The Great Sabbatical of ME

It seems there has been an unintended consequence of COVID lockdowns. We’ve seen the signs of this, the great resignation has led to mass departures of people from various careers everywhere.

McKinsey in the states highlighted that more than 19 million people have quit their jobs since April 2021. Highlighting “Employees are tired, and many are grieving. They want a renewed and revised sense of purpose in their work. They want social and interpersonal connections with their colleagues and managers. They want to feel a sense of shared identity.”

A recent survey from PWC in Australia has highlighted the same results, an estimated 38% of employees are thinking about leaving their jobs, largely because of a new found self awareness of what employee find valuable and what they desire.

Part of the unintended consequences of COVID was an abundance of time for self reflection and pondering what do I do with myself? What am I here for? Who do I want to be? How do I want to work?

Some of these questions have helpfully been addressed with work-from-home strategies reducing commute times (to zero) allows people  to recapture valuable time in their day.

Yet it isn’t everything, the radical departures speak to a much more important and perhaps slightly unhealthy consequence which is an obsession with what I want.

The Me God.

It might be anecdotal but I was speaking with a barber looking to open his 5th store, his challenge like a lot of business owners is staffing. People are requesting $300 cash-in-hand a day to work in the shop.

Why?

Because that’s what I’m worth.

Just to be clear your average barber is really doing about 2-3 haircuts an hour. Bringing in about $400-$600 a day, to add value to an organisation at $300 cash-in-hand you need to make the shop about $1000 a day, and you just aren’t worth that coin.

Hurtful I know.

You aren’t as valuable where you think you are. Yes that sentence is right We have two different value propositions, one relates to the company we work in and the other is personal. Where you are MOST valuable is the critical thing to answer.

Firstly let’s address the ideal job. It’s a pretty rare thing, to be in a job that you FULLY love what you do and pays you to do that job. It happens and plenty of influencers will tell you its easy, but it isn’t realistic for everyone. DON’T listen to Instagram It isn’t reality!

You work a job to be paid based on skills you have. It isn’t your dream job, it isn’t your passion. You are skilled and gifted and people compensate you fairly for that talent. Over time you become more skilful and therefore increase your earning capacity.  Sometimes work sucks, sometimes its painful but you are compensated for that and now you have money to do other stuff. Earn more money save diligently and you can do the stuff you want to do. This is your work value.

The value that matters is the intrinsic value, and that’s different. So as a guy who’s worked in the Not-for-Profit space for almost 2 decades I can tell you the greatest sense of value comes from helping others. Yup, without expectation of compensation helping someone become better is going to be the most rewarding part of your day.

ME needs to become WE.

We somehow forgot community in COVID isolation. We were in the COVID sabbatical thinking about all the stuff we want out of life, we forgot about the investments we can make into someone else’s life.

Your best recourse for finding value, meaning, purpose and joy isn’t in yourself. It is in the investment of yourself into others.

The environment at work gets better when you proactively make it a better environment for others to be in.

Working for your boss gets better when you work with passion and bringing an increased level of pride to the work you tend to.

Taking time out of your leisure time to invest into someone to make them better is rewarding. Whether that be Mentoring, community service or volunteering. There’s data on this! A cursory search of benefits for volunteering actually yields most of the things we desire. It increases community, develops emotional stability, improves self-esteem and burns belly-fat (ok that requires you to do some active volunteering)

Here’s the bottom line, the great resignation or migration isn’t going to make YOU feel better. Each and every company has a list of problems and there isn’t a perfect workplace for everyone. Probably more to the point, every company has an asshole, like everybody we sadly need one.

The solution isn’t a deeper inward focus to unlock what YOU want. The solution is actually to double-down on giving that talent away to help someone else.

ME needs to become WE.

We are better because of you. The workplace is better because of you. Because your gift and talents and the desire to be generous you have improved those around you. Generosity of time, talents and depending on your passion in the charitable space your treasure.

According to the PWC survey 22% of workers value wellbeing, which strangely enough improves when you volunteer, serve or invest into other people. We don’t live as silos independent from all those around us. One of the great strengths for your own personal wellbeing is a complex interconnected community where multiple people love and appreciate what you do.

To build that requires the willingness to sew into others. To equip and encourage your friends and family. The byproduct of moving from Me to WE will be a greater sense of purpose, a more rewarding life, and a deeper sense of connectedness.

The Great Sabbatical of ME that happened in COVID should make WE better. Your gifts make the room better. Your talent makes the room better. That new found self-awareness turn it outward and improve the room.