Work

Mindset of Change

Ok, ready?

"Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy."

Khalil Gibran

It is an unfortunate fact that many of us work to live, and not live to work. I do not say this to glorify being a workaholic. I am also perfectly cognizant of the current discourse around capitalism and the alienation of labor that occurs in exploitative employment relations. I say this because I consider it to be one of my greatest privileges (and one that I have worked hard to attain) that I am able to direct my time and skillset towards an endeavor of my choosing and be paid for it. That is to say: I can more-or-less work where I want.

That isn't to say that I am immune to the reality of bills and debt, or that I can choose whatever job at any company and have it handed to me. I mean that I have built a skillset that is in high demand and that can be applied, with some effort, towards a wide number of industries and companies with different goals and level of value creation. Within reason, I can choose what I think is worthwhile and what I want to support, how I want to spend roughly 90,000 hours - 1o years or 1/3 of my life (medium.com/illumination).

Now, this kind of situation does not happen over night. It certainly requires some forethought. It also requires some luck and compromise. In addition to considering what you value, you need to pay the bills. Hopefully, you can also consider what you're good at, and what you enjoy doing. Building a completely new skillset is hard, and then there's building a career. But there are major wins and big milestones that make it worth it along the way.

I graduated with a BA in Russian and International Studies. I worked multiple part time jobs, and then fell into admin and legal marketing for 3 years before going to Dev Bootcamp. I've held a lot of different types of jobs at some point in my life - server, barista, PA, office grunt, designer, copy writer, event coordinator, marketer, editor, gallery attendant, research assistant, babysitter. Not all pleasant, but useful for getting a taste of many different types of work. I chose tech because it was a mentally challenging, deep field that paid well and seemed stable yet progressive. I also find a lot of value in making things. I had very little previous technical experience.

My first job as a software engineer was in advertising, an industry I was not super passionate about and have some issues with. But it was a solid job, where I found many good people and learned quite a lot. My second job I applied to because it gave me a nice pay raise, but also because it was in media and promised an approach to the news that I thought was really valuable. When I left that job, somewhat disillusioned, I decided that I had reached a sufficient level of financial safety and skill. I had learned how to solve hard problems in my chosen field. I turned my attention to doing something good and worthwhile with my time. I decided to work on climate change. I joined Commons (FKA Joro), a climate tech startup based in Oakland.

My rationale was that, as a software engineer with specific skillsets in web development, I could be most useful working on a consumer software product. Of course, many companies need web developers, but if the core product is solar panels, as a web developer I would probably be working on inventory management software or a web portal. Probably a chill gig, but I want to be where my work is the most valuable. Solving hard problems requires effort (you know, you're here), but I never mind work as long as its to a purpose.

Work/Life Balance

This is important. Although its an enormous boon to find a job that does something you care about and that also pays you enough money to live, it is also crucial to find a job that allows you the kind of work/life balance and autonomy that you need. Just because you can love your work doesn't mean that's all you love. Family, friends, civic participation, exercise, and hobbies deserve their own space.

This is where capitalism so often goes wrong. People will not love a job that exploits them and enforces a work/life balance that makes it impossible for them to live fully. And when people live in unhealthy ways, it is less healthy for the planet as well. We get takeout because we don't have the time to cook and eat a healthy meal, creating waste from containers, and supporting unsustainable food systems. We drive to work to save 15 minutes because we need those minutes to take our child to school, creating traffic and carbon emissions from gas. We leave our TV on all day to keep our dog company because we will be home late, creating carbon emissions from electricity. If you care about the environment (and caring for yourself is not enough), it is beneficial to live with enough time and space - to practice what has now become called 'slow living' (themomentum.com).

Of course, finding the perfect job is quite difficult, and it can take years. It can feel inaccessible. Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests, rather intuitively, that before we can care about things like the environment, we must have our basic needs taken care of. Broadly I agree with this. It seems like common sense.

On the other hand, although switching your job to work on climate related issues may not be feasible, it would be a bit much to write off any action. We still have the ability to care, and values should be at the heart of our decisions, once survival is taken care of. Plus, there are actually a lot of great knock-on effects for environmental action that benefit health and finances as superseding concerns. For example, Commons has found that people who join the app on average save $200 a month (thecommons.earth).

For many people, I suspect there is a great deal of wiggle room. An office job can have better recycling, or an opportunity to switch to renewable energy. A restaurant job can utilize composting, better sourcing practices, and more vegetarian dishes. Team building through trash pick up or tree planting; meat-free options in the dining hall; company benefits for public transportation or car pooling: there are many ways we can influence our work settings to do better. And at the end of the day, being the "green person" who helps the company transition to a more environmentally friendly standard is a way to stand out to the bosses.

Working for the planet

Adapting your work to be more climate friendly largely depends on you and your creativity. For a lot of people, I suspect Work will not be the first area of life tackled.

Especially if you are not used to thinking of your work as a career, only as a means to get by, or if you are early in your career, work may seem like an area of your life that you cannot control. Although for nearly everyone in the Western world, this is not entirely true, it can take a lot of effort and planning to change direction. I will try to cover this specifically in the early career section.

If you would like some specific guidance and ideas, here we are.

Note: I'm working on filling in each one of these. If you want to get the latest content as I write it, please subscribe!

1. Career direction (early career)
2. Career direction (mid and late career)
3. Advocacy at work
4. Work benefits

Don't fret. Finding the balance takes time and constant readjustment.

Maybe spend some time in Nature today. If you need convincing, check out this neat video on Japanese forest bathing: