I was talking to a colleague today about my fantasies. Well, work fantasies and not even of the more extreme kind where I have all the money I ever need and can choose to do whatever I want, without having to worry about needing to earn on it. Wouldn't it be grand to be able to pick and choose work for the work and not the paycheck?
Fantasies...
But, what I was saying is that while I really love parts of my job there, I could very happily let someone else do the other parts,. I love the delivery of trainings (for the most part), but I dislike the organization of schedules. I love the planning of the delivery content, but I don't like the collating and creation of it. I love dealing with customers, I dislike the associated office work. Therefore, my "fantasy" in this narrow arena would be able to do the delivery work, but not the administration side of the equation. In order to do this, I would have to quit and become a contractor, which I probably could do, considering my ability to train is well and truly proven.
But this led to the conversation about an asymmetry in the workplace based on the evaluation by colleagues, where what they see and what the customer see are actually two very different skillsets and what they "judge" me on is the one that affects them the most, not the one I am hired for. I am hired to deliver engaging and valuable training events, not for the administration tasks, but these things go hand in hand and it is only the administration side of the equation that my colleagues really see. sure, if they did a little digging they would find the customer feedback on my core job of delivery, but it isn't visible when we work each day.
Now, I am not terrible at all of the inward-facing side of the business, but it is not my wheelhouse, nor do I want it to be, but when it comes to salary, it is what is seen as valuable inside most companies. This is actually kind of strange in some respects, as if for example we were playing a sport, it would come down to the ability to do the core job of playing the game itself, not the ability to do post-game paperwork. And in a sport, a premium is paid on the outward facing activity, the one that the customer (the crowd) sees, not the skills to put away the equipment after training.
It is an interesting asymmetry in most of the service industry, where the lowest paid workers are often the ones who are in the eyes of the customer, that are interacting with the customer, who are the face of the company for the customer and the interface between the customer and the company, a gateway for feedback for improvement and identifying opportunities.
Now, it isn't that I am poorly paid, but in my fantasy I would be able to get paid more, as I would be able to concentrate my energies on where they generate the most value for the company, and myself. If I was able to deliver a couple more trainings a month, I would be able to pay the salary of someone better suited to the administration side of the business. If I didn't have to do any of the admin work, I would be able to deliver more than a couple a month extra and most likely, deliver a higher quality training as my attention and prep would be geared toward "game day", rather than the inward facing activities of the company.
But, as I told my colleague, this fantasy has its flaws as well, a while I would likely be able to do this, I enjoy having the colleagues I do and as a contractor, I would again be working alone, as I have in my business and as a freelancer for the last 18 years. On top of this, I would miss out on another part of the business that I enjoy, which is the strategizing and planning for long-term positioning, something that I am quite good at and enjoy. The problem is, until I am "vetted" as a company person who can do all the admin work, I am not really going to get the advancement in the company required to have my voice heard directly, so I have to feed ideas through proxies.
I think the future of the gig economy is going to be interesting, a while it will empower many people to better match their skillsets to where they are needed, it is also going to allow people to avoid the things that they don't like, even if there are some values and the opportunity to grow through doing them. I think that when we can pick and choose too precisely for ourselves, we tend to be short-sighted and miss long-term opportunities down the track. There are many ways that this manifests in our experience, but there are always consequences to actions and outcomes to the decisions we make, even if down the track, we do not recognize that we were the catalyst for the result, or the thing that stood in the way for getting to where we might want to be.
I know that most people's fantasy about work is to not work, but I see a great deal of personal value in working, as it brings me a sense of purpose in some respects, plus it opens me up to experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise. Every day I am at the office, there are new opportunities that fall into my path through the people I interact with and the discussions I have. While *I fantasize about only playing game day, over time I would actually end up with a lower level of knowledge and skill as a lot of the random of my daily routine would be missing, even though right now, a lot of the daily routine is repetitive. The office space is kind of like gym for me, I don't like performing all the exercises, but it is good for me to use my whole body, even the parts that are weak.
But the real fantasy is to have all the skills, without having to train at all.
Taraz
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