Roman Krznaric on the frustrations of earning a living

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?

Phillip Larkin’s image of a toad is how many of us feel about work. Our jobs too often seem like a burden taking up most of our waking hours, a means to the end of paying the bills and financing the mortgage. No wonder that a 2006 study by the Work Foundation found that 80% of British employees feel overworked, while a survey in 2007 from the OPP consultancy revealed that 60% of people feel their current career falls short of their aspirations. There are, of course, those who love their work, who are excited by its challenges and stimulated by its creativity. But for the majority, work is far too often a toad.

You might think that now is the last moment to be contemplating a change of career. As we are tossed in the turbulence of a global economic crisis, our jobs are more insecure than ever and the prospect of not being able to make ends meet is a genuine fear for many. Change might seem not only too risky, but even indulgent. Yet it is precisely at such moments of crisis that new opportunities can emerge, not only in society at large, but in our own lives. The uncertainties of the looming recession bring into sharp relief the big existential questions of working life: Am I really doing a job that expands my horizons and that is big enough for my spirit? Am I working too hard and too much – and for the wrong reasons? Should I be striving for money, status, or perhaps some deeper sense of meaning and purpose in my work? How can I overcome my fears and develop the confidence to change?

There are many more choices available to us than we realise, more cracks in the world of work through which we can peer to glimpse something more fulfilling. We need to expand our imaginations and remember that there are a thousand ways to live our working lives. Find out more in my essay
Work and the Art of Living which can be downloaded free from my website www.romankrznaric.com.

Roman Krznaric is a member of the teaching faculty at The School of Life and lead designer of the course on Work. The next work course runs on 31st January and 1st February 2009.

Images by Anna Fox from Workstations.

Comments

[Anon]

Thanks for a fantastic blog and essay. It seems uncanny that I've been trying to navigate some of the very problems you discuss and relate very much to your experience in front of 'blue poles'.
I feel my job is 'too small for my spirit' as you so eloquently put it. For all the hope your essay brings, the self belief and sense of purpose still eludes me - for now at least. But you have allowed me a clarity from which I hope to explore further, so thank you very much, for that.