Yesterday a headline in one of the Finnish tabloids told us that a famous model (in Finnish scale, that is) was choosing to have both a career and children. This was shocking to the reporter writing the story.

That got me thinking.

If having both a rewarding career and a family is interesting enough to get on the front page of a national newspaper, something in our definition of career must be terribly outdated. If a career is still defined by only work and how much money you make it’s no surprise that people are unhappy, work overtime and spend virtually no time with their families.

My favorite band Switchfoot has a better definition:

This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

To me a career is a question about who you want to be, as a whole and not just during the 8 hours (or more) you spend at work every day.

It might be that you really want to be the guy or girl working crazy hours – because that’s just who you are. Well, I guess it’s fine with me then. After all, no one else can tell you what a good life is like for you. That’s something we all have to find out for ourselves. But for me that’s not who I am.

No conflict between work and family

The age-old conflict between work and family is about to be resolved.

If you look at your life as a whole and plan accordingly you’ll make your career such that it contains all the elements that are important to you. In my case that means that I need to be able to do something that allows me to be creative and make an impact on the world. That could be programming, writing or doing business. But I also need to dedicate a big part of my time to my wife and son. Otherwise I just won’t be happy.

So, following my own advice, that’s what I use as a starting point for creating my career plans.

Not what my boss thinks I should do.

Not what would make me the most money.

Not what would give me the quickest promotions.

After I started thinking about careers like this, I’m much more relaxed: I don’t have to be fighting for promotions or getting the most attention at work. My life is about so much more. This job is just one part in my career plans.

Do what you are best at

A fellow blogger Graham Lutz put it well in his comment to my question about what motivates him:

Being my best motivates me. I feel my best when I’ve been productive.

I think it’s a great advice for planning your career. Plan to be your best. Do the things that you feel great doing, that feel like you. At your best.

To me this blog is one of those things that most people would see as a hobby, but according to my new definition I say that it’s an important part of my career. I don’t want to be just a programmer, but also a writer. And this is the one place where I can be my best on that front.

I encourage you to find the areas in your life on which you can be your best and then work on the ones important to you. Think about the long term commitment but don’t start something just because you think that it’ll make your life better in two years. Do things that you enjoy doing today that will also give you long term benefits.

For example this blog is something I really enjoy writing, but I also have well laid plans on how it will further enhance my life in two years’ time.

If you are a programmer, find out which part in software development is the one you are interested in – and just do that. Don’t get fooled into thinking that being promoted to a management position is the only career move there is. Actually, being promoted will probably just take time away from the other aspects in your career (family, own projects). But if managing is the one thing you like most, then go for it. Just remember that this is your life and you are the one responsible in making it a great one.

A bad career move doesn’t mean turning down a seemingly great work offer. It means doing something that makes you feel unhappy.

Motivation is a funny thing: Without it we don’t function that well, but when we feel motivated we can do anything.

So, the best thing a boss could do would be to make his people motivated. There is just one problem: we all get our motivation from different things.

That’s why in this post it’s your turn to tell me what you think: What motivates you to wake up every morning, get to work and do your stuff? Check what others have said and share your thoughts in the comments.

And just to get you in a perfect brainstorming mood, here are some links and ideas that motivate some people:

1. Money
2. Getting promoted
3. Financial freedom
4. Having an impact on the money you make
5. Making a difference in the world
6. Making people smile
7. Being happy
8. Working with great people
9. Learning
10. Solving problems
11. A great working environment
12. Having fun while working
13. Being unforgettable
14. Meeting new people
15. Getting on TV
16. Being able to spend more time with your family
17. Reading e-mail
18. Becoming who you want to be
19. A better desk
20. Fear of punishment

Now it’s your turn. Go ahead, use the white space and tell me and the rest of the world what makes (or would make) you enjoy your work and feel motivated in doing it!

How much money do you make per hour?

It’s a simple calculation: just divide your monthly salary by your working hours.

But we often forget that many of us work more than just the regular hours. It’s easy to stay half an hour or an hour late per day. Not to mention the crunch times at the end of projects.

We work overtime.

And for most of us that time is not compensated in money.

Taking that into account, recalculate your hourly pay. Did you notice a drop in your salary? That’s because you’re giving your employer some work for free.

You should stop doing that. Now.

Or maybe you are one of the lucky ones who get extra money for staying late at work. But even then overtime isn’t good for you. Life isn’t all about work, you know.

Why overtime is evil

My advice (I’m trying to follow it myself as well) is simple: just refuse to do overtime. Here’s why:

1. When working overtime, you are giving your work away for free.
2. If the deadline set for your project is set too tight but you manage to finish on time by doing overtime work, you can be sure that the next deadline will be as tight as this one. If not tighter.
3. Working overtime makes you lazy during the regular hours. You fool around because you think that you can always catch up by working a few extra hours. If you don’t count overtime as part of your daily routine, you’ll work on your tasks more efficiently.
4. Working overtime makes you tired. And when you’re tired, you are much more likely to make errors that you’ll spend the next morning fixing up.
5. Being constantly tired and working non-stop will just burn you out.
6. Your family and friends would like to have you around every now and then as well.
7. In most cases your boss exaggerates the importance of the deadlines set for your projects. If most of the software projects miss their deadlines and the industry is still rather successful, I would say that missing deadlines can’t be that crucial.
8. In fact, most of the deadlines you see in software projects aren’t deadlines at all – they are just goals or worse yet, dreams. Some managers even try to make your deadlines as tight as possible to pressure the poor developer. If you need to work overtime to reach your deadline, it’s not your fault, it’s just poor project management.
9. If you work overtime, you put pressure on the rest of your team to do the same.
10. Working overtime doesn’t really make you a hero - although your superiors like to make it look like that.

How to avoid overtime

Just say no.

You need to make a conscious decision not to do overtime ever again. As long as you still think somewhere deep in your mind that hard work makes you a hero, you won’t stop doing it. The first step is to learn the mantra: “Overtime is evil” by heart.

When you agree completely, you can move on to the following tips:

1. Set an alarm to go off when your hours are full. When the alarm rings, go home.
2. Don’t do other people’s work. Trust others to do it for themselves.
3. Delegate.
4. When at work, work. Don’t spend too much time chatting with your co-workers.
5. Avoid meetings.
6. Do the important tasks first. This way if your day ends before you have had the chance to finish all of your work, it doesn’t matter that much.
7. Come in early. In the morning the office is quiet and you can concentrate better. If you have a door, close it occasionally to get some efficient working time.
8. Let everyone know that you are not doing overtime anymore. This way they won’t expect you to be available at all times.
9. Try to get your work mates to quit doing overtime as well (tip: send them a link to this article)
10. Plan appointments after work. This way if you are asked to do overtime, you can just say that you cannot stay any longer because your friends are waiting for you.

If you have other proven tricks for avoiding overtime, please share them in the comments!

Remember that the real hero isn’t the one who sacrifices his life for the company’s sake, but the one who takes care of her life as a whole and stays stays fresh and productive by not working too hard.

When my son was two weeks old I wrote one of my most popular posts so far, Getting things done with a baby in the house. In that post I explained my rather optimistic plans on how to continue with all my goals as a father. Now Oiva is two months old so it’s about time to take a new look at the topic.

The formula I presented in my original post was rather simple:

1. Simplify by dropping out the things you don’t find that important
2. Concentrate better by planning a good schedule for all of your tasks
3. Apply the schedule… and accomplish your plans

Sounds good… Until reality hits you.

You can get (some) things done

1. A baby sleeps for about 12-16 hours per day, sometimes even more.So wouldn’t you think that there’s plenty of time to do whatever you want? But there is a catch: my son only sleeps when he’s being carried by someone. Some kids prefer being pushed in their carriages. But what’s common to all of them is that they rarely just sleep and let their parents mind their own businesses.

   This means that you can get things done, just as long as you choose your things correctly.

   A few days ago we spent the whole day at the Finnish Housing Fair. We walked around a rather big fair area visiting different houses and collecting ideas for decorating our home. It was great, Oiva was like a little angel. Here’s the trick: I knew that Oiva likes to sleep when carried, so I took him on my arm and let him stay there the whole time.

2. Children (usually) have two parents. If you can get your spouse to take care of the child for some time while you concentrate on your tasks that will help you get them done. Once again the trick is to choose your tasks well!If the thing you want to get done is useful for your wife or husband as well, she will be OK with the arrangement. If it isn’t… well… it’ll take much more persuasion.

   Today I decorated our living room by covering one of the walls with wallpaper. It was something that my wife and I planned together and both wanted to get done so she happily took care of our son and I got the wallpaper in place.

Routine things are harder

But if you think about the list of things I described as my goals in my original posts you notice that neither of these examples was on the list. The problem is that most of the things I outlined in my original posts cannot be done in this manner. They all require me to concentrate, so doing them while carry Oiva around the house isn’t really an option. And they aren’t really things that my wife would choose if it would be up to her to decide how I spend my time.

So, after two months many of my plans have been dropped or delayed due to the lack of efficient time to spend on them.

I haven’t had a morning appointment with myself after the first few weeks as a parent and I haven’t even touched my thesis. But then again I have been blogging almost as actively as I had planned, and I’ve been able to follow some RSS feeds and even read some books (although it takes me much longer to finish a book nowadays than before Oiva).

Is there a solution?

Yes, and no.

1. You just can’t do it all. So the first thing to do is to simplify some more. From your original short list, choose what you really really want to do. To me this means postponing my thesis still a bit more. I can do it later just as well.
2. Find a flexible way to work on your number one goal. Babies aren’t looking at their watches and they aren’t exactly good in patience either. So, if the baby doesn’t wait for you to finish your work before getting your attention, you need to be the flexible one. For example in blogging, try to work on your posts when your child is sleeping in his bed. Write posts in advance so if you slip from your schedule you won’t be missing your posting slots, or make your posting schedule more flexible.
3. Be patient. If you can’t get your tasks done, don’t fall in despair. Think about your baby and the great family you have. And remember that the most important thing you can do is to be a mother or father. You can continue on your own goals when you have time. If you lose one or two days because your kid doesn’t sleep at all, don’t let it put you down. Be with your family and continue with your goals when you have a better moment.

And actually, if you think about it, what’s the problem?

I have a great son, so it’s just normal that he becomes the center of my world. If some of my own goals have to wait, it’s not a problem for which I need to be looking for a solution. It’s just the way life works.

Enjoy your children, and get something done!

Harry looked from Cedric to the cup. For one shining moment, he saw himself emerging from the maze, holding it. He saw himself holding the Triwizard cup aloft, heard the roar of the crowd, saw Cho’s face shining with admiration more clearly than he had ever seen it before… And then the picture faded, and he found himself staring at Cedric’s shadowy, stubborn face.

“Both of us,” Harry said.
“What?”
“We’ll take it at the same time. It’s still a Hogwarts victory. We’ll tie for it.”

Cedric stared at Harry. He unfolded his arms.
“You – you sure?”
“Yeah,” said Harry. “Yeah… we’ve helped each other out, haven’t we? We both got here. Let’s just take it together?”For a moment, Cedric looked as though he couldn’t believe his ears; then his face split in a grin.
“You’re on,” he said. “Come here.”

Today is an important day for all of us Harry Potter enthusiasts all over the world. The seventh and last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be published in only a few hours from now. There are many open questions on every one’s lips: Who is going to die? Will Harry beat Voldemort? Is Harry going to get back together with Ginny? On which side will Severus Snape be in the end?

But there is one thing that we already know for sure: once again, just like in all the previous books, Harry Potter will continue to bravely do what he believes is right and not what other people expect him to do. By doing this he sets us a great example on how we should live both our personal and professional lives.

Here are some tips from Harry on how to live up to your values and make the best out of your life:

1. Hang out with friends who share your values: Ron, Hermione, and many other friends are always there for Harry to keep him true to himself and his dreams. Each of them have their distinct, important roles. So far in none of the books has Harry handled his adventures by himself.
2. Find mentors who support your values: Harry has been lucky enough to have studied in a school lead by a great wizard, Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore has taken lots of time to give Harry special training and support to prepare him for the battles that are still ahead. Most importantly Dumbledore has shown a great example in loving and trusting your friends.
3. Have good enemies: It’s not like Harry chose his enemy. Voldemort is not someone you’d pick if you were given a choice. But it’s clear that having a clear vision of who or what you’re fighting against will give you strength to fight it. When you know what will happen if you don’t fight for your values, and you don’t like what you see, you fight twice as hard.
4. …and don’t be too afraid to name them: This is something I’ve always admired about Harry. When everyone else is so afraid of Voldemort that they refer to him as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who, Harry always just says his name – without even thinking about it.
5. Be curious: Curiosity brings Harry to trouble but it also gives him a chance to show his conviction and live up to his values. If he would have just sit back and wait see what happens, most of his adventures would never had taken place. This is something that I find really important: if you want to make a difference with your life, you should actively seek situations to do it.
6. Break some rules if necessary: When you see that a person you thought to be dead is wandering on your school’s corridors, it might make sense to put on your invisibility cloak and go check out what’s the deal. Even if it’s forbidden to walk around at night time.
7. Be loved and dare to love: In the books love is often mentioned as Harry’s greatest strength and the one thing that separates him from Voldemort. As a baby Harry survived Voldemort’s attacks because his mother loved him so much, and that love is still one his fondest memories that carry him through the darkest of times.

And finally, as Harry says in the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: “I love magic”.

Every Wednesday is a Green Programmer day here at JarkkoLaine.com.
Take a look at other Green Programmer articles.

Some day I want to go all the way: drop the office and become as green as I possibly can as a programmer. But it won’t happen overnight. And while I’m dreaming my big dreams it might well be that suddenly I notice that it’s too late and the damage has already been made. So I think I need to do my share also now, even if I can’t yet go all the way.

Here are 10 small actions that you can take even if you don’t have the luxury of deciding about your working environment and the rules of the office:

1. Use a laptop. Using a laptop machine instead of a regular desktop PC will reduce your electricity usage a lot. A typical desktop PC uses about 65 to 250 watts whereas a laptop uses only 15 to 45 watts. If you can’t get a laptop, an LCD monitor helps a bit compared to a typical CRT monitor.
2. Turn off your computer when you leave your desk. This is easy: When your computer is turned off it consumes less energy than when it’s turned on. You can start by turning off your computer when you go home after work. When you have gotten used to that you can move to the next stage and turn your computer off during your lunch break. If you have a laptop, putting it to sleep mode during meetings and coffee breaks should be no big deal either.
3. You don’t need your computer in every meeting. When you have a laptop it feels good to bring your computer to meetings with you. It makes you look professional, but it’s not necessary. Actually I think bringing your computer along usually just distracts you from the actual discussion – a notebook and a pen do just fine. This way when you go to a meeting you can turn your computer off, and again save electricity.
4. Read documents from your screen. I’m not sure how many programmers actually have this habit of printing documents (and sometimes even code) out so that they are easier to read, but I do. And I think it’s a bad habit from which I need to recover. If I have a document on my screen that I want to read, I can just as well read it from there – no paper is needed.
5. Send documents by e-mail. If you deliver your documents to your colleagues on paper they have no chance to decide if they want to save paper and read your text from their computers.
6. Turn off the lights. The sun is the best light source we can get, so you should try to use it as much as possible. Ideally during daylight we wouldn’t need any lighting at all. But sometimes it just isn’t possible: for example the office I work in doesn’t have that many windows, it’s more like a big hall and I’m sitting in the middle of it. If your office is like this, use lights as you need them, but turn them off when you leave your desk. And most importantly: don’t leave lights on for the whole night. And turn off the lights when you leave the toilet.
7. Don’t stay late. To make the effect of the turning off the lights more powerful you shouldn’t stay too late at the office. The longer you stay the longer you’ll need to be using your lights. If you can benefit from natural lighting it might make sense to also time your working time so that the time you are at the office is the one that is lit by the sun.
8. Don’t turn on too many lights. Often when I enter the office early in the morning I just turn on all the lights although there is only a handful of people at work at that time. It would be much wiser to just turn on my own light. This way I wouldn’t be spending electricity in lighting an area in which there is no one enjoying it.
9. Bring your own lunch. By cooking your own lunch instead of buying something packed in plastic you create less garbage and save on plastic. Another option which can be great for the office spirit would be to cook something together. If your office is friendly enough, I think you should try it (and let me know how it went).
10. Ask your boss if the company could do something more. When you feel that you have done your best within the boundaries set by your employer, you can go ahead and ask if the company could take the next step. After all, asking never hurts and if you’re lucky enough your boss will share your concern and agrees to do his part in going green.

At the end of the day I think what matters most is the attitude. If you feel that there is an urgent need to change our habits I’m sure you’ll find ways to do something even in the most controlled working environment – and in doing so also get your work mates interested and involved. Feel free to use the comments section to share your experience and ideas!

Every Monday is a Perfect Workplace Monday at JarkkoLaine.com. Take a look at other posts in the series.

One of my bosses once said that a you know that a workplace is great when you can’t wait to get back to work after your summer holidays.

I think it’s a great definition.

And it makes a great test: If you feel the same way about your work as this guy does, your workplace might well be perfect. If not, maybe it’s time to either fix it or find a new one.

The first step to take when you notice that your workplace isn’t perfect is to figure out what your perfect workplace actually would be like. It’s not an easy question, but the better you know yourself the easier it becomes to answer:

Your perfect workplace is a representation of who you are.

In your everyday life you do everything according to who you are and who you want to be. So why would you spend eight hours a day doing something that doesn’t represent who you are? Just acting like a standard piece in a standard corporate puzzle.

Here’s what I think you should keep in mind when thinking about a perfect workplace:

1. A perfect workplace is something different for all of us: When I first saw images from the Threadless offices I was amazed. The place really looks different – unlike the default cubicles this office has a personality. But although I really love what the Threadless guys have done with their office I wouldn’t want to work there. It’s just not me. I can see that it’s great, but it doesn’t match my personality.
   
   In my dreams I have a completely different sight: a peaceful cabin in the middle of the nature. A place where I can hear the rain and feel the wind while working on my code:
   
   
2. In a perfect workplace you have your own spot that feels like home. It could be a typical desk that you decorate in a way that makes you feel good (maybe add your family portrait or fill your wall with graffiti), or it could be a corner in a coffee shop -like environment. Whatever makes you feel at ease. That’s the only way you’ll ever enjoy coming to work. If you cannot relax at your desk you most likely won’t enjoy sitting next to it.
   
3. In a perfect workplace you work with people you like. If you like working with like-minded people of same age, that’s fine. If you want to be working with people from different cultural backgrounds or different age groups, that’s great too. Even if you don’t like working with anyone else than yourself, that’s fine. Just make sure that your workplace meets your preferences. You choose your friends so why wouldn’t you choose your work mates? After all you spend more time with them each day than your spouse.
4. In a perfect workplace you feel like you own the place. Or maybe it’s more like it’s your dad’s place – a place almost like your own. That means that you believe in what the company is doing, and want to work 100% towards that goal. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want you to make yourself believe in your corporate mantra. What I’d want instead would be that you would work in a company you believe in. Another thing is that your dad would certainly give you responsibility over your work – and he’d always tell you how your work is affecting the place in a whole. After all, you’d be inheriting the place at some point anyway. So, no secrets!

To put it short and to the point:

In a perfect workplace people come first.

Now ask yourself the question: “What does my boss put first? Is it the money, the process, his career, or is it really us, the people?” By asking this question you make sure that the people you lend your skills to (your valuable skills that is) are worthy of using them.

This was the short version of my definition of a perfect workplace. In the upcoming weeks I will continue on my quest for defining what a perfect workplace is and isn’t by addressing different questions one by one. But now, if you feel like it, why not share your ideas of a perfect workplace as well? What do you value in a workplace the most?

Lately I’ve been blogging a lot about environment friendly programming, and on this week’s Wednesday I started a free giveaway to send my copy of “An Inconvenient Truth” to one lucky commenter (the giveaway is still on, so go ahead and leave a comment – it won’t cost you a thing). So it’s not new for me to be talking about climate change and environmental crises in this blog. This time I’m pointing out a different kind of crisis which I am slowly starting to take seriously too: an energy crisis caused by running out of oil.

My brother has been talking about this for a few years already. For most of the time I have dismissed his thoughts as just some new conspiracy theories, but lately I’ve been starting to take him seriously. If he’s right, there are some pretty rough times ahead of us.

Let’s start with the facts:

1. Our economy and wealth is largely based on a supply of cheap oil. Just take a look around yourself: there is plastic everywhere, your car is running with oil, your electricity is created by burning oil, and so on.
2. Sooner or later we’re going to run out of oil. There is no denying this part of the story, oil takes millions of years to form, so we can fairly say that it’s not a renewable form of energy.
3. What people disagree on is how soon this will happen. The Peak Oil proponents say that it’s more likely that we run out of energy sooner than later. There have even been reports saying that we’ll be in trouble in less than three years, as early as 2010.
4. If this estimate is correct, we’re in deep trouble. The new forms of energy supplies that we’d like to use instead of oil just aren’t mature enough to support our ever growing energy needs.

For a while, let’s assume the theory is correct.

What it means is that in less than a decade we’ll be practically out of oil and that will in turn cause big shortages in electricity. As programmers we’re dependent of electricity, and personally I could even go as far as to say that I’m addicted to electricity. So, a world without (or with limited) electricity is something new and scary to me.

And here comes the big question: What would you do in a world without electricity?

In hopes of starting an interesting discussion and getting some new insight and ideas regarding the energy crisis, I’m asking you: what do you think of all of this?

What would you do if the world ran out of electricity, or if your electricity usage would be limited to only a few hours per day? Would you still try to make software or is there something else you’d do instead?

The floor is all yours. Clean the dust off your crystal ball, and take a deep look into our future!

Ta-da!

For the fist time in history JarkkoLaine.com is giving away a free product to one of its readers. As the subscriber count is still growing (meaning that it’s not huge yet) you actually do have a chance of being the lucky winner – unlike the giveaways held at bigger blogs or web sites.

Enough advertising, let’s get down to the topic instead. Yesterday I finished watching my copy of “An Inconvenient Truth“, Al Gore’s movie about the climate crisis, as he calls it, for the second time. The movie touches me on two levels: First, it has a profound message that requires us to take action, and that each of us should hear and understand. Second, Mr. Gore is a terrific speaker who really knows what he’s talking about (and he knows how to create a slide show).

As today is the Green Programmer Day here at JarkkoLaine.com, it was a natural choice for me to give this movie forward. It’s no use for me to watch it again over and over, it’s much better to give it away to someone who still hasn’t seen the movie.

What do you need to do?

Yeah, there is a catch. In order to be eligible for the draw you need to write a comment to this post. Make sure to include your e-mail address (it won’t be visible on this page and I won’t use it for any other purpose than this giveaway) so that I know how to get in touch with you in case you are the lucky winner. In your comment, answer one or more of the following questions:

What are you doing to prevent the climate crisis in your programming (or other) work? Is there something you think you could do more? Do you think your employee is doing enough to fight the climate change? Why, why not?

You can be as verbose or non-verbose as you like. More verbose will of course create more discussion, but in order to apply for the giveaway you don’t need to write a lengthy message.

How is the winner chosen?

The winner is chosen using randomly from all commenters to this blog post. Any comment entered before the draw will be eligible. The draw is done on Wednesday 18th of July (a week from today), and the result will be posted on next week’s Green Programmer blog post along with some of the most interesting and useful advice from your comments. I’ll also contact the lucky winner through e-mail to ask for his/her mailing address.

Watch the movie, let your friends see it and share your information. It’s still not too late to start working on saving the planet for our kids.

Imagine the following situation: You are at a wedding, sitting in a table with people you don’t know. You introduce yourself:
- Hi, my name is Johnny, nice to meet you.
- Well nice to meet you Johnny! Tell me, what do you do for your living?

Long silence.

This was the very question you were afraid people would ask. You knew they would, but you couldn’t prepare for it because you didn’t have an answer that would satisfy yourself.
- Well… I work with computers, you know… I’m a programmer… Coding… Computer Science… err… It brings the food on the table, you mumble.

The conversation moves on and you’re left with a feeling that you could have done better.

Or maybe you are one of the lucky ones and you even wait to hear that question. You are confident with your work and happy to tell people about it. You reply promptly:
- I like to talk to people and want to encourage others to do that as well, so I’m making people talk to each other more by working on this communication software.

Same job, two completely different descriptions.

The first Johnny was just doing a job – working on something to get the money and feed the family. Just like most of us. The second one was doing what he really enjoys, something that tells the world who Johnny is all about. Something that matches Johnny’s values.

What about you? What would you answer? I think that example is a pretty good test for finding out if you’re spending your working days being the best you can or if you’re just wasting your precious hours

Let me give you a few examples:

1. If you want to be fighting global warming, your company should be committed to fighting it as well. (Google is a great example)
2. If you want to help get rid of poverty, your company should be supporting people from developing countries either through their work or monetarily (and making sure that their business isn’t harmful for the poor).
3. If you want to make people friendlier, your company should have a friendly an open image.
4. If you want to take great care of your family, your company should let you work from home from time to time, and take time off when your children need you.
5. If you value freedom, your work should allow you to take responsibility on your actions and choose your ways of working yourself.

The list could go on forever as we all have different values and different values call for different jobs.

“That’s just some idealistic crap. We all know life doesn’t work that way”

Let me tell you something. The only reason why this sounds idealistic is because we’ve been programmed by Frederick W. Taylor and his successors to believe that work is only something we do to earn our living. In our philosophy we think that we sell our time to the Company and get some money in return. But that’s not how things are anymore (maybe they never were in the first place, I don’t know). Actually I think that it’s an old fashioned way of thinking that creates more problems than helps to solve:

1. When you work for money, you don’t find as much to enjoy in your work as you could. That leads to a lower productivity and happiness at work.
2. When you work for money, you won’t take responsibility on your company’s actions regarding important things such as taking care of the nature. While you take responsibility of your own actions in your free time, work is a completely different story.
3. When you work for money, it takes a toll from your free time. As human beings we have a need to work for our values, and if we can’t do it at work, we’ll do it after working hours – which should be the time for relaxing with the family.
4. Life is short. When you work for money, you slowly start to notice how quickly time goes by without you doing the things you think you are put on this planet to do. That’s a scary feeling.

This is what I’m saying: Make sure your values match with your work. If they don’t, try to find ways to change your work, or even get a different job. If you cannot find a job that suits you, create one yourself! Life is just too short for only chasing after money:

If we only got one try
If we’ve only got one life
If time was never on our side
Before I die I want to burn out bright

— Burn Out Bright by Switchfoot