When People Are Seen as Workers, Not People, the Workplace Becomes an Unproductive Treadmill

Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince

The businessman on the fourth planet the Little Prince visits on his journey to Earth is completely self-absorbed, to the point he doesn’t even notice the Little Prince’s arrival.

To be self-absorbed is to be unaware of everyone and everything—paradoxically, including unaware of ourselves.

This man is so unaware that the Little Prince has to point out to him that his cigarette, which he uses to calm his anxiety, has gone out. The man is so unaware that he can’t even take care of his pacifier!

His state of unawareness is so dense that, when the Little Prince asks what he’s counting, he doesn’t even remember what he’s counting.

In other words, here’s a picture of someone who’s driven, but not even by a sense of purpose or toward a goal.

He’s driven just because he’s driven! He knows no other way to be.

Instead of stress that’s got a point to it, this man is merely going through the motions. He isn’t at all present in what he’s doing. It’s all just a matter of rote, fueled by the need to keep going.

A lot of people live their lives this way. They have no real sense of who they are, what they truly enjoy, and how to live life in a fulfilling way. They are like rats on a wheel, ever in motion but for no real reason.

Countless companies also operate this way. For instance, people are hired for a job, but they get only the bare minimum of days off per year. Fifty-one weeks out of fifty-two, they are working—until they “earn” the right to more time off.

There’s no generosity toward the individual. They are seen only as workers, not as people.

It never seems to occur to many companies that if they were to give their workers an abundance of vacation time, they would reap rich rewards in terms of the workers’ interest in and commitment to the company.

Caring seeds caring.

Instead, so many people are resentful of where they work and consequently are merely going through the motions, not invested in what they are doing.

This driven state of much of modern business harkens back to Charles Dickens’ novel Scrooge, whose meaning is wonderfully captured by the Muppets in their movie The Muppets’ Christmas Carol, one of the insightful songs of which can be seen and heard here.

So much of modern work life consists of running around in busy circles. So much of the workday is wasted because people’s hearts aren’t in what they are doing. How can they be when they don’t feel valued?

We’ve created a world that very much resembles that of the businessman, who thinks what he’s doing is so important, when in reality it’s absolute nonsense. He’s living in the illusion of self-absorption.

Lose the playfulness of life, taking yourself too seriously, and you lose what life is all about. You miss out on the dance.