Before settling down to put pen to paper, finger to keyboard doesn’t have quite the same ring, on this article the thought crossed my mind that my perception of money making may have been negatively influenced by the films I watched, books I read and songs I listened to growing up.
After all, how many films have been made about the virtuous, charismatic leading man who deservedly wins the girl’s love against all the odds when society favoured the rich, powerful but evil man who thought she belonged to him: Titanic, Dirty Dancing and Good Will Hunting to name but three. Indeed this storyline is so common that it has become a genre in itself. Just google ‘rich Girl, poor Guy films’ to see more examples.
You will notice however that, as well as being handsome, all the prospective male love interests in these films, Jack Dawson, Johnny Castle and Will Hunting are all talented, resourceful individuals, who, despite not coming from money, crucially carry with them the promise of being able to provide because, at the end of the day, there is nothing romantic about a bank overdraft and anyone who has lived in a situation where money is a real scarcity is more likely to sing from the ‘You gotta’ have a J.O.B. if you wanna be with me’ hymn sheet (millennials most of you will not get that reference so here is the link to enjoy it, if even ironically) rather than the ‘money can’t buy me love’ one.
The flip side of this argument of course is the sad reality that many people spend thirty to forty years of their lives in jobs they hate and that can make them miserable.
Miserable: I do not use the word lightly, it is not a mere synonym for slightly bored or not always skipping into work with a smile plastered on your face because, here’s the thing, nobody does that. Well, maybe somebody, but I am not sure I could be friends with them. Work, even jobs and careers we love and feel lucky to have, is at times stressful, challenging and repetitive. Even the singer of the successful rock band gets tired of singing the same songs every night. Even the professional footballer gets tired of playing football. That’s life.
Of course, the career holy grail is that job where we get to use our talents to the full, work with brilliant colleagues who we get along with, enjoy a good work-life balance and are well paid to boot. However even if you get that, and if you do count your lucky stars, there will still be times when you feel stressed, frustrated and angry in that job.
Nowadays there is a whole industry of self-help writing with a huge majority of it advising people to ignore market realities and to focus entirely on making money from their passions. This kind of thinking does have its benefits. Many people have turned their passions into a highly lucrative businesses but it must be tempered with a certain common sense and acceptance of reality.
Indeed there can be something liberating and concentrating about working in a career which you have chosen because it provides you with a sufficient level of pay to fund a lifestyle you enjoy. It allows you to clearly compartmentalise the role of work in your life and this clarity of purpose helps you to defend yourself against sub-par offers of employment wrapped up with the promise of payment by means of social rather than financial currency. Just ask any struggling artist how many times they have been offered payment by ‘exposure’ rather than the type of currency you can pay rent with as an example.
This exploitation of employees in industries where workers are expected to have passion for their work, a camp that is continually extending its boundaries by virtue of the DWYL (Do what you love) movement is the main focus of the article, In the name of love, by Miya Tokumitsu. Published in Jacobin magazine in 2014, the article stands as a literary watershed in the backlash against the DWYL brigade.
Tokumitsu’s article examines how the DWYL mantra can not only be used to exploit workers eager to enter a particular field but can also ‘end up devaluing necessary but unglamorous labour’ implying that those who are guilty of choosing, or being obliged to, to work primarily for payment are somehow denying their greater passions and are guilty of conservatism and a lack of imagination. You can read Tokumitsu’s full article here.
As with any research about people and what makes them tic the psychology between pay and job satisfaction struggles to provide black and white answers to the mysteries of the human psyche. Broadly speaking research shows that job satisfaction increases exponentially as our wages rise while these increases allow us to obtain financial security: to pay for the things we need and want in life. However the relationship between the job-satisfaction we feel and the remuneration we receive begins to change once we each a certain financial level of financial security.
Now the level of payment which must be reached before this the relationship begins to change significantly will vary from person to person, depending on what motivates the individual, and from country to country, depending on living costs and cultural influences. However researchers have sought to find an approximate number in various studies. One of the most cited examples of this research was published in a September 21st 2010 edition of the PNAS which is the official scientific journal of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
In this article they cited the cut-off point between rising job satisfaction and increasing pay levels as being 75,000 US dollars a year which by today’s exchange rates would translate to around 1,000,000 South African Rand a year. Now I know what the majority of you are thinking because I am thinking it too. The day someone pays me one million rand a year to do a job that doesn’t involve extreme physical pain I will cartwheel to work and home again.
Nevertheless we must try to factor in the cost of living differences between South Africa and the USA for this figure to have any relevance for us. In a city like New York the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment is 4,000 US Dollars a month. University fees cost an average of around 35,000 dollars a year. You can soon start to see how a family on one wage might have little change out of even a very generous pay packet and yet the research says that even in a country like the US where financial earnings are so closely related to social status, money, like everything else in life is subject to the law of diminishing returns.
What moves you? What makes you tic?
Extrinsic motivation is the motivation generated by the promise of outward, tangible returns on performance; these are usually financial but can also take the form of improved social status and image.
Intrinsic motivation is the motivation generated by the sense of meaning and accomplishment that an employee feels as a result of his/her work.
We are each of us driven by a mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations which cause us to behave the way we do and pursue the careers and life goals we do. In general terms some people are more extrinsically motivated than others and vice versa. Certain careers tend to attract people who are more intrinsically motivated and others tempt those who see the promise of high financial rewards as paramount.
Therefore getting the right mix between financial compensation and internal fulfilment in your career is a personal journey and one which must be tempered with an acceptance of the realities of the economy of our times, our geographical location, our personal earning power, needs and desires. Money, like everything in life, is subject to the law of diminishing returns but at what point those returns start to diminish and other things take priority comes down to the individual in question.
Written for CareerJunction by Mark Dempsey.
