What is next for 'good enough' work

Two books written by US journalists, published in 2023, crossed my desk in the last quarter of 2023. Firstly, Simone Stolzoff published "The Good Enough Job", exploring the idea of what a well-lived life looks like; and secondly, Joanne Lipman's "Next" (2023) explores those existential crises which prompt us to question what should we do next, and how do we make change.

Stolzoff's book takes the stance that work overly dominates many Americans' sense of self. The author suggests that personal identity should be less work-oriented, with a need to "reclaim our lives" from the office, and start asking at dinner parties, "what do you like to do" instead of "what do you do" (Mulligan, 2023; Stolzoff, 2023). 

It was suggested that our young people are pressured to decide "what they want to be" as adults (Stolzoff, 2023), and while I appreciate that this may well be the case in the US, that is not - in my experience - what we ask in career development in Aotearoa. We tend to more of an exploratory approach, investigating what interests, skills, personality characteristics, and values each young person - and their whānau - holds. These collectively may lead to potential next steps in training, apprenticeship or education. This will be followed by decision-making for our young client, hopefully with the broadest options or backtrack-ability possible so if they get partway down a path and decide it is not for them, they can change tack with the least opportunity cost.

Or perhaps this is a global strategy!

Illustrated with cases from chefs, bankers, teachers and other US workers, the book explains how work can - should - be a part of life rather than our ENTIRE life (Stolzoff, 2023). Interestingly, it has been my experience that some men seem to conflate their identities with their 'role', which is somewhat limiting when they are no longer able to do their job; their identity is also in danger of being lost.

Which brings me to Lipman, and Next (2023). The author has also conducted interviews, and reviewed cases, supported by research, to answer the 'what next' question when everything hits the fan (2023). The book lightly explores what changes for us when we become less focused on the end values, and instead focus on the value of means, and enjoy the journey (Lamprecht, 1920; Lipman, 2023). 

The author notes that making work too central to our lives is termed 'enmeshment', where we lack a "boundary between" ourselves our work, we can "lose [...our sense of] self-worth" and identity when our job vanishes. "More viscerally, Marla [Ginsburg] describes it as conflating your identity with your office chair. 'And when that chair is pulled out from under you, all the people who you thought were part of your circle? No. They’re surrounding the person who’s now sitting in that chair'" (Lipman, 2023, 16%).

Apparently we are being "rocked by seismic changes", with global changes becoming more significant due to the "pandemic, political unrest, and economic uncertainty" (Lipman, 2023, 75%). I find myself unconvinced of this particular argument. I wonder if we have lived though periods where we assume we will have certainty that ANY uncertainty causes anxiety. But anyway. 

We could apply what "Psychologists Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius" termed our “possible selves”, to help us to "envision [our potential] futures". We can make ourselves free to consider what we may want to do, to "imagine our future selves as happier, more confident, thinner—or we may reenvision [sic] our lives and careers altogether. Conjuring these 'possible selves' can help make them real and lead to meaningful change" (Lipman, 2023, 76%).

While both of these books are very culturally American, and many of the stories told are old, and not really replicable, both books are tales of hope which may provide readers with a lens to review their context, and so live more rewarding lives. 

Sam

References:

Adazing. (2023). Template 7. https://www.adazing.com/book-mockup-select/?template=preview-p07

Lamprecht, S. P. (1920). Ends and Means in Ethical Theory. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 17(19), 505–513. https://doi.org/10.2307/2939936

Lipman, J. (2023). Next! The power of reinvention in life and work [ePub]. Mariner Books.

Mulligan, J. (2023, May 23). Why a good-enough job should be enough for a good life [radio broadcast]. Radio New Zealand. https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018905245

Stolzoff, S. (2023). The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work [ePub]. Penguin Random House LLC.