Humour

Doing what you enjoy

T A Balasubramanian analyses why people pretend to enjoy their work

Named, not surprisingly, the ‘Oddfather’ because of the unusual fixes he offers, Dr Don Jong continues delving into the boggled head of Bobo Jitter, the CIO of Bazooka Company.

Delivering his unique blend of off-beat wisdom and avuncular advice, Dr Jong, as we know already, has a rare ability to grapple with technology’s conundrums with a zeal that few in the profession of psychiatry can hope to match.

“I have been a CIO with Bazooka for a decade, and the job just keeps getting more heavy and burdensome each year. I wonder what makes the idea of work feel so tiresome for us in the IT profession, Doc,” says Jitter, opening the salvo bravely.

“Work being tiresome is something you learned long ago, my boy.”

“So how did that happen?”

“Well, Bobo, you have to go back to your childhood, if you really want to know. Back when we were small, life had two states, if you recollect. Some of the time, adults were making you do things, and that was called work. Remember the dread associated with the word homework? The rest of the time you could do what you wanted, and that was called play. Occasionally the things adults made you do were fun, but it was rare. Then again, occasionally, playing was not fun, for example, if you fell and scratched yourself. But except for these aberrations, work was pretty much defined as non-fun, right?”

“You’re right, Doc. Non-fun it was.”

“And that’s the way it has been, my boy, for all of us. The very idea of work being fun is alien to what most of us learn as children. When I was a child, it seemed as if work and fun were opposites by definition. And it did not seem to be an accident. Even school, it was implied, was a tiresome activity because it was preparation for grownup work. Did you enjoy the idea of going to school?”

“Come to think of it, I hated the idea, Doc. It was all these instructions being given by big bullying teachers. Sit. Read. Write. And on and on till it was time to go home. It was dreadful.”

“There you are. It was dreadfully tiresome already. Teachers in particular all seem to implicitly convey that work is not fun—and that is not surprising at all because work was not fun for most of them. Why did we have to memorise state capitals instead of playing hide-and-seek? For the same reason they had to watch over a noisy gang of children instead of enjoying a walk on a beach. They could not just do what they wanted. So nobody could.”

“Right, Doc. School was a dilute version of work meant to prepare us for the real thing—which was concentrated dreadfulness. Much as we disliked school, the adults all agreed that adult work was worse, and that we had it easy.”

“That’s right, my boy. But I am not implying that teachers are to blame for our woes. Of course we cannot let little children do whatever they want—there would be absolute chaos in the world, can you imagine? They may have to be made to work on certain things seriously. But if we make children work on dull projects, it creates a long-lasting impression that all work is essentially non-fun.”

“So what do have to do, Doc? I mean, we feel burdened with work because it has been ingrained into our heads that work is non-fun.”

“For one thing, you begin to see that dullness is not the defining quality of work, and indeed that the reason you did all the work on dull projects in those days back in school was so that you could get to work on more interesting projects later on as an adult.”

“Well, nobody told me that, Doc. Until now.”

“We are very impressionable little monkeys, Bobo. Especially when we are quite young and all that we know about the ways of the jungle is what adults tell us—or, in your case, fail to tell us. I recall that once, when I was about 9 or 10, my father told me I could do whatever I wanted to do when I grew up, so long as I enjoyed it. I remember that clearly because it seemed so odd. It was like being told to do no work forever. It was a huge stretch of imagination—I could not even dare to think that he meant work could literally be fun—as in playing. It took me years to comprehend.”

“But why, then are people not exploding all around? If they do not like the work they are doing, why do they continue doing it?”

“Observe, Bobo. When we became teens ready for work, adults would sometimes come to speak to us about their work, or we would go to see them at work. What was understood in these visits was that we should now get ready to be adults like them, work like them. Was there anything missing in the picture?”

“It was always understood that they enjoyed what they did, eh?”

“Exactly, my boy. In retrospect, as a boy, I think found only one person who was genuinely enjoying what he did—he was a jet pilot. Everyone else, the bankers, lawyers and yes, the IT professionals, were clearly not very happy. But they were all pretending to be enjoying their work.”

“And why do they do that?”

“Well, it is like monkeys in their frozen cage that prefer to be uncomfortable in the cage even when the doors are removed.”

“They do not dare to change?”

“Yes, quite so. But also, remember that they are irrational creatures —exactly like us—who want to look dominant in front of the other monkeys. Monkeys are the world’s finest pretenders. They can create mock situations to stay in control. We humans are no different—the main reason why we seem to enjoy our work is due to the pretension that you are supposed to. Not only would it be bad for your career to say that you despise your work—it would be a socially and politically incorrect move.”

“What a mess we create, Doc. By the time we reach an age where we can think about what we would like to do, we have been thoroughly brainwashed by adults into the idea of pretending to enjoy work.”

“Right you are, Bobo. School has trained us to regard work as an unpleasant duty. Having a job is said to be even more burdensome than schoolwork. And yet all the adults around claim to like what they do. You cannot blame children for rebelling, can you? They do not see themselves suited to this world.”

“Well, Doc, doing what you enjoy is complicated. It is not easy to just go out and do something you love doing. The rebel child in me would love to sit and blog all day, but I dare not. The adult in me has this job as CIO to do.”

“Fou, mais merveilleux! You comprehend that there are some open doors in the cage. To do anything well, you have to find a way to enjoy doing it—and then, it is no longer work.”