The Root of Burnout, And How Endurance in Craftsmanship Is The Way Out
In the previous journal entries in this series, we explored how the cycle of dysfunction begins with ideology and then turns to division as we sort out who’s in and who’s out of our ideology or party. Inevitably, the cycle concludes with burnout and too often begins again with ideology as a search for rightness and significance.
The cycle of dysfunction
Burnout is the inevitable result of ideology and division and will always be their outcome. But we should look deeper at its root, and the reason for its root, in the same way that we did in the last two journal entries for ideology and division. In doing so, my observation based on firsthand experience in the American economy while running Liberatus is that the root of burnout is The Great American Deception.
And our deception, or self-deception, is that we value hard work. Based on my experience both in working for a Member of Congress, as a freelance consultant, and at the so-called bottom of the American economy, “we value hard work” is our deception because we do not in fact value hard work.
What we in the United States value is wealth, and the lifestyle, comfort, and status it provides, and we especially value wealth at the expense of the workers who create it.
In my experience, the people at the so-called bottom of the American economy are often the hardest working—or at the very least, they work just as hard as the people who get paid more money for the same level of effort. What’s tragic and wrong is that people who get paid more think they get paid more because they created more value or worked harder.
But what has more value than delivering groceries, making food, cleaning toilets, or giving a private ride in between meetings in downtown DC? Why is “consulting” worth $75 an hour but high-quality, five-star customer service is only “worth” $18—or significantly less? To put it in lifestyle terms, why do some jobs pay for your car—and others ask if you have reliable transportation as part of the application? Clearly, the job application question assumes that the poor will front the cost of running the business with low wages instead of offering an investment in shared success. If the job offer included pay that actually covered the cost of reliable transportation, this would not be an application question.
What we value is wealth, and keeping it, at the expense of the food service worker who’s not being paid enough to afford reliable transportation, at the expense of the driver who’s not being paid for the car or the gas to make the lifestyles of the wealthy work as they commute from work to dinner or the airport, and at the expense of the grocery delivery professional who’s risking their health and financial well-being in order to put food on someone’s doorstep.
Of course there are Americans who break this dynamic through tipping, both adequately and generously. But we need to see it happen more—whether that’s through union contracts, revisions to the tax code, revisions to how social safety nets are structured and paid for, or changes in what both investors and business owners view as essential for success.
And I am not saying that any hierarchy in earnings is wrong—for example, a high school graduate living at home doesn’t have a right to the same earnings as the Uber driver from Afghanistan who’s 25 years older and has three children. But why is that Uber driver expected to fund in lost wages the weekend fun of the 25 year old college graduate who’s now a freelance consultant and doesn’t tip adequately?
To bring it back to politics, I think that the reason for The Great American Deception (or the self-deception, that we value hard work) is based in the way we define success. And we define success as superiority.
Because if we can get ahead, we are very successful (superior) to those who get less ahead. Never mind that both classes of workers might be working just as hard and just as smart. Often people who are paid less are not paid for the wealth they created because the wealth they created went to someone who got paid for more than they actually created, enabling them to have the societal dignity of being very much successful (superior).
However, The American Opportunity Index represents a positive cultural shift in the relational dynamic of wealth creation.
In politics, we deal with burnout frequently because ideology and division don’t bring us either the success or the superiority that we seek, and because political work is a hierarchy of power where we falsely believe that those at the so-called bottom create less value by nature of their societal status. Ideology, division, and the way we devalue work will never give us success or superiority. On a human level, deep down we all know this, and this psychological dissonance burns us out.
There is a way out, however, and it’s this: we can define success as craftsmanship. Craftsmanship happens when we are consistent and work hard to get the best effort out of ourselves for the purpose of quality craft as service. Craftsmanship is what we get when we choose to build endurance.
From a Christian perspective, superiority is tied to not being led by the Spirit of God. Practically, in our work, we can begin to value hard work by focusing on quality craft as service, and paying workers for the wealth that they create. And in a spiritual sense, we can listen to the Spirit of God to renew us and our energy so that burnout is not the final outcome of any cycle.
In the next and final two weeks of this series, we’ll explore the craft of American politics and creative rhythms that can help make it sustainable.
The lifestyle choices that can replace the cycle of dysfunction. We can build endurance by creating new solutions over time for the next generation, and that choice frees us to focus on quality craftsmanship and service instead of “getting ahead” for the purpose of superiority.
In this journal entry:
The Root of Burnout: The Great American Deception (or self-deception, that we value hard work. What we actually value is wealth and the comfort and status it gives us, especially at the expense of the people who created the wealth)
Why “we value hard work” is our deception: Because of how we define success (as superiority)
The Path to Freedom: Success as craftsmanship and quality service, which are possible when we build endurance. From a Christian perspective, we can move from success as superiority to success as being led by the Spirit of God.
WEEKLY ACTION POINT:
Take a look at the vision overview as we look to produce a biannual publication. Take time to pray in nature about your vocation or calling. Then, you can set up a monthly recurring donation as a Liberatus Advocate at the tab below. You can also write Volume Two with us by responding to a one-question interview. We will compile responses to the question about the future you imagine into a new vision asset to guide the stories that we tell, the research that we include, and the partner organizations that we fund.
Mission: Inspire American Unity
Liberatus offers inspiration for American unity in beautiful, well-researched illustrated journals, written by professionals across the political spectrum, to help us all choose unity, build endurance, and become the leaders who make our country more just and free for the next generation.
Journal Entry #146
ISSUE 021: THE BEGINNING, AGAIN — PART 5