Cubes. Offices. Open bullpens. Flexible schedules. Job sharing. Teleconferencing. 40-hour workweeks. 80-hour workweeks. Casual dress. Suits.
Let it go.
We need to stop trying to make it a one-size-fits-all work society. It isn’t. We don’t all look the same. We don’t dress the same. We don’t think the same. We don’t laugh at the same jokes. We don’t like the same music or TV shows. We don’t vote the same way. We don’t like the same food. Why should we like to work the same way or care about our jobs the same way?
I love what I do, and it fulfills me. It makes me feel good to be successful at work and as a result it makes me want to do more of it. I like seeing my team grow and individuals develop and succeed, so I want to do it more often. I identify with my career. Let me be.
Some people don’t care about their company or their career — it’s a j-o-b. They show up. They do their work. They go home. Ok. That’s fine too. There are jobs and employers for you.
We have to stop making excuses for what we want and why what other people want is bad. When you are torn about something and you buy it and you aren’t sure you should have it, it’s called buyer’s remorse. Worker’s remorse is real. We can’t return it instantly, and the benefit we get from working offsets the sadness of being gone. It’s ok.
We have had wars. We have had the creation of the automobile. We have had the creation of the airplane. The computer. The Internet. Space travel. Societies progress and people change. Ideas evolve. Let it be. Why do people have the need to dictate what type of work environment other people should have?
There are two quotes I love:
“You can tell how great a country is by how long the line is to get in, and how long the line is to get out.”
Dating back to our founding fathers we have been a country of entrepreneurs. Ben Franklin anyone?! We created democracy. Why is America great? One reason: We are free. No King. No Queen. Respectful passing of power every four years based on a vote by the people. Free to work as much as we like. Free to have impact on our society and our world.
“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”
We can create free education. We can create job training. We can make companies hire based on tax credits. At the end of the day, if people don’t want to work, they won’t. If people don’t want to save money, they won’t. If people are going to complain, they will. We accept things in sports but not in business. We realize that every college athlete isn’t going to go pro. We accept that the “best” athletes make millions. Why? Because most of us can’t dunk. We can’t hit a golf ball 320 yards or run a 4.3 40-yard dash. So we say, “They deserve it.”
Well, most people can’t do mergers and acquisitions. Most people can’t become lawyers and try cases in the Supreme Court. Most people can’t sell $10 million a year in goods and services … and most people can’t work 70 hours a week. It’s no different than professional athletes. The difference is we root for the athletes because they’re playing on “our” teams. We don’t root for the professionals because in some related way we feel we are the same … but we aren’t.
At the end of the day there is one truth: If everyone had the same work ethic, then everyone with the same mental bandwidth would be the same. Different people are motivated by different things and different people want different things. If your neighbor worked as hard as you, you wouldn’t make as much money. Supply and demand.
My thought for the day? Stop criticizing people who work a lot. Stop criticizing work cultures that are different … and learn. Learn that not everyone has a fifth gear, and realize that you may be stuck in a slower gear and have to let the race cars go faster.
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Tom Gimbel is founder and CEO of the LaSalle Network, a Chicago-based staffing and recruiting firm. He can be found on Twitter @tomgimbel. A version of this article originally appeared on LinkedIn.