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by discopicante 2315 days ago
I appreciate the author's thought exercise and sharing it here.

A few thoughts:

1. Instead of the outdated descriptions of using the color of a collared shirt, consider a description of knowledge labor vs. service labor vs. manual labor.

2. Autonomy has been identified as a key (maybe even the) attribute for happiness doing a job, regardless of profession.

3. Aligned missions is a nice to have but temporary and fleeting. Expectations of this will inevitably lead to disappointment.

1 comments

> Instead of the outdated descriptions of using the color of a collared shirt

Now that I finally learned the difference between all the collars, dismissed is as an odd American characteristic, you are planning to get rid of it again?

> 3. Aligned missions is a nice to have but temporary and fleeting. Expectations of this will inevitably lead to disappointment.

While I generally do think it futile to formalize happiness and an occupation I initially would associate with desperate unhappiness, I don't understand this objection. I believe having a common goal is quite important for any for of corporation. Why would it be fleeting? It has to be voluntarily of course to meet the autonomy requirement, which I believe to be correct. The happiest workers I ever met actually stay at one company for very long times.

Even if I think that formalization isn't possible, I think there is at lot of merit in trying.