Why workplaces lose meaning and how to avoid the trap

As the species at the top of the "pyramid of life," the condition of Homo Sapiens is absolutely pathetic. We can neither get food nor defend ourselves when alone. We are so delicate in build and defenceless in our body constitution that we seem to be an evolutionary disaster. We have the peculiar distinction of being the only species that will starve to death if left alone in a remote forest. Not even a worm or spider will ever face this situation of survival. We are completely out of touch with the world around us; none of our natural instincts work.

How about our society, which provides strength to our species? Do our instincts work inside cities with man-made environments? Our instincts may have made sense in the nomadic pre-agricultural and even until our parents'?generation. But, the present seems dystopian in nature. All the work we do is completely abstracted away from our natural instincts. All the employees at work are desperately working to make "money," "power" and "fame." The more they make, the unhappier and more stressed they are.

We are unique because we do not live in the real world of the present. Most of us sacrifice our present for a future filled with glory, name and fame. We do not see how vacuous these daydreams are. If the present becomes a march of the Walking Dead, how can the future be any different? How can the future magically transform into a rich, colourful tapestry effused with joy and happiness? Most people do not want to accept that none of this future will ever materialize to them. Who can stop a deluded person from living a fantasy in their mind? If a very poor person is happy thinking that he is really rich and the richest person is unhappy thinking he is really poor, who is to blame? It is not the presence or lack of money that makes people happy or unhappy; it is their mindset. The delusions of grandeur in the modern world is the fantasy which keeps the wheels of society well-oiled and creaking forward.

Modern rewards of society revolve around abstract ideas like money, status, hierarchy, power, etc. None of these are real in the sense of having any material manifestation. These are all ideas of the mind. Each person has a different idea of what any of these terms mean, however we all pretend that we are working for the same goals. Power, status and money are inherently delusions of the mind. Currency used to be backed by real gold, but that has been abstracted away. Its value goes up and down in the world of economic theory and abstract mathematics. Money has become one more idea among the multitude of ideas that keep society afloat. The current workplace has become a mad rush to attain these ephemeral and illusory ideas that exist purely in the mind. Hindu Advaita and Buddhism have long advocated that all of what we consider "reality" in this world are just ideas in the mind. Modern civilization has proven that paradigm to be 100% correct. There is no reason for any of us to agree on these delusions, but we all do. This is truly the great Maya.

Next time one sees someone trying to gain money, power or status, remember there is nothing objective or material about these terms. These terms become alive inside the mind of the person who desires it. If a fool hiding inside a house thinks that he is the most powerful person in the world, is he any different from a billionaire who thinks that without him the world would completely collapse? Was there really a deluge after the death of emperors who said, "Après moi, le déluge?" Are these use cases any different? Anybody can be as deluded as they want. This is the curse of modern society, which has abstracted itself into a mental plane without any objective meaning.

Economists have noted a peculiar fact about developed and richer economies. The more money the individual makes, the less free time they have. This is called the optimisation of the time value of money. If every hour of work is worth a couple hundred dollars, why rest? The goal is to make as much money as possible to enjoy life. However, that happy day never arrives. Secondly, one is close to death with every passing second. Everything can be recovered in life except time. One is stuck working harder to get promotions. Once promoted to executive levels, the time to pursue hobbies with family or in self-development drops to zero. Is the sacrifice worth it? Does one want to be like Mark Hurd, who, even one month before he unfortunately died of a steadily developing problem, was busy trying to make close to 80 million dollars a year at Oracle?

Many fear that once they get off the hamster wheel, they cannot find an equivalent high-paying job. One of the people I knew very well was one of the best technology analysts in the world. CEOs feted him during analyst calls. He, however, had terrible interpersonal skills. He moved from an analyst to a senior director in another company. He left that company to become a senior manager elsewhere, changed company to become a VP and is now back to being an analyst. I admire his guts. He changes jobs every two years, often gets a 100% drop in compensation, then receives a 200% increase in compensation, which again falls and increases with every year. He lives his life and has always been true to who he is. He has never tried to improve his people skills and would instead want others to change themself to suit him. He knows that there are innumerable companies in the world, and unlike most of his peers, he is comfortable jumping companies and taking risks.

Most employees look at companies as a family and managers as a father figure. This is all nonsense. Being asked to leave the company is treated as being asked to leave the family home. They turn emotional and angry and put a lot of blame on themselves.?The truth is that all companies live and die by their quarterly earnings. If the stock valuation falls, a certain percentage of employees are fired, often for no reason. It is silly for employees to think that there is an issue with themselves. A senior VP once told me that she was fired from a manufacturing company early in career for non-performance. However, she is the head of HR for a famous company now and highly respected. People change all the time, and we forget to apply that rule to ourselves. We are not who we were a year?ago and, without knowing our knowledge undergo a massive self-transformation every couple of?years.

Going back to my example earlier, most of us do things we do not like. Many students choose the highest paying job out of university because they think that job is the best they can get. A proper selection involves evaluation across a rubric of multiple parameters like salary, learning, work-life balance, career advancement, promotions, the awesomeness of manager, company growth, benefits, time for family, team culture and a dozen other factors. Every parameter has to be considered to make a decision, not just compensation.

Companies use high salaries to hide internal issues. High-salary folks are often the first in line to get fired. The work pressure is magnified for the highly compensated workers as their salary acts like a golden handcuff. No other company will pay as much, and greed forces employees to work for companies even when they do not like the work. A better model is to find a company and role where you can follow your dharma and your mission in life. Dharma is a well-known term that originated in India, but all of Asia knows its meaning. Dharma is a intersectionary point where you create a positive impact on the world, have a lot of enthusiasm and can work hard without external motivation. We all knew what this intersection was when we were children, but unnecessarily sacrificed this interest as we aged on the altar of Mammon. Making money is not bad, but it should done by staying true to who we are. Stay closer to your dharma, and you will be a happier person. We will then be more in touch with the flow of the universe, as evolution had intended our existence to be.