MC #4 – Work and Career [5 pages]

“Work” is a name for actions we perform to take care of our concerns.  When we “go to work” we mean we are going to act in some domain to take care of something, which can be to earn money to afford the goods and services our family needs to take satisfactory care of fundamental human concerns.

Here is the list of 13 fundamental human concerns we use at The Aji Advantage. It was invented by philosopher Dr. Fernando Flores.

* You can find an abbreviated list of explanations for each concern after the last essay in this series or click here.

“Career” is the name for our public identity in the marketplace or the domain in which we work, such as being an engineer or business owner.

Public identities revolve around 4 fundamental characterizations:  trustworthiness, value, authority and leadership.

To the extent spouses have careers, they make more money and are better able to take care of their financial concerns to earn, save and invest enough money to survive, be free and live a good life throughout their entire life, including 20-30 years of old age, or until they are about 90 years old.

No couple has enough power to take care of their concerns in isolation from the world around them.  Both spouses must “work” in the world, one way or another.  Their work, or their promise to recurrently produce conditions of satisfaction for others, is necessary if they are to survive in a literal sense, not to mention live a good life or fulfill an ambition.

Human beings organize around identities.  In a large or powerful context we call this career.  Career is our public identity in the marketplace.  It is how we appear as “real” people to others: Trustworthy? Valuable? Authoritative?  Leaders?

Customers, employers, employees and colleagues don’t care about what deodorant we use or how long it takes us to tie our shoelaces.  They care about our trustworthiness, value, authority and ability to lead them in the world of their concerns. 

*   Anything about us that is not relevant to their concerns is not of interest to them, which is why the first concern is always trustworthiness.

If we aren’t trustworthy, nothing we are, do or have is relevant to anyone.

In a business community we and our spouse produce gossip that opens or shuts our possibilities for living a good life and fulfilling our ambitions. 

Gossip is a fundamental practice of all human beings in all cultures.  Humans gossip all the time.  It is a way we survive. 

Gossip is the articulation of assessment about someone that produces “identity”.

The majority of gossip about individuals and married people in the marketplace is about their trustworthiness, relevance and value to the concerns of customers, employers, employees and colleagues.  In the marketplace, we call this gossip about people that produces identities of offers, dignity, trustworthiness and relevance, “career”.

The identities we produce about ourselves are the assessments that produce how others think and act towards us.  Our identities are how people judge our dignity, power, value, relevance, reliability and our trustworthiness to them.  Positive identities in the marketplace build power because they have other people want us around and have them willing to accept our requests and offers for help.

It is the nature, or operation, of identities that they flow in the following order:

We need to be trusted before anyone will consider whether we or what we have to offer is valuable. 

Only after we have something of value to offer will people consider whether to grant us authority. 

And only after we can be trusted with authority will people grant us the authority to lead them.

Identities  — Trustworthiness, Value, Authority and Leadership

Spouses and couples produce the following identities in the following order in order to (1) avoid triggering unnecessary threats, (2) keep existing opportunities and (3) increase their capabilities to think and act effectively, strategically and competitively enough to produce the new opportunities they will need throughout their marriage

… to take care of their most fundamental human concerns

… and to fulfill their ambitions to “live a good life”:

Spouses represent each other in the world and in the marketplace whether they know it or not, like it or not, think it is “right” or “wrong” or try to hide.  They speak for each other and act on one another’s behalf and people use how they think and act to judge their trustworthiness, value, authority and leadership.

When spouses represent one another effectively, strategically and competitively, they build powerful identities for one another. 

When they build powerful identities in the marketplace, they accumulate capacity for generating effective action to take care of their concerns and to fulfill their ambitions to “live a good life”.

Some couples with ambition have only one person in the marketplace with an identity or career.  When that is the case, it is in the interest of the spouse without the career to help the spouse with a career to build a good one.  The better a person’s identity in the marketplace, the more possibilities he or she has for accumulating power for fulfilling the ambitions of the marriage. 

What can help a spouse’s career? 

Spouses not making offers in the marketplace can develop the ability to socialize in the marketplace with their spouses.

They can help other spouses.

They can help in the community and build their own identity.

They can make sure the children participate and are ethical (well-mannered).

They can manage their mood and their assessment of appreciation for their spouse.

They can divide the practices for taking care of the concerns for living and marriage in a way that supports the spouse acting in the marketplace.