The Transaction
Every job is a transaction — of money, time and passion
Can a job be purely transactional in nature?
If it’s one about monetary values being exchanged with work, then yes, it can be. You can pursue career purely on monetary reasons. Get the highest salary as you can have. Go for it.
If it’s one about self-manifestation: showing your best, learning, exchanging skills, going up the ladder… absolutely yes, it can be. These things are also transactional.
To be fair, every choice we make is transactional. Every motivation we have on any kind of endeavour is transactional. We exchange our time to get a greater good for ourselves, be it money, title, prestige, or something more noble like learning and voluntary contributions.
I read a tweet the other day, but I wouldn’t really post the exact tweet here, just wanted to rephrase it a little bit. The series of tweets could be summarised like this:
A manager wanted to ask for help from any of her direct reports to help her with a presentation she’s preparing for the C-level.
She asked around… who wanted to volunteer. One responded yes.
But later, this designer found out that it involved learning how to do some motion graphic and animation.
The designer asked his manager… “do you think it’s worth my time to learn motion graphic/animation for my growth?”
As a design manager she was furious to hear this because she felt like this designer didn’t really want to grow by going beyond by asking such question.
Turned out that the designer was actively pursuing promotion and thought if he learned something extra, or volunteered his time, that would mean a stronger path to promotion. This was viewed by the manager as speculative and calculative.
Of course I don’t have the full context, to be fair. But let’s assume it this way, without really anchoring to the real situation there. Just see this as a made-up story, an example. What would you do as a manager, as a leader?
Regardless of any assumptions, this thing is clear:
This designer agreed to help. On something that is possibly outside his job description and comfort zone.
That alone, needs to be appreciated.
We also need to agree that any manager can assign any kind of work to her direct reports, something related to the business, occasionally pushing the boundaries of the job description, as long as it is within something humanely possible, legal and if necessary, compensated by money or other benefits.
The fact that the manager was furious was because she assumed this designer was being speculative, calculative and to some extent insincere.
That, my friend, is a dangerous assumption.
Now, the fact that this designer asked that question, didn’t pose any single risk. The manager can simply respond to it by saying things like “I think this can be a good additional skill that you can learn, especially to support storytelling skill development. As you grow your career, it will be useful in many ways.”
If then, the question was a subtle nudge about whether doing this side project will help him get that promotion, a manager can always respond in diplomatic way, “There are multiple areas to consider for a promotion, this could be one thing, but we have more,” or simply by being direct, “Yes, it can.” or “No, it can’t.”
In the end, the designer might begrudgingly bail out, but that’s okay. We don’t need to push him. But, it doesn’t make him at fault for asking a question or to negotiate.
Now, if we do think that this designer was asking out of curiousity if he could do this for a reward (a direct one at that, a promotion)… could we really blame her? It is not the worst-case scenario either.
Again: Work life is all about transaction. It could be about money, position, reputation, or even purely satisfaction. Even the most “noble” motivation to work will boil down into a transaction of time and passion.
It is also important to note that in asking for help or giving instructions to direct reports, as a manager, we have to give the most complete context as possible at that time. If we don’t have full context, help them along the way, by working side by side, or provide resources and contacts. It is not enough just to assign a task, it takes more than that to really build that rapport with your direct report, and help them succeed. This won’t change anything above, but at least it will make sure the “right people” will respond to the request, if that’s the manager’s original intent.