BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
GUEST COLUMNL
Moving beyond old definitions of ‘success’
W e spend the majority of our adult life in work (an estimated 80,000 hours). But we don’t spend enough time thinking about what we really want from our work lives, let alone taking action on what we might discover. Workplace culture doesn’t seem to help. In fact, about a billion people are unfulfilled at work. According to Gallup’s 2017 Global State of the Workplace survey, 85% of employees are either ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively disengaged’ at work. Today, two arguably problematic work myths dominate our workplace cultures and are candidates for reform: 1. Constant work is a good thing : one of the most enduring narratives underlining capitalism is that hard work and constant busy-ness are to be praised (the so-called ‘Protestant work ethic’). Originally, hard work indicated spiritual salvation. Today, it’s simply a norm associated with the idea of success. 2. Profit (shareholder value) comes first : prioritising shareholder payouts and therefore company profit – rather than, say, social value or staff wellbeing – has exacerbated the feeling of meaningless work that most employees experience. Combined with relentless and meaningless consumerism and you have a ticking timebomb for the career and existential crises that have become the norm. ‘What was all that hard work for? What was I trying to prove? What impact has it made? Is there something more?...’
According to large economic surveys, most people in the west will experience a crisis of meaning in work and life in their mid-30s. Research from more than 500,000 Americans and western Europeans showed a parallel pattern in terms of happiness and wellbeing: a decline when people are in their 30s, hitting rock bottom in their mid-50s, then rising again.
are there new markers of success, such as mental wellbeing, healthy relationships and a capacity for full engagement with life? Long-term studies have pointed to three factors that damage health at work: lack of control; an effort-reward imbalance; and dysfunctional hierarchies. All of these point to the need for collective efforts towards change in the social fabric of our workplaces. Mounting evidence shows that without reform, organisations simply cannot tap into the wellspring of human creativity and innovation to face the complex challenges of the 21st century. Without a shift in orientation in how success is framed, from a ‘me’ project to a ‘me-we’ project (the classic ‘win-win approach’ of game theory) climate change, inequality, technological disruption and global supply chain vulnerability will continue to grow as challenges to societal stability and human wellbeing. Leaders must set the tone from the top. So, the answer isn’t that change is possible, but perhaps that it is inevitable and imperative – it has to be intentional and part of our global, local and personal agendas. Experimentation must become the mainstream to avoid being stuck in a ‘Success Trap’ of old work myths and organisational norms that no longer work in the 21st century. Once we hear the global alarm bell of necessary change, we can make a choice to be the change we want to see. Amina Aitsi-Selmi is the author of The Success Trap (2020). She holds a PhD in social epidemiology.
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'Most people in the west will experience a crisis of meaning in work and life in their mid-30s'
Interestingly, this pattern affects people across the board: white-collar workers, blue-collar workers, married people and single people alike. By their mid-30s, people realise that they have a version of ‘success’ that they don’t really like. It might just be that their priorities have changed or that it was never what they really wanted. They may have landed all the trappings of success (a ‘great job’ with high status and a good salary and lifestyle, for example) but something is still missing and there’s no end to the daily grind. The markers of conventional ‘success’ are well known: money, power, status. But,
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