I was listening to a talkback radio discussion last night about what constitutes achievement and success in work and life. While not a particularly original topic for evening radio, I was struck by the tone of the calls. During quite a lengthy discussion, not a single caller suggested that success is about climbing the corporate ladder or making money.
The emphasis was on the simple idea that success is about being happy.
Has something changed? Sure, ‘happiness’ and ‘balance’ have been part of the work-life discussion for many years. But, perhaps until recently, they have been given more lip service than committed embrace. We’ve trotted out the old line about no one going to their death bed saying “I wish I had worked more”, then rushed off back to our 50 hour a week jobs.
‘Downshifting’ is the idea of leaving a demanding career for something less onerous, even if it costs you money by way of reduced earnings. The concept has been around since the mid-1990s, but it has largely been seen as sitting in the same cabinet as organic food and renewable energy: a good idea, but still a bit radical. Something ‘other people’ do.
In the last few years, however, I’ve learnt of at least half a dozen of my ‘normal’ friends who have downshifted. Some from big jobs, some not so big. But in every case looking to work less and spend more time at home, with family or simply doing stuff they enjoy doing.
This is not to say that changing jobs and reducing working hours are the secrets to happiness. Nor even that we are any closer to understanding what happiness is.
What is changing, I perceive, is the willingness to pursue happiness or satisfaction, simplicity or balance, or whatever it is that an individual is looking for in their work and life. There seems to be increased acceptance of the notion that it’s okay to take a career risk if the end result will be greater contentment for yourself and your family. And that maybe, for much of the population, money doesn’t buy happiness.
Hanging around for the gold watch is becoming less hip. Instead, work-life balance and flexibility are fast becoming catch-cries for the twenty first century. Working from home is now both environmentally friendly and socially acceptable. Loyally working a sixty hour week for a corporation who will let you go tomorrow if it needs to buttress the share price is starting to be recognised for the con that it is.
Where is this change coming from? A number of factors are at play. Ceaseless cost cutting and the resultant increased expectations on employees is one. Everyone has an overload threshold and more and more people are being pushed over theirs. Increased overall affluence (even if it was an illusion) is perhaps another factor. Or maybe I just have a skewed perspective. What do you think?
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I've been work- ing in business, one way or another, for the last 20 years, and writing for the last ten. My main interest now is to get messages across - yours and mine - in a readable and approachable fashion. 
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This article is right on the money as far as I am concerned and correctly titled as our family are far from hippiness but we have adopted the ‘work-life’ balnce lifestyle you speak of.
For many years my partner has developed a reasonable business through internet trading and about 18 months ago I traded in corporate lifestyles to do much the same work but be based at home. It would be fair to say we do not have a large income and sometimes live week to week financially however we have a 2 year old daughter at home and I would not trade my current lifestyle for an extra 100k and thats truth!
Possibly through the fat cats falling and environmental issues taking centre stage over the last few years people are finally deciding that large incomes and portraying the image of having a large image is basically as unfulfilling as all those hippies said it would be years ago! I can certainly concur that a large salary package really didn’t equal time at home with the family. Call it laziness or selfiness but I often talk with my brother about this – he lives and works in Australia and is in construction. He earns very good money (better than I) but is up each morning at 5am and often works 7 days straight etc. I work 3-5 days per week, get up when I want, its usually earlyish with kids around but I can relax, have a cuppa, read the paper and start work when I feel like it.
I can’t imagine now going back into corporate world and having the monotony, the lack of feeling as you noted about how they treat you when I can operate by myself, work for whom and what I want to and only have myself to hold responsible if things aren’t going right – I will never be a millionaire thats for sure, but I guarantee Im a lot happier than most of them!
Cheers
Chris, New Zealand
I think people are realizing that working your way up the ladder in your company is not guaranteed. You can be laid off at any time, or passed up for promotions.
But, downsizing and spending time with your family is something that you control. Also, I think society now recognizes that families and children are happier when they interact with their parents – rather than their parents be breadwinners.
In my own experience, I have worked for the same major bank in downtown Chicago for 9 years. For the last 2 years, they have allowed us to work from home full-time. It’s great! My commute from the suburbs to downtown Chicago used to be almost one and a half hours door-to-door, one way. So I was tied up for 3 hours a day commuting (it was by train, so I could read or relax, but it was still commuting time).
Now, I actually end up working an extra hour from home, and saving 2 hours a day. My employer and myself win. Also, my employer could consolidate buildings – saving on expensive downtown real estate.
I know people who make more money than I, but they have to travel every week, and work log hours, so they don’t spend time with their families.
I, on the other hand, work from home, and can spend breaks or my lunch with my wife and 4 year old son. Also, I was able to sell my car, and life is simpler with just one car.
Hi David,
I totally agree. I just saw the light earlier than most people, I guess.
In 1988 I threw away my watch and started working from home, determined never to return to corporate life. In 1996 I moved my business online and I now manage to maintain a fulfilling online/offline balance.
By interesting coincidence, one of my clients hired me to create a new branding strategy for his direct sales company a couple of years ago, which finally emerged as more of a credo and lifestyle positioning with the slogan “The happiness company”.
The company presentation begins with an explanation that questions why it doesn’t present itself in the usual mode of “health, wealth or success” company. It then quotes Aristotle:
“HAPPINESS is the only emotion that humans desire for its own sake. Men seek riches, honor and health… not for their own sakes, but in order to be HAPPY.”
Source: Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, 350 BC
Seems to be a healthy, intelligent trend. Let’s hope more and more people can find ways to implement it in their own lives.
(The opening sequence of the company presentation can be seen at http://johncounsel.net/companies/companies.html.)
Excellent article.
John
Hi David,
It’s interesting you should make the hippie connection to happiness.
Recently, I went on a weekend yoga/meditation retreat and lived with “hippies”.
It was amazing to meet such happy people who really had no interest in material things. They were just living the life they wanted and yoga/meditation just gave them an amazing serenity that you just don’t see in many people. Plus, the great vegan food.
Of course, if you live your life with passion and your job is your passion then you can still be happy. But we just need to balance that with other activities that keep us grounded such as time with our family and time with ourselves. It’s all about working out what makes us happy rather than believing we have to live our life in a certain way for other’s approval.
Imagine how much happy we would all be if we didn’t do things for approval.
Great thought-provoking article, David.
Marie-Claire Ross