Most corporate workplaces are instruments of psychological torture [1], yet it can decades (even if you’re ultra-frugal [2]) to build up an escape fund [3].
Starting a business instead is risky, while even small passive income streams [4] can take years to establish.
You only live once, so for most people the answer must be to find a better job. But what do we mean by better?
- A decent salary is important, but beyond a certain point a higher salary does not increase happiness [5].
- Jobs that give you a lot of time management freedom [6] are great – but here we’re trying to define a job that you don’t want to avoid at all costs.
- Many doctors, vets, architects and other professionals have off-the-shelf satisfying careers. Is it too late if we’ve already become office wage-slaves?
What’s it all about, Alfie?
Interestingly, we’re not the only ones asking these questions.
In the wake of the credit crisis, Governments are exploring how the bonus culture in banking [7] led to wanton risk-taking and the abandonment of any sense of fiduciary duty. Obviously they’d rather it didn’t happen again.
Early findings back-up other research into the limits of using money as a reward in the workplace, as summed up in this fantastic video:
There aren’t any easy answers to these questions.
For a start, motivation at work is something you want to harness for yourself and your own plans, not a carrot that helps your employer keep the workforce in line on the cheap. Yet in the bigger scheme of things, selfishness is perhaps part of the problem, too.
I discovered the video via Financial Samurai [8], who muses that:
Purpose is something that can either be questioned before you start your journey or after. You can be a high school or college student who has no freaking idea what you’re supposed to do in life. Or, you can be a 20 year veteran in the workforce who has built a great resume, as well as financial security, but realize you’re middle-aged now and wonder if there’s more to life since you’ve already conquered insecurity, be it financial or otherwise.
Leaving your job has a big opportunity cost [9] – swapping to a new career or starting a business an even bigger one. Yet do nothing, and you can become a Reginald Perrin [10]
I’m happy to tell you all I know about saving [11] and investing [12] – and even making money – but I don’t claim to have got the career and purpose stuff quite right in my own life so far. Have you?