The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
By: Alain De Botton
Published: June 2, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7710-2603-4
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
"However powerful out technology and complex our corporations, the most remarkable feature of our modern working world may in the end be eternal, consisting in an aspect of our mentalities: in the widely held belief that our work should make us happy", writes best selling author Alain De Botton in his thought provoking philosophical examination of the world of work The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. The author examines what is often a disconnect between meaningful work in a person's life, and the impersonal structure of many modern business organizations.
Alain De Botton, in a series of interrelated essays, compares and contrasts what he considers the deeper meaning derived by the artist and artisan, with that of the corporate employee. At the same time, the author recognizes the symbolism of the results of the corporate world, in providing a sense of art in their own right. In the contemporary corporation, that artistic impulse is expressed in products and services that are beautiful in their own right. On the other hand, the author notes that products are often marketed that fill what he sees as the empty void resulting from the alienating effect of society. That disconnect is expressed in the relationship people feel toward their often self defining jobs, and their loss of personal satisfaction with their work.
Alain De Botton (photo left) expresses a rather pessimistic view of employment in the Western world today. He laments the loss of the sense of the personal as expressed by craftspeople and artists. That inner directed work exists, for the author, only on the fringes of society. The corporate output of products, while often artistic in design, ultimately fail to endure like those of the artist or artisan. At the same time, the author points out that work was not always accorded a sense of dignity. The pre-modern view that work was either servitude or a penance for the sinful nature of humanity, and would lead to personal degradation. As a result, the modern outlook that paid employment and personal satisfaction were intimately entwined, became part of the Western thought.
For me, the power of the book is despite the author's clear eyed understanding, that the promise of personal satisfaction resulting from work, has failed to live up to its promise. Products are designed to fill the empty voids created by societal alienation, as an artificial and temporary reprieve. People fail to achieve their true potential due to the structure of modern employment. The author suggests a more humanizing approach to the world of work, that emphasizes the potential of the employees. To create more satisfying work, the organization must develop more human based opportunities to express the innate artistic impulse in people. The result will be a reconnect between meaning and work at the deepest personal level.
I highly recommend the idea challenging book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain De Botton, to anyone seeking to understand the deeper meaning of employment in the modern world. The ideas presented will cause the reader to rethink previously held ideas about the relationship between work and human potential. As a result, the author pulls no punches in describing how the promise of meaningful work, has not been fulfilled. That analysis throws down the gauntlet as a challenge to reorganize work to achieve that objective.
Read the moving examination of employment The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain De Botton, and develop a deeper understanding of the importance of work in people's lives. As a result, the reader will can accept the challenge to create a more personally meaningful workplace, that takes human needs seriously as part of the company mission. Your organization will become stronger and more humanized when you restore balance to the job.
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