Guy Who Works From Home: Aren't People Spiritually Sickened By Working from Home?

Malcolm Gladwell, an author who presumably works alone at home: People will be driven by their shabby pajama-clad loneliness from remote work back into the office.

Author Malcolm Gladwell thinks that remote work is hurting society and that a recession will likely drive employees who are "sitting in their pajamas" back into the office.

The bestselling author of "Blink" and "The Tipping Point" grew emotional and shed tears as he told the "Diary of a CEO" podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett that people need to come into the office in order to regain a "sense of belonging" and to feel part of something larger than themselves.

"It's very hard to feel necessary when you're physically disconnected," the Canadian writer said.

"As we face the battle that all organizations are facing now in getting people back into the office, it's really hard to explain this core psychological truth, which is we want you to have a feeling of belonging and to feel necessary."

...

"It's not in your best interest to work at home," he said. "I know it's a hassle to come into the office, but if you're just sitting in your pajamas in your bedroom, is that the work life you want to live?"

"Don't you want to feel part of something?"

Gladwell added: "I'm really getting very frustrated with the inability of people in positions of leadership to explain this effectively to their employees."

"If we don't feel like we're part of something important, what's the point?" he said. "If it's just a paycheck, then it's like what have you reduced your life to?"

I think Gladwell is confusing his own job, which has high non-pecuniary rewards (in addition to high pecuniary rewards) such as fame and praise, with the jobs that most people have. I don't know if most people will feel they're "part of something" in their jobs whether they're physically in the office or not.

People tend to feel they're "part of something" in their jobs when they have the kind of jobs that will make women at bars willing to touch their pee-pees.

I'm the wrong person to ask. I'm extremely solitary. I can handle this life. I can handle it so well I do wonder: Wait, is it normal to be this okay with solitude?

What do you think of the general need to be around people? I know that working from home has obvious benefits, especially if you have kids.

But what about just being in a social environment for 9 or 10 hours a day?

I know that without having an office job, I get virtually no exercise whatsoever, which is why, in my particular circumstances, it is desperately needed that I try to walk or hike an hour everyday. Without that, I literally barely move.

My steps are around 900.

Maybe I do need to get out.

Speaking of most people's jobs not providing them with a sense of purpose: People, and I imagine this mostly means Gen Z/Millennials, are barely working at all even when at work.

Quiet quitting: why doing the bare minimum at work has gone global

The meaninglessness of modern work -- and the pandemic -- has led many to question their approach to their jobs

This is from The Guardian, of course. They're always promoting not working and "Luxury Communism."

Bartleby is back, although no doubt he would prefer not to be. This time, Herman Melville's reluctant Wall Street scrivener has returned in the form of TikTokers who have embraced "quiet quitting".

Rather than working late on a Friday evening, organising the annual team-building trip to Slough or volunteering to supervise the boss's teenager on work experience, the quiet quitters are avoiding the above and beyond, the hustle culture mentality, or what psychologists call "occupational citizenship behaviours".

Instead, they are doing just enough in the office to keep up, then leaving work on time and muting Slack. Then posting about it on social media.

Maria Kordowicz, an associate professor in organisational behaviour at the University of Nottingham and director of its centre for interprofessional education and learning, said the rise in quiet quitting is linked to a noticeable fall in job satisfaction.

Gallup's global workplace report for 2022 showed that only 9% of workers in the UK were engaged or enthusiastic about their work, ranking 33rd out of 38 European countries. The NHS staff survey, conducted in the autumn of 2021, showed that morale had fallen from 6.1 out of 10 to 5.8, and staff engagement had dropped from 7.0 to 6.8.

"Since the pandemic, people's relationship with work has been studied in many ways, and the literature typically, across the professions, would argue that, yes, people's way of relating to their work has changed," Kordowicz said.

TikTok posts about quiet quitting may have been inspired by Chinese social media: #TangPing, or lying flat, is a now-censored hashtag apparently prompted by China's shrinking workforce and long-hours culture.

Kordowicz added: "The search for meaning has become far more apparent. There was a sense of our own mortality during the pandemic, something quite existential around people thinking 'What should work mean for me? How can I do a role that's more aligned to my values?'

Ughh. #MuhValues.

You know, you're not necessarily supposed to get #MuhValues reinforced at work.

"I think this has a link to the elements of quiet quitting that are perhaps more negative: mentally checking out from a job, being exhausted from the volume of work and lack of work-life balance that hit many of us during the pandemic.

They're exhausted from a full day of not working.

I will say this: I have both worked and not worked at work, and I can say that not working at work is just as tiring as actually working. Sometimes more so.

You've got to work pretty hard to avoid working. Sometimes you just need to take a break from it and rest up by actually doing some work.

posted by Ace at 03:39 PM

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