Mist of Value
It is extremely trendy these days to talk about fulfilling job descriptions and value delivered and created to clients etc. There are so many individuals who are undeniably happy in their pursuit of individualistic hedonistic pleasures of life. Some are showcasing excellence in putting the right price tag on themselves. Others are nested in companies that have the same propensity. Yet another group consists of those who are hopping from place to place match-making between own self and job places without realistic value of their contribution to any place of work, either previous or future. With time they tend to lay strata of glass and ignorance with the real world and become consultants or experts. Illusion has always produced best results on human brain.
Recently I caught myself observing with joy those at the bottom of the pyramid (yet another buzz word), even here in Belgium. There is a pleasure seing someone happily engaged in a normal basic human occupation, e.g. plumbing, constructing, cooking or driving. Without exuberant salaries, without prospect of fency travel, yet so happy delivering great job to those of us who are in need of it.
And I thought - this what makes me instantly happy - seing busy people at work producing something that is clearly needed by others or busy creating or saving jobs, doing it with pleasure, fun and without puffed-up commercial flavour (with the killer bill at the end). Useful human activity - useful for others. Truly, without hypotetical assumptions of usefullness of the particular activity, without causing problems to the rest of us.
And yet ... what is the correct value and usefullness of an activity? Perhaps even an imitation of useful work could stimulate a demand? Endulging in a world of intangible value - being it in capital markets, in consultancy, in research, in IT or even in NGOs with their social work. And how not to slip to those HR matrix of positions and salary levels trying to equal individuals to a mere dot in their speadsheets' cell? Is the market right? Or is the world emmersed in an illusion grande with those on the top of the pyramid trying to create a mist of value?
Examples of things I am struggling to accommodate:
Closest to the fair society of my ideal was an Icelandic one. Yes, very expensive. Why? Because every basic human activity has a fair value attached to it. And everyone has their normal human needs, and more, covered. And exuberance of the rich is tamed by the law and public opinion, in a country where pokazukha (offensive showcase of wealth) is frowned upon.
At the end of all this long logic-less nonsense, there is one question to be asked - how to ensure that what you are doing in life is useful and will be useful well after you are done working on this?
Good night.
Recently I caught myself observing with joy those at the bottom of the pyramid (yet another buzz word), even here in Belgium. There is a pleasure seing someone happily engaged in a normal basic human occupation, e.g. plumbing, constructing, cooking or driving. Without exuberant salaries, without prospect of fency travel, yet so happy delivering great job to those of us who are in need of it.
And I thought - this what makes me instantly happy - seing busy people at work producing something that is clearly needed by others or busy creating or saving jobs, doing it with pleasure, fun and without puffed-up commercial flavour (with the killer bill at the end). Useful human activity - useful for others. Truly, without hypotetical assumptions of usefullness of the particular activity, without causing problems to the rest of us.
And yet ... what is the correct value and usefullness of an activity? Perhaps even an imitation of useful work could stimulate a demand? Endulging in a world of intangible value - being it in capital markets, in consultancy, in research, in IT or even in NGOs with their social work. And how not to slip to those HR matrix of positions and salary levels trying to equal individuals to a mere dot in their speadsheets' cell? Is the market right? Or is the world emmersed in an illusion grande with those on the top of the pyramid trying to create a mist of value?
Examples of things I am struggling to accommodate:
- People delivering projects in large companies that ultimately will be scrapped because the boss will leave to another position. The boss will never be responsible for wasting someone's time. The employee will never care about next project.
- Research that costed a fortune but delivered some irrelevant obscure paper stating "that more research is needed". Researcher got one more published article and chances are he will get another round of funding.
- Consultants delivering services without ever working in a real business environment or overblowing significance of their basic experience. Surprisingly, that sells.
- IPO advisers who have never created a single job and who care not that employees of the company to be floated on the market get less than 1000th of their salary.
Closest to the fair society of my ideal was an Icelandic one. Yes, very expensive. Why? Because every basic human activity has a fair value attached to it. And everyone has their normal human needs, and more, covered. And exuberance of the rich is tamed by the law and public opinion, in a country where pokazukha (offensive showcase of wealth) is frowned upon.
At the end of all this long logic-less nonsense, there is one question to be asked - how to ensure that what you are doing in life is useful and will be useful well after you are done working on this?
Good night.
posted by volodymyrvorobey at Sunday, March 18, 2007
1 Comments:
Valdase!
Ne mozhu dochekatysia koly vy pryjidete :)
arkhypchuk
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