20190103.0430

I've not made any secret that I am active on social media, and in several capacities. I am, admittedly, not as active on all of the platforms where I have a presence, and I am not as diligent in pursuing updates to some of them as I perhaps ought to be. Even so, I am reasonably well engaged with it, reading a fair bit that comes across my feeds on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As I was looking at the last recently, I noted that there are a damned lot of motivational posts or posts that seem meant to be motivational, and it occurs to me that if the purportedly professional world works so hard to encourage itself and its participants, there is something strange afoot. If so many need so much motivation, it seems that the practices otherwise espoused are draining.
Even cursory thought on the matter leads to the notion that professional life is inherently demotivating, draining of energy and vivacity. If it is to be accepted, as is true for many, that private sector work is more efficient than public sector, then what participants in that work spend their time on has to be accepted as necessary and vital for the continued operation of whatever agency is doing that work. Additionally, if it is to be accepted, as is true for many, that private sector work thrives on identifying need and meeting it, then it follows that whatever agency is doing private sector work will be devoting its time to meeting a need. If those working in the private sector devote their time to finding and espousing ways to motivate themselves, each other, and those who work for them, then it follows that such devotion is needed, that motivation is needed--and that it does not proceed from the things being done.
Revealed thereby is a tacit admission that work is not the intrinsic good it is often purported to be. While it might be argued that the workforce as a whole is lazy--and those who work with millennials and younger people yet often make such arguments, spurious as they tend to be--such lines of argument cannot reasonably be applied to the entrepreneurs and business leaders so often lauded in mainstream United States culture. After all, in such reasoning, the entrepreneur is the most driven and motivated person to be found; the entrepreneur is supposed to be the one whose work makes jobs available to others and whose innovation drives economic and social advancement. The entrepreneur is supposed to have a burning passion for the work; entrepreneurs are often described in such terms. Yet LinkedIn abounds with posts of entrepreneurs cheering each other on, exhorting each other to do and be more--something clearly needed, even if the need is at odds with popular perception and even the same lines of argument that the motivators themselves profess.
If work is fulfilling in itself, if the reward of a solid day's work is the work itself and that reward is worth the effort expended in acquiring it, then there should be no need of extrinsic motivation. Yet there is clearly such a need--and one extending beyond the occasional bit of encouragement that might be expected as needed by people who are, at least to all outward appearances, people and subject to failure and fatigue. No, there is far more motivational material made than is accounted for by occasional flagging; the prevalence and abundance speaks to a great deal of concern about motivation, and not only for the rank-and-file floor worker. It speaks to overriding anxiety about the value of what is done and of continuing to do it. Listening to it might reveal something of interest.