Workaholism, Automation and Digitization: Work as a Life Content?
// By Simone Janson
Work is indisputably one of the most important factors in our society - and those who become unemployed are subject to social stigmata. As digitization and automation increase, however, that will increasingly change. What does this mean for our society?
The profession: More than earning a living
The importance of the profession in our society is undeniably great because it is of immense importance for most people. The job has long been much more than just a means of making a living; above all, it is also used for self-identification. Say:
The job not only flushes the money into our coffers, but also defines our social status. No wonder that we try to make everything perfect in the job. Regardless of whether it is a matter of wrong decisions, unsuccessful innovations or just minor details - mistakes are one of the last taboos in economic life. This is more than a shame: employees and companies with their exaggerated perfectionism take the chance to learn from mistakes and to promote innovation.
Fear is at stake in the company
Of course, the profession is important simply because it ensures our existence. Or rather, to secure - because nowadays nothing is as safe as uncertainty: In the past 20 years, terms such as flexibility, mobility and lifelong learning have made careers; Predictable life biographies have become a beautiful dream, financial security seems increasingly unpredictable. This development is triggered by increasing globalization and increasingly radical competition in the market. This results in savings and rationalization measures, the relocation of jobs abroad and lower wages. The recent banking and financial crisis has only reinforced this tendency. The result: The fear of the job is at stake.
Pessimism and the tendency, especially in the media, to widen small problems into a major catastrophe further aggravate these fears. And many people try to cope with their fears by showing typical perfectionist behaviors. The increasing uncertainty should be combated with an excessive amount of control and so one clings almost desperately to traditional structures instead of showing commitment and venturing something new.
Avarice is cool vs. innovativeness
On the one hand, avarice is cool and everyone wants to save money wherever they can. On the other hand, many people find it too tiring to develop new ideas and too risky to do business themselves. You shouldn't complain about rising unemployment.
An optimistic view is much more helpful. After all, each of us also benefits from the open borders, the high rate of innovation and the fierce competition. Low prices, a wide range of goods and advanced products, which we as consumers are happy about, are at the expense of the steadfastness of the jobs that you know from the times when the clocks in the economy went even slower and their border fences were even higher.
How much fear is necessary?
In principle, a little fear is not wrong, because of course it is important that everyone does his job well. Especially in responsible positions, those concerned should master their profession as best as possible - just think of the manager, whose wrong decision can cost thousands of employees the job, or the doctor, whose mistakes can be life-threatening for patients. If you feel too safe, you can quickly become careless. The constructive fear of making mistakes, which each of us can feel for a short time in certain situations, therefore has an important function: it motivates us to overcome the fear and to do one thing as well as possible.
Fear becomes problematic when it occurs not only for a short time, but also permanently, and when thinking and acting is increasingly mastered. Unfortunately, this is all too often the case. Studies show that fear of making mistakes and fear of job loss are among the most common fears in German companies. Such fears run through all hierarchical levels and affect small employees as well as top managers. These fears are often fueled by the companies themselves and used as a means of power to create more pressure and thereby ensure that the employees are 110 percent willing to perform.
The fairy tale of increasing efficiency
Unfortunately, however, it is a serious misconception that with 110 percent performance there is always more result; on the contrary, there is usually a wide gap between efficiency and reality. As the productivity study by the American management consultancy Proudfoot-Consulting shows again and again, excessive zeal can do the opposite:
In Germany alone, an average of 26 working days per year and employee are wasted - above all due to unnecessary waiting times and duplication of work that could be avoided by prudent action. In addition, pressure and the hectic bustle that arises when you want to do everything perfectly create stress. This in turn inhibits clear thinking and leads to mistakes.
Job as compensator?
Studies show that many perfectionists use the profession to compensate for typical character traits such as ambition, inner insecurity, hyperactivity and hectic pace, the need for validity, striving for power and aggressiveness, because our modern working world often seems not only to tolerate these traits, but to demand them.
Such unproductive zeal for work can therefore be described with a clear conscience as blind actionism. Of course, it gives superiors the impression that the employees are performing at their best. In reality, however, it costs German companies 135 billion euros a year because the employees do unnecessary or even wrong things. The economic damage caused by the excessive claim to benefits is therefore considerable.
Above all, management is responsible for poor work organization, which should actually regulate the work processes of its employees. Leadership usually involves making decisions about who does what work, what budget is available, and when a project should end. This is precisely what is often lacking, because the decision-makers on the executive floors are also insecure and want one thing above all: just make no wrong decisions - typically perfectionist. For this reason, they always postpone important decisions and give their employees those unnecessary working hours that cost the company hard cash.
Job insecurity?
Most people experience situations in the job where they are sometimes unsure, even top managers. But feelings and fears are considered unprofessional and are taboo, mistakes are punished with sanctions and blame. This is fatal, because only those who accept their feelings, recognize their fears and learn a lesson from their mistakes can learn from them for the future how to do better.
But especially in unclear, dynamic situations, some managers shoot their decision like a cannonball and do not care what exactly the goal is: Instead of gathering information and carefully weighing arguments for and against, they generalize the facts in typical perfectionist manner and act accordingly a generalized decision pattern. Then, quickly, quickly it goes on to the next task, to the next decision. What is celebrated as a joy to make decisions actually harbors great potential for errors. The majority of wrong decisions in companies can even be traced back to intuitive decision-making processes in which important information for an optimal decision is missing: In a survey of 675 top decision-makers from Europe and the USA, two thirds admitted that their decisions were more spontaneous and intuitive and 77 percent admitted several wrong decisions.
What to do when the crisis comes
When the disaster strikes, the search begins for circumstances to blame: economic and financial crisis, market situation, unfair competition, an unfortunate chain of events, etc. - these and similar reasons then serve as scapegoats for the fact that one might has passed the customer's needs or the quality of your own product is too bad due to wrong decisions. Because whoever is least at fault is guaranteed to be promoted. On the other hand, if you admit that you did something wrong, you can expect sanctions.
As a result, quite a few employees at all hierarchical levels devote valuable working time to denying, covering up, glossing over mistakes or even blaming others. The actual goal of achieving something productive together becomes secondary, sometimes even completely disappears. Rather, a real competitive culture has matured in some companies, in which it is only a matter of outdoing colleagues with flawlessness: and this goes so far that entire industries fear internal auditing more than the competition.
Make mistakes - be an entrepreneur!
Where perfectionism has been elevated to corporate culture in this way, there is no place for entrepreneurial action. Because whoever thinks perfectionist, is primarily concerned with not making mistakes. Instead of putting all their energy into achieving success and also taking risks and accepting setbacks, such failure avoiders behave accordingly cautiously and defensively. They may even be able to do nothing wrong, but at a high price: Those who follow the avoidance strategy also avoid making those important decisions that are important for personal progress, but also for the entire economy. Because their main drivers are small and medium-sized companies that promote innovation and create jobs.
How great the fear of daring to try something new, especially in Germany, can be seen particularly well in the example of professional independence: The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor annually assesses the conditions for starting a business in 42 countries and provides the Germans with a real certificate of poverty:...
