When work is home

I've often heard people describe their workplace as a second home. They like being there, they say. They feel a sense of belonging, of purpose. They experience safety, acceptance, appreciation. The fact that they are working and collecting a salary is almost secondary to their enjoyment of their days there. They are eager to be there, in good humor when they are, and work long hours easily, without much stress and no resentment. The people they work with are like family; the management is consistently good-natured and supportive.

This is a surprisingly common story. In fact, there are times I could have described my own situation in these terms. It suggests a very positive idea: that the workplace is not necessarily harsh or cold to people. Further, these sentiments speak strongly for people's ability to adapt to circumstances. Whenever someone starts a job, it is a strange, stress-inducing situation. In time, you figure out which people you like and what you do not. Your duties tend to coalesce around the things you like and do best - and management, if they are intelligent, tends to support you when you're in your finest form. It is amazing how we can adjust to a situation not just to the point of toleration, but even beyond to a state of trust and even bliss.

Indeed, this is a situation that many would envy, and consider ideal. Most don't get to to have such an extreme, but even then, I hear people find the bright side of jobs that aren't especially enjoyable. Consider people who've done menial, low-paying jobs their whole lives. I imagine that the only way they get by is by approaching things in these terms. "I don't like the job," some say, "but I sure like the people."

This brings me to the other side of this story - the part that makes me pause and doubt. No matter how we might feel - no matter how things might seem - we are not at home when we are at our jobs. We are there to perform a fixed set of duties, for which we are compensated, but whose completion is primarily for the economic interests of others, and not for us. As welcome and as charmed as we might believe we are, the bottom line, however obscured it might be, is still present. We work only as long as the material interests of management are perceived to be satisfied. No matter how affable and supportive our manager might seem, the satisfaction of economic goals is the objective, and all other considerations come behind it.

Why, then, is this hidden so much of the time? Why do we gravitate toward work as if it were a home - a place of unconditional acceptance when it is most provably not so? It is one thing to adapt to circumstances - something we must do in order to survive, physically and mentally. Even people in dire or confined situations - such as in the armed services or even in prison - find a way to do this, and this is not to be faulted, but actually commended. It is quite another thing, though, when we lose sight of reality and forget that we are working at a job - a job whose completion is considered ahead of the well-being of the one who is performing it. If you do not think this is true, just ask anyone who has ever been fired or laid off. Any thought or hope that you are valued as a person disappears in the instant that you are quetly ushered behind a closed door, where you are gently informed of "restructuring" or "budgetary constraints."

Is this to say that we should not feel at home at our jobs? Well, not really. We are paid to do a job - a good job - and how can we do this if we do not feel safe and appreciated? If you have ever worked for someone who "had it in" for you - predisposed to seeing your faults - you know that is not a situation that lasts long. Indeed, companies are well aware that employees will work best in positive circumstances. They will be more enthusiastic, driven, and productive when made to feel welcome and supported. Some, such as Google, go all the way to the point of offering free food & even lodging to their employees - making the workplace practically indistinguishable from home (and Google freely admits the rationale for this is increased work hours). Indeed, we cannot fully blame ourselves for losing sight of the economic realities, especially when companies seem disposed toward hiding them in the first place. Yet, we are the ones who suffer when the reality is suddenly thrown in our faces.

I think that the very best we can do is attempt to realize that though the job may be, in the end, just a job - and that the feelings of comfort and warmth we get there may be fleeting and highly conditional - we can at least consider that maybe the relationships we form there are grounded in a greater reality, and that the respect and friendship we develop there is sincere. The job may not last - and in fact, we know that it won't. However, the friendships and loyalty that grow within the workplace can make the whole journey worth the trouble. It is within the timeless, unconditional trust of community - and not the four walls that hold it - where home really is.