On work (while I should have been there)

I skived off work today to hear Alain de Botton, the pop philosopher and writer, speak about his new book: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work.

It was pretty interesting. He started with a brief history of the topic. Apparently the notion that work could be anything more than slavery, and could even be fulfilling, only arrived in Enlightenment of the 18th century. (At the same time the thought that one might marry for love, rather than merely practicality, or prestige, became popular.) Since then employers have striven to help us find meaning in what we do for them, lest we become bored, de-motived, and under-productive.

In researching his book, de Botton spent time with people in a range of obscure professions - including biscuit makers and rocket scientists - as well as some fairly mundane ones, and found the most motivated employees in a multinational accountancy firm. I think accountancy must be one of the dullest professions going, but apparently the big firms are so aware of the risk of being boring that they spend huge sums on state-of-the-art HR departments that have endless ways of making staff feel stimulated, appreciated and fulfillled. Scary thought.

He also explained that the recession is making people happier about their work. The new catchphrase is 'at least I have a job'. This agrees with Rousseau, who defined happiness as the relationship between ones expectations and ones situation, and so to make people happier one either improves their situation or reduces their expectations. However as a friend pointed out, many people who hate their jobs now feel stuck there as it's so hard to get another position - hardly a recipe for increased happiness.

De Botton has been called a simplifier extraordinaire, and while he is a great speaker, some of his arguments were a little facile. For example he suggested that the working class take on employment was 'pre-Enlightenment', i.e. 'work-to-live', while the middle class view on work is more about meaning, i.e. 'live-to-work'. He admitted that this was a gross generalisation, but this caveat was not enough to spare him a particularly awkward question from a self-labelled working class Irish woman who pointed out his famously priveliged background, before asking hiw views on the notion that dull jobs for the masses was part of a conspiracy to keep the proles in their place. Both de Botton and the event's egotistical Chair huffed the question away with discomfort.

Another rash claim was to suggest that while most people work to pay the bills, many also work to 'make people happy', whether that's fixing a squeeky door or feeding a starving orphan. Feeling uneasy at the incomplete picture this painted, I took my chance the ask a question - what about the darker sides of motivation: greed, competition, megalomania? His response was that while they existed, they didn't matter as only the outcomes of their toil counted, because as Adam Smith argued, the 'invisible hand' of capitalism means that the market will always find equilibrium. Well yes, but hasn't he read the news lately?

And so, feeling proud to have delivered my question fluff-free to a packed and highbrow audience (my achievement of the day), I trudged out into the rain and considered going for a coffee to think through the various ideas I'd just heard. But then I realised that I should really get back to work.