Sinecure

Definition: a job that you are paid for even though it involves little or no work.

I always saw myself having a corporate career. And in the ‘narrow nineties’, options were limited. The 70-hour work week debate wasn’t a reality or a thing that people fumed over. With no email, no mobile phone and not even a desktop computer available to managers, work meant and remained squarely in the physical and in-person domain. You went somewhere for a few hours, got some work done and came back home at an appointed hour. Moreover, salary packages were modest, but corporate jobs came with many add-on benefits. This was apt for the nineties: an era of scarcity when there was a long waitlist for getting a landline phone connection, a gas connection, and any kind of motor vehicle. So, a job that had these things covered – referred to as ‘perks’ – was coveted.

So, here’s what the perfect job looked like to me in the mid 90s – one that paid well, had loads of perks and didn’t demand too much by way of personal ambition. The sinecure.

I’ve been fascinated with the word sinecure since a long time. At University, preparing for the MBA entrance examinations or securing a good score in the GRE required me to expand my lexicon and understanding of the English language. So I prepped by studying ‘word lists’: learning new, often esoteric words and then practising to apply those in casual conversations or as clues at dumb charades, while lounging in the college common areas. Words like juxtaposition, crepuscular, egregious, interlocutor, obfuscate, perspicacious, sanguine and my favourite – sinecure, belonged to this phase of my life.

New words I learned mostly stayed as mere concepts and definitions, to be recovered and applied in linear contexts – a Q&A or multiple-choice question asked in an exam. But a few words would seep into my consciousness once I’d actively use them during a casual conversation. This occurrence couldn’t be forced and there was a certain organic quality to it. In the case of ‘sinecure’, the organic usage in a conversation happened at a party hosted by my seniors for us freshers at FMS (my alma mater). At some point during the evening, having imbibed and mixed one too many beverages, I got into a high-spirited exchange of views with some seniors about what I thought was my dream company and sector – was it an FMCG company and would I be ok to spend my initial 5-7 years travelling through small town and rural India? Or was it in ‘finance’ and would I be ok to wear a ‘tie’ to work daily, sit in air-conditioned environs dealing with nice smelling people, pitting my wits against people with high IQ and low EQ? Or was it in advertising, wearing shorts & t-shirts to work, dreaming up clever, witty lines to entice prospects to buy brands they may not need, but get them to want them? As the discussion turned more animated, I deftly tried to avoid getting pinned down. And finally exclaimed: ‘What I need, friend, is a sinecure!’ The effect this had on the group was immediate: everyone went quiet for a few seconds, unsure of how to react, because most didn’t know what it meant. And so, I explained – ‘it’s a high paying job with little work’. Everyone burst out laughing and hat-tipped my ‘english’ proficiency, acknowledging that such dexterity with language would give me an edge at GD (group discussions) selection rounds and interviews.

Cut to present, I heard a new interpretation of this word and its usage a couple of days ago : a sinecure meant a ‘safe haven’. And, ‘Sinecure’ instantly resonated with me nearly 30 years after the word had first made it into my vocabulary.

As I reflect on the ‘why’, I realise that my context makes it so. After nearly 3 decades in a corporate career, one thing was clear to me – in the market economy there are no sinecures. Corporate jobs come with several conditions – objectives, responsibilities, accountabilities, a commitment to productivity and limitless ambition. Above all, today’s work culture requires one to be comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty, the two pillars of a VUCA world. I am deliberately ignoring volatile and complexity, as I believe that we are pretty well conditioned to factor, especially in the post-Covid era.

A safe haven is one that will be devoid of ambiguity & uncertainty. It will be a place where you feel at ease, where you can be yourself, not feel pressured to be a version that matches someone else’s brief. This does not mean it is a retreat. Such safe havens can be energizing, spurring you to be more productive, stretching your boundaries and striving for excellence.

All of us should have our safe havens. The place we go to, to feel our authentic self. This is not just about a physical space, but one where we are in the company of people who are supportive, constructive and judge us truthfully and fairly. It is a place of challenge, of constructive conflict and with safety nets in place for us to practice things that we would otherwise not get to do for fear of failure, fear of judgement and the simple fear of not knowing how-to.

But is this ‘place’ a luxury afforded only by the rich & privileged? What if you have a regular job that requires time spent at work, accompanied by commutes and other responsibilities? It is important to understand that your safe haven is a way for you to slip into a certain mindset. A mindset where you feel unbound, feel authentic and feel like you can experiment sans any judgement. Sliding into such a mindset doesn’t require a physical place to visit; it requires one to create an environment that allows you to slide into this mode. I ask my friends in the creative field how they find the time & energy to do their best work amid managing teams, families, juggling meetings, clients, and everything else that keeps them busy. Each had their own process and method, and I found no commonality in any of their methods. But I think I now understand the common thread: each of them has a way to retreat into their safe haven mindset, where they can do what they do best. The methods and triggers to get into this zone are varied but the zone is vital for them to generate their best.

Finding our triggers and prompts that allow us to slip in and out of the ‘safe haven’ mindset can be enormously liberating. The prompts, however, can change over the course of our lifetime. What works at 25, may not (will not) work at 50.

The meaning of Sinecure comes a-full-circle for me. My quest for Sinecure at age 23 was fruitless: I didn't much care to find it beyond the dictionary meaning. Arriving at my resonance with Sinecure in my 50s - as a safe haven, a state of mind where I can be at my best - makes me want to keep discovering it for myself.