Why We Work

William Butler Yeats once wrote: "The intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work". Yeats, like many of us, could not imagine a proper balance between work and life. (Note that he died in 1939 - the year that the Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind were first released - the year that new cars cost only $750.) Who knew the work/life balance conversation had being going on for so long?!

Apparently the Harvard Business Review did because in a side-bar article titled, "Why We Work - That Is the Question," (June 2003, page 99) Yeat's quote is referenced. "Although Yeats's extreme view does not hold true in Europe," it reads, "it does in the Unted States where a fierce work ethic has imposed a certain rigidity on assumptions about what motivates people on the job." It then goes on to deliniate four misconceptions American leaders then to have about employees:

(1) Everybody is the same;
(2) Everybody wants the same thing out of work;
(3) Everybody wants to be promoted;
(4) Everybody wants to be a manager.

What do YOU think about this? Because chances are good that the views you hold are dramatically affecting the way you interact with people up, down, and across your organization. Why? Because the assumptions you bring to the workplace are "deeply tied to ways that we reward, motivate, hire, and fire" employees. That would explain why your people-plans never seem to work as well as you expected, wouldn't it?!

Dorothy said, Oh, Auntie Em ----- there's no place like home!"." And for many, work is like a home-away-from-home. But it's essential that you realize that not everyone is coming from the same place ... and act accordinly.