...But Seriously

"You shouldn't take work so seriously, or personally."

I've heard this statement stated to me countless times over the years and I just don't understand what anyone means by this. How does one not take their job seriously? Even more so, how does one not take their job personally?  More importantly, why is this a problem?

To qualify, I generally heard these statements when I was frustrated, hurt or mad about something at work.  I never heard them when I was happy, elated, or even sad. What I didn't understand is it seemed permissible to take your job personally when you felt happy, but not when you felt mad.  I still take my job seriously, but recently I have chosen to take it less personally.  I'm clearly not as emotive.  I actually might be going for dead inside.

Speaking of dead inside, I recently saw the movie The Hurt Locker.  Because it was critically acclaimed, loved by people I know, and won the Oscar for Best Picture, I thought I would like it.  Plus I have a tendency to enjoy movies whose characters take their job too seriously.  But in this case, I didn't care for the movie.

The plot is thin and is more of a character study.  So for me, some of the scenes were too long, in some cases completely pointless and in some cases, seriously flawed.  Thus the movie was a half-hour too long. I also felt no empathy for the characters.  I did not feel any sense of tension, suspense or frustration with their lives.  Frankly I thought many of the character's emotions were cliche.  After I saw the movie and talking to a few people, I felt I was in a minority.  The people I spoke with talked about their white knuckles and teeth gritting and how it moved them.  I thought I must be getting too old and have seen too many movies, or maybe I'm just dead inside.  Nevertheless, what really bothered me about the film was how it was marketed as a film about a guy who takes his job too seriously. Again I must be dead inside.  Because all I saw was a guy who loved what he did for a living, which is dismantle bombs.  Dismantling bombs is assuredly a serious business.  I think it was purposely marketed to confuse the seriousness of the job with the person doing the serious job. So the main character just by nature of the job took his job seriously.  But too seriously, say in a mentally disturbing way? I say no. Just because the nature of his job was insane does not mean he was.

Who actually might have been insane, or at least taking his job too seriously, was a psychiatrist by the name of Walter Freeman.  Dr. Freeman invented the technique of transorbital lobotomies and began using it in 1946.  Through this procedure, lobotomies were conducted by involved lifting the upper eyelid and placing the point of a thin surgical instrument (resembling an icepick) under the eyelid and against the top of the eye-socket. A mallet was used to drive the instrument through the thin layer of bone and into the brain. It was then swept from side to side, thus severing the nerve fibers connecting the frontal lobes to the thalamus. The procedure is then repeated on the other side. This procedure changed lobotomies from a surgical operation into an office procedure.  Hence this made the process easier and quicker.  Hence by the end of the decade, the number of lobotomies performed skyrocketed compared to earlier in the decade. 

There is a documentary that explains in greater detail Dr. Freeman's zealous nature called The Labotomist.  It is considered fact that in the 1940's, labotomies were a miracle cure, but Dr. Freeman's tactics of traveling in his "lobotomobile" and reportedly conducting himself like a traveling sideshow attraction, caused enough people to find his actions repulsive. Plus it was speculated that some of the procedures were done unnecessarily and some resulted in death. Despite the backlash, the more common use of prescription drugs, and the revocation of his license, Dr. Freeman appeared to never wain from what he believed to be a proper procedure.

Some people never learn and never seemed to stop even when their job is putting their immediate health at danger.  True Mr. Hurt Locker always risked losing his life doing his job.  But what if say your job was a drummer and because of the way you drum, your vertebrae was crushing your spine?  If your Phil Collins, you retire from drumming which is what he did last year.  Reportedly the pain was so bad he was unable to even pick up drum sticks. He has a new album slated for a 2010 release, but he reportedly did no drumming.

Yet despite the differences of these three stories, the one thing that seems to be a common link is the sadness they felt when it was all over.  Did they take it too seriously?  Did they take it too personally?  Perhaps.  But I come back to first and overriding question, what is so wrong with this?  The American workforce expects sacrifice, dedication and devotion.  How does this happen without feeling passionate, investing yourself emotionally?

In the case of Dr. Freeman, it is suspect that he hurt innocent people. Despite the best intention, this is when someone takes their job too seriously.  So if someone loves their job and no one's hurting someone else, I say let your workforce feel.  Let them feel happy and mad.  Let them be human beings.  Let them be adults.  Don't tell them they have to be happy, and never mad.  Let them take it seriously.  Let them take it personally.