SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOB MARKET : The Path to Success Isn’t On a Ladder

Once upon a time, our ancestors had an idea about work. It was dirty, dangerous and mean. You slaved at the grindstone until you wore out. Nobody ever asked if you were happy.

And then you died.

Today, in the Information Age, many hold to a different notion. Work is supposed to be meaningful. Rewarding. Maybe even--dare I say?--enjoyable.

How often we’re disappointed. “Don’t expect fun,” counsels Michael Josephson, who heads a Los Angeles ethics institute. “You cannot expect each moment of work to be intellectually stimulating. A high percentage of it is going to feel like drudgery.”

These days, wear and tear on the job is often more spiritual than physical. Alienation comes less from heavy lifting than from shoveling symbols and data. Most workers long ago lost the satisfaction of making things , of feeling meaningfully connected to a finished product.

Throw in the realities of corporate cost-cutting and an oversized baby boom generation chasing precious few opportunities, and the quest for workplace happiness sounds more like a search for the Holy Grail.

Depressing? Well, it doesn’t have to be. A growing chorus of thinkers and counselors argue that what’s called for is a broader definition of success, one that transcends the scramble for money, power and prestige.

Their advice: Hold onto your personal values and priorities, despite a popular culture that seems devoted to ambition and wealth. How do you really prefer to spend your time? What do you like about your job? Your employer? Your colleagues?

On your personal scale, how much weight do you give to helping society, interacting with the public or being creative?

Ancient questions, of course. “Aristotle and his predecessors contemplated the perils of ambition long before anyone ever heard the terms ‘fast track,’ ‘burnout’ or ‘winning edge,’ ” Stan J. Katz and Aimee E. Liu write in their new book, “Success Trap.”

Nonetheless, they say, questions of fulfillment, real compensation and mortality “are particularly germane in today’s America, where competition has been raised to a national obsession and career ‘success’ to an almost mandatory personal priority.”

Perhaps in some employment Shangri-la, people choose jobs they love and work in harmony with caring colleagues under saintly supervisors. But Shangri-la is a myth.

“There’s quite a bit of research that suggests that for people who aren’t happy with their jobs or careers, it adversely effects mental health, physical health, satisfaction with life in general,” says Michael E. Mills, a professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University.

There are a lot of strategies for this dilemma, experts tell us. Some may find their answers inside the workplace; others may discover them outside. Others still may find them in themselves.

Jill S. Grigsby, a sociologist at Pomona College, suggests that people redefine success by trading in the 1950s view for a newer model.

Instead of tormenting yourself about climbing a corporate ladder, consider the virtues of your current perch. Or if you can afford it, scale back to part time. Such moves can free hours and energy for seeking fulfillment outside the workplace.

Some are doing just that. A University of Maryland study for Hilton Hotels seems to highlight the growing value people give time off the job.

Eight of 10 respondents said spending time with family and friends was increasingly important. Just six in 10 said making money was increasingly important.

Many people do their most rewarding work away from the employer that pays them. Grigsby recalls a friend who supported herself as a hospital laboratory technician, but whose passion was volunteering as a costume designer for the Boston Opera.

“Finally, she said, ‘Jill, stop asking me about my job. Other parts of my life are more important.’ ”

Awareness is key. If workers fail to reflect on their inner values, then things like meeting the next deadline or getting the promotion become the only yardsticks of success.

“Try to find a place where you can get a sense of pleasure and happiness out of the people you work with--but also a sense of mission,” Josephson says. “That’s ideal.”

Josephson is a living example. A lawyer who became enamored of ethics after teaching a course on it more than 20 years ago, he now heads the Joseph & Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics in Marina del Rey.

In the less-than-ideal world we all live in, he says, you can focus on the community of your workplace: “Begin to know and enjoy the people you work with. Become concerned about the quality of the company. Begin to find some pleasure out of doing a job well.”

Indeed, certain forces gusting through the economy hold promise to enrich work, even though they are rarely described that way. Consider technology. The view that it somehow robs work of humanity may miss a vital part of the story.

As companies strive to produce more customized, quality products--and with high-tech equipment to achieve these goals--authority flows toward the rank and file, who are expected to be more versatile and make more decisions, says Gaylord E. Nichols, director of the Industrial Relations Center at Caltech.

Technology also creates chances for creative decision-making in the office, where workers--from humble typists to senior executives--may use computers to design documents that once would have been merely typed on a sheet of paper.

Economic competition is playing a similar role in empowering some workers. At least in theory, the trend to pare staff will eliminate layers of bureaucracy that get in the way of an employee’s ability to make decisions and carry them out. In many cases, the push for quality has led companies to replace rigid, repetitive jobs with more flexible work teams.

“There’s the potential for a much richer, individual work setting than in the mass marketing, mass production era” that seems to be fading into the past, Nichols says.

A hopeful vision. But don’t count on cosmic forces: The quest for on-the-job satisfaction calls for personal action, whatever the stage of your career. In other words, it’s up to you.

On a recent family retreat at Lake Tahoe, Josephson recalls, much of the talk with younger relatives centered on careers, values and relationships.

When it comes to careers, the lawyer-ethicist advised his nephews and nieces, ages 13 to 25, it’s better to get started--and change course if necessary--than wait around for a jolt of inspiration that may never come.

“Just get on some track, get it moving,” he advises, “and look for the light.”