyond our physical limitations, helping others, serving the communities, leaving a legacy and making an object or project that stays long beyond our time. We try to attach our name and leave our mark on time.
In our daily life, we flow with the work, and one thing leads to another, and what we think and do in our work forms us as a person, and we as a person also bring our unique way into work. Despite many standard operating procedures and work processes, it is undeniable that each person and leader brings their personality to work and shape workplace dynamics.
Each of us could be in any phase of our work life, but do we know what our real motivation for work is? When we introspect, Some intentions are clear to us, but most of them are invisible to our conscious mind. It’s like the tip of the Iceberg. We have only access to the top twenty percent of surface area, and deep down a massive and invisible force driving us. It requires a deliberate and mindful inquiry to bring our real motivation to awareness. On the surface, it looks like the next promotion, Higher Bonus, Power, corporate celebrity status, but deep down, what drives us? We could see some of the wealthiest people in their twilight years self compelled to work in exacting schedules and with no slowdown in sight ever. Whether it could continue to build upon one’s declared life mission, purpose, or to continue to exact power and influence even after their prime time or it could be leaving a legacy behind in time.
When we aren’t aware of our real Intent, after not getting what we strived our whole life, we feel the life of drudgery. Even when we get what we want, we could still feel like we completely missed something in our life if we are not aware of real intent behind what we want. Whatever is the propensity, self-inquiry into our motivation and coming to awareness is the most mindful way to conduct our work to avoid a life of regret. Zen Master Dogen Zenji urges most eloquently in Shobo-Genzo “Having received a Human Life, do not waste the passing moments, Already having a Buddha mind, why would you indulge in the sparks from a flint? After all, the form is like a dewdrop on the grass, like a flashing of lightning, transient and illusory, gone in a moment”. Work is the most significant part of our life of waking moments, finding our Buddha mind in work is also part of realizing our true nature of reality.
CREATING THE MEANING IN WORK:
What is our deep sense of what one should be doing? It is very rare to find our purpose one beautiful day. Most of the time, we drift in our work, and life’s contingencies will take us on different interests, curiosities. Through the process of trial and elimination our purpose will emerge; some people will find it very early and give them immense focus and a clear path to fulfill. Some people might be lifelong drifters and do many things of passing interest. In our culture, we tend to use Passion and purpose interchangeably. Purpose gives direction, and passion gives the energy and inspiration to take the path. Passion and path, by virtue, could be both wholesome or unwholesome. We don’t spend enough time and attention to bring awareness to the nature of our purpose; also, we don’t inquire into the nature of our passion. The nature of purpose and passion determine the course of our work and life at large . When our purpose and passion are unwholesome, afflictions arise. The ever-rising unwholesome thought formations and constant longing to fulfill them create nothing but a life of suffering. It’s a life of unhappiness and wasted career. We do have a mindful choice of working from wholesome purpose and diligence to experience work as an expression of joy and Happiness.
NO PURPOSE IN WORK, WORK IS THE PURPOSE:
When we feel our work is incongruent with our sense of identity (Self ) or how we think others perceive our work, we develop a deep sense of non commitment, carelessness, and even aversion to work. We can change the way we look at our work; When we look deeply into our work, we can find a meaning for us and also that goes beyond ourselves. “Shokunin” is a Japanese word for mindset ,that is the continuous practice of mastery of one’s work, Irrespective of how small or big the work could be, work is a means to create a better person out of us, Striving to be better every day and in every act. Meaning doesn’t come from what we do but how we do. It doesn’t matter whether we are a Sanitation worker or a wall street banker. This mindset shifts the focus from attaching some imaginary meaning to our work to mindful and immersive quality in whatever we happened to do. The better is the immersion in what we do; better is moral grounding in seeing what is right and what is wrong and right is authentic truth inline with reality.
This higher framework is also not attached to preconceived outcomes or goal obsession or self-promoting at work. In Pali word Sraddha represents this kind of attitude, Sraddha usually translated as diligence, but the best way to describe is devotional diligence. Caring for what we do, caring for people we work. The best way to see this attitude is in Japan, and we see sanitary workers making a deep bow to Shinkansen ( Bullet Train ) on its arrival or departure. In India, traditional craft people like potters, weavers every day offer a prayer to hand tools they use. These acts on the surface look like a meaningless ritual, but deep down, it is an expression of devotion to what we do and a feeling of caring. This state of mind will bring a natural state of serenity, calm, and Joy in whatever we do.
WORK THAT TRANSCENDS THE SELF:
Every work we do for living or volunteering can expand for a higher purpose beyond ourselves. We can take the first step by looking at what our work means to others in our workplace. Sometimes making a small change in our work makes us see how we serve others through our work, a higher purpose beyond ourselves, to keep expanding from there to the community, nation, and whole Humanity. The cathedral story reminds us of how we could attach higher meaning to our work; either we could see ourselves laying brick in a wall or building a cathedral to serve the community at large. How we see is how we create meaning in our work.
Transcending self is also leaving the ego at the doorstep before entering our workplace. The Image we carried in our head about ourselves compel us to direct our work and go protect our self Image, any effort that has self-glorification as it’s end goal bound to end up in disaster. Transcending self is also realizing the interdependent nature of everything we do. In our culture, when someone thinks they are good at what they do, they believe they earned to be arrogant. Any sole individual claim to success is a delusion, and every act is the manifestation of the interdependent nature of reality.
WORK IS THE EXPRESSION OF CREATIVITY:
Reminding ourselves all of has the innate gift of Creation, Creativity is a gift of our mind. Creating is operating from the source of reality; Creation happens from the place of immersion and losing ourselves to what we do. Creative means not paralyzed by methods and knowledge, and it is a beginner’s mind. It doesn’t matter what we do; we can find creative avenues in every trade and work we do. The purpose of work is creative expression.
Creativity emerges from mastery in what we do. Shuhari ( in Japanese )condenses the path to mastery and creative freedom in a single word. “Shu “is repetition and practicing what we do and mindful repetition of the work that becomes second nature to us. In mindful repetition, there is no craving for novelty and no boredom. In ‘ha,” we deviate from what we know, find new ways of doing, and unleash our creative potential, “ri” is a departure from the forms of doing and what we know and creative emergence from wisdom.
WORK IS TAKING THE PATH OF ROLE MODELS :
In every culture, we celebrate the Hero’s, and they set the aspirational values to emulate; they set the exemplary role model for superior ideals to follow. The Hero’s shows how they deal with dilemmas of life, how they emerge victorious from the abyss of moral crisis. Heroes are also flawed like all of us, their flaws are a representation of culture and the time they live in, but they show how to break away to reach the higher moral ground. In our professional life, Looking up to someone whom we could follow and emulate gives the most imminent purpose and the path to reach the purpose. The role models could be living or from the past. Studying the values, they cultivated, and the flaws they overcome and the trajectory they took will set a direction and purpose.
In Zen tradition, Masters from the lineage are remembered through the Gatha’s ( Stories, Poems ) and inquiring questions between master and disciple as Koans to reveal the seal of reality. Remembering This is not a mere act of reverence; this is an act of observing and following the well-treaded path masters took. In work, we deal with the same ethical, moral dilemmas, complicated situations, Safety of conformity, Lure of self-gratification at the expense of others, Perpetuation of Half-truths. Each unique situation offers an opportunity of mindful response by referencing our role models. Taking the journey is the destination, and following our role models itself is the purpose.
I wrote down these four operating principles and additional Ten skillful means (Kusala Upaya) to navigate my work-life mindfully, they are not perfect. I’m nowhere close to perfecting them, but I see them as rafts to cross the river. In this blog, I shared four operating principles, and in the next post, we will dwell on Ten skillful means to mindfully navigate our work environment. Thank you for visiting, as always comments are welcome, and looking forward to seeing you back.
