Clearly some aspiration is a good thing. Taking on challenging work
expands people's horizons and stretches their abilities, and we do
need as many people as possible to excel in their economic activities
in order to achieve greater overall wealth. But an aspirational
society was also a key plank of Thatcherism where I also see a number
of negative externalities to it.
Firstly, aspiration engenders competitiveness. This open competition
leads to distrust between colleagues and between peers in society
generally. I work for a large British multinational in the information
systems industry. One of the first things you learn in this type of
environment is that many of your colleagues are basically out for
themselves only, and some of them won't hesitate to climb on your
shoulders, or even trample you down, if doing so serves their own
careers. This also means that people have to keep an eye over their
shoulders, and devote time to acquiring skills such as selling
themselves rather than devoting all their energies to the things
they're really good at. Surely this is not the way to create a more
trusting society with greater social capital?
Secondly, working hours and the time deficit. A proportion of my
colleagues are ambitious people who want to reach high management
positions, have nice big houses and cars, etc. many of these people
live for their work and some are prepared to work whatever hours it
takes to make their mark. But this, combined with the culture of job
insecurity, puts pressure on everybody else to work similar hours,
thus creating a rat race effect. But the majority, like myself, while
willing to work a reasonable day and apply ourselves to the challenges
at hand whilst doing so, would prefer to have some boundaries set as
to what can reasonably be expected in terms of dedication.
The competitive marketplace makes it hard even for employers like
mine, who genuinely do try to treat their staff well. Because there
are no boundaries, some of our competitors trim their costs by
treating their staff less well, and the temptation becomes to follow
suit, even when a lot of evidence suggests that overworking people
leads to little net advantage because they become tired and then work
less efficiently.
In Europe this problem has long been recognised, hence the Working
Time directive which attempts to set down boundaries to prevent such
beggar-thy-neighbour competition. But the government's seemingly half-
hearted approach to implementing this is very disappointing. The trend
towards increased working hours is considered unwelcome by many
middle-class people (as at where I work, where many of these are
former Tory voters who voted for New labour this time precisely
because of factors such as this) as well as others. Tackling this
would surely be a big vote-winner, which makes the government's
adherence to an approach that benefits only the small elite the Tories
favoured seem even more perplexing.
The white Anglo-Saxon culture has become obsessed with work, and in
particular the protestant work ethic. This may have been appropriate
in times when people had to struggle just to achieve material
survival, but it's value seems much more questionable in these days of
post-materialism where Maslow's motivational hierarchy points out that
people will then turn their attention to other factors such as social
connections, culture, self-realisation and other less materialistic
goods.
But many people now feel frustrated as they simply don't have the time
to pursue these objectives when they also have to work long hours
_and_ exist in a culture where both partners in a relationship are
expected to take paid work. The two-income model has driven the prices
of decent-sized houses in some parts of the country (particularly, the
home counties) beyond any but two-income professional couples - not a
recipe for inclusion of the remainder - and it also impacts on the
informal, unpaid family carers who in the past took care of a large
proportion of the elderly and also looked after children to assist
their parents.
The inability to fulfil these personal and social objectives throws
people's lives out of balance and further exacerbates stress levels
and distrust.
(While there is a lot of good in the teachings of Christianity, there
is also a considerable amount of content whose value is doubtful to
say the least. I don't believe a solely Christian-based ethical
framework will _ever_ provide the right foundation for a better
society. I expect that recent work on emotional intelligence and the
way our minds work will continue to expose fairly basic flaws in the
Christian mind-set. IMO Tony Blair needs to somehow free himself from
his religious background and find a way of taking a wider
perspective.)
Thirdly, aspiration when taken to excess turns first to greed and
then, beyond that, to criminality. If someone aspires to own a car
it's fine for them to work long hours of the day to pay for it, but
someone who can't or won't yet still wants the car badly becomes
tempted to steal one. This of course is an extreme example, yet the
same principle applies to much smaller interactions between people.
For example there's one girl at our office, just graduated from
university, who has been brazen enough to tell me all about how she
takes advantage of her sex to cadge cigarettes for herself and her
friends, and how she gets away with things which if they were done by
a man would probably result in him getting punched.
Fourthly, we are now finding at work that most people who join us out
of university have unrealistic ambitions such as expecting to be
managing teams or projects after no more than a couple of years. This
increases our staff turnover (which ends up costing us money) as these
individuals subsequently attempt to achieve these ambitions elsewhere
in the belief that we're somehow not sufficiently 'gung-ho'.
Erosion of the levels of trust between the participants to the
transactions in question is a common strand that runs through all of
the above phenomena. This is becoming a much more prominent issue at
all levels of society, from professional circles down. Surely it is
now high time to wage war on all the factors that lead to this
distrust?
Adrian Putley
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Adrian Putley adrian@roscalen.demon.co.uk
Horsham, West Sussex, England http://www.roscalen.demon.co.uk/
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