Being an employee is stressful
I read that working to make others richer is stressful:
http://cbr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/33/2/57
Managing Envy and Jealousy in the Workplace
by Kim Dogan and Robert P. Vecchio
Negative emotion is a common experience for many employees. Competition for rewards, resources and recognition drives much of the animosity and ill feelings associated with employee envy and jealousy. In this article, the causes and consequences of employee resentment are highlighted. Factors that contribute to greater levels of employee resentment include reengineering, diversity and generational conflicts. In addition to reduced performance, dysfunctional consequences of negative emotion include stress, job dissatisfaction, withdrawal, retaliation and poor citizenship. The article concludes with a set of five specific suggestions for reducing and managing negative emotion at work: (a) giving consideration to emotional maturity at the time of hire, (b) using teams and participative management, (c) implementing an incentive system that supports employee cooperation, (d) encouraging open communication and (e) placing high achievers in mentor positions.
My conclusions:
Being an employee – i.e. working to get others richer – implies competition, animosity, resentment, jealousy and envy. Its consequences are stress, job dissatisfaction, withdrawal, retaliation and poor citizenship.
My suggestions:
Avoid working for making people rich altogether. If you feel like working, do it :
- to make yourself happy i.e. to get the “flow” experience
- to make your friends and/or family and/or community happier
teaching my daughter to ride the bike
My daughter is 7 and all her first grader friends can ride a bike in this flattish town we moved to from a mountain village. Their school sold all the bikes they used to keep for the kids, for 15,–€ a piece and I bought for both kids one. Yesterday I went with my daughter to the Stadtwald or rather ran after her, keeping her saddle in my grip , so she could have a feeling of security. By the time we reached the play ground I was swimming in my own sweat and rather out of breath. She generously allowed me a 10 minutes break, which I used to read a few pages from Kaminer’s “Mein deutsches Dschungelbuch” (=My German Junglebook”). In the meanwhile my daughter tried out all the swings and slides and then I had to start running and sweating again. After about two hours we arrived home: we were both happy. It was the so called “flow” experience of happiness, described by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. She went on drawing and reading and playing with the cat and fighting with her brother. I was physically so tired I could only lie in the bed and read the rest of Kaminer’s book. I found out that he will come to Wuppertal on May 30 to read from his works. I am going to go and see him and maybe drink a beer with him.
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