Carving career with hope in pandemic times | Prof. Amit Mookerjee | TEDxAUD

good evening and welcome today i'd like to speak about something that the pandemic has brought into very sharp focus and that is the impact of the pandemic on financial well-being of individuals we have seen that across all sections in society there have been some kind of socio-economic issues that the individuals have faced in terms of pay cuts job losses loss of business loss of livelihoods and that in some sections of society and this is across the whole world we have seen the impact of this loss of financial well-being on the physiological and health and overall well-being of the individual as well but what the pandemic has also brought to the front is something which was not really in the forefront of our focus so far and i am speaking about media reports which suggest that at all levels and sections of society there is great anxiety there is great stress and this distress is not just about jobs and financial well-being but is also about conditions imposed by the lockdown people who are unable to meet their family meet their friends interact socially meet colleagues and this social interaction has come up as a cause for emotional well-being issues of distress indeed of depression in some cases and the recognition that social interactions is a very critical aspect of social well-being and the overall well-being of individuals is something that the pandemic has brought to the forum and if we link it to reports but older folks live longer live happier have lesser or later heart and dementia onset issues if they have been socially engaged is a pointer for all of us we need to keep in mind that as we live our lives we are able to be socially engaged in a meaningful manner and what gives meaning to our social engagements is the quality and the number of meaningful relationships that we have and it is not just the interpersonal interactions itself but it is also how fulfilling these interactions are and if we go back to mclelland to maslow and their theories of motivation these social needs the needs for affiliation are a very important need that human beings have fulfilled indeed the very basis of civilization has been the social exchange and if you look at this aspect i'd like to link it to livelihoods and to career choices we have seen how normally individuals would choose careers by looking at the financial well-being and the socio-economic impact in terms of social status and other social aspects brought around by the income as the basis for career choices but we've also seen during the pandemic that there could be emotional impact of the working conditions and of being locked up or pooped up and those corporates which keep you locked up for hours and hours every day leaving very little time for family interaction for interaction with friends for social interactions may be emotionally damaging may be toxic and this emotional and social well-being is also something that you should look for in your career choices and this is what i would like to elaborate upon as we go ahead in our discussion today if you look at those who have been engaged in something which is socially fulfilling the example of healthcare workers and frontline workers who have tirelessly provided the life-saving services to a large section of those who were suffering in our society what motivates them to stick to their career to serve beyond the call of duty and definitely beyond the call of financial rewards what is it that motivates them what is it that makes them tick and perhaps it is not a matter of financial rewards as much as their orientation their uh decision that they would sacrifice they would stay away from families they would hardly have time for themselves they would risk contracting such a serious and life-threatening disease but they would keep on serving humanity and perhaps this choice taken initially on the basis of several factors such as competence such as interest such as abilities such as financial rewards has become their meaning in life today because of a very very different context their contribution to society and that is really fulfilling if we try to understand what really is fulfilling and rewarding we need to make a distinction between [Music] what white and dolan call happiness and being rewarded and they make a distinction between somebody spending time with their family engaged in some family pursuit which has been seen in their study as being very rewarding by individuals versus those same individuals reporting that it is when they relax on a beach on a vacation or watch their favorite tv program you know with you know something nice to eat alongside and totally relaxed that they are having a happy time and that rewards may not be connected with your day-to-day happiness it may be a longer-term thing so what is it that we look for when we make a career choice well-being has many facets and if we look for financial and social well-being perhaps we are limiting what we gain out of our careers because if we really look at it careers will probably be the largest set of activities that we perform in life over the years and on a day-to-day basis how do we find out what would be rewarding career choices and these are the pointers that i'd like to put forward for your consideration let me start by asking you how satisfied are you with life as a whole these days and i would expect you to answer on a scale of 1 to 10 where one is not at all satisfied and 10 is completely satisfied now this is a question which the european social survey the oecd survey guidelines the german socio-economic survey the uk national socioeconomic survey they've all sort of been asking and it is about evaluative well-being where kahneman and deeton actually found that rather than reports of income and wealth and assets it is a far more evaluative and subjective assessment of the individual's well-being that is important for the overall welfare of society and of individuals and this question is about being satisfied with your life as a whole these days and this is something we call evaluative well-being this is for the longer term this is about being rewarded in your careers but are you happy in your careers and that's a question where you know i could ask a similar question saying how happy not satisfied but how happy are you with life today just after you have given your quant examination final one and after a tough paper and i could replace the word happy by saying how anxious are you about the results of today's examination and i would be assessing something which is short term in terms of your experience and this is called experienced well-being hedonic well-being and even emotional well-being and kanama and deaton again talk about the frequency and intensity of positive and negative emotions that you experience on a day-to-day basis and this emotional well-being is very very important for the entire life of the individual uh davidson gohan in 2004 and 2003 respectively you know speak about the neurobiological functions of our emotional state of our emotional well-being especially the positive affect we talk about our response to illness but it could easily extend as later research shows to stress experienced in careers and let me talk about emotional well-being in your careers you must have heard of toxic organizations and toxic cultures in organizations and toxic people in organizations where executives would leave not the company but their boss and you would find that in some occupations in some sectors of the economy there is usually higher stress levels than in others you would find that in some functional domain such as sales such as consulting there would be a higher level of stress of targets of pressures than in some other functional areas and you must actually understand these aspects and how you cope as an individual with these aspects before you step into an industry a functional area or a company another aspect which really impacts your emotional well-being is the feeling of self-worth that you have on a day-to-day basis which comes from your competence for doing the job are you ready for a consulting job will you be able to hold it down for the next three years will you be able to learn enough in these three years to move on to have growth to have fulfillment having learned enough in the first three years to meet the challenges of the next three years so one aspect of career choices is to look at your competence and fit with your aspirations and dream jobs with your hopes and a realistic assessment of where you stand today is very important for planning your career choice today and this planning for growth and fulfillment is also very important and a lot of people have been very emotionally positive have high emotional well-being have high overall well-being because they were able to successfully plan how to create a portfolio of skills by taking up careers taking up jobs taking up certain job profiles step by step as they progress to the top so it means let's say getting into sales first and then moving on to some sales support functions moving on parallelly to let's say marketing marketing support and then moving on to marketing planning and so on so that kind of planning which allows you to develop the competencies required is very critical conflict is also very important and you must understand that there are certain industries and certain companies where there would be emotional conflict due to the value systems of the company and the value systems that you have as an individual and i have seen cases where very bright executors very happy young people very positive people have burnt out within a matter of two to three years because what they were doing did not match their value systems and be careful how do you find out about toxic cultures about value systems and so on well you need to look at social media reports about companies about sectors about domains you need to interact with your alumni and ask them these questions and you also need to explore yourself and see where you stand on these matters and being happy or feeling rewarded or fulfilled is more a matter of these elements than purely the financial returns what else is there in well-being if you look at selling men's positive psychology if you look at perma theories the theory of bio psycho social well-being the concept of eudaimonic well-being the concept that there is happiness and fulfillment both in the long run if you experience some purpose in your life further if you are able to overcome certain challenges and you are able to grow and this is called flourishing the office of national statistics uk defines among 10 other dimensions of well-being the concept of personal well-being to what extent do you feel that the things you do in life and i may add your work are worthwhile worthwhile in terms of financial social emotional everything but on a far greater basis the fact that you are actually left with a perception that what you do is very relevant to you and for people who are oriented more socially it means whether they have contributed to society and perhaps this explains why frontline workers and health workers have really carried on in their jobs tirelessly beyond human imagination that they felt what they were doing was worth it and it came from their social contribution so this personal well-being and the sense that what you do in life has to be worth it is something which you should find out by asking yourself hard questions of whether you really think finance is your forte that's what you really love doing try to go through each of those courses that you read in your first year in the mba for instance and imagine that if you're reading kobe and hr how would you enjoy it on a day-to-day basis how would you enjoy being engaged in it for the next 40 years in your life ask yourself that question and only then choose your domain ask yourself whether you would like to join the fmcg industry the service industry the healthcare industry ask yourself whether you want to work in an mnc or an indian company and touch your heart when you do that and say will i really feel that i am happy may be proud may be conscious of self-worth if i work in that kind of environment there may be many other aspects which come with a career choice and i get to the example of the healthcare workers again many will feel that a life where they are able to engage in meaningful social relationships they have time for that would be a far more fulfilling career and that has been the general conclusion of various reports right from maslow to white and dolan and the others how do you choose a career like this well careers and corporations which provide you a better work life balance are something which have been a trend for career choices for the last 10 years and it is something which will only increase in the future and you do well for yourself if you did look at work-life balance and the time you have for social engagements and make your choices accordingly does the firm provide you gymnasiums uh does it give you time off for your health uh is there a mandatory holiday uh that you must take a vacation that you must take do they take care of your health as a policy well these are things you should ask and you'll probably find that this is connected right down to you know toxic cultures versus very responsive supportive and positive cultures and this is also an indicator for your personal well-being you'll enjoy being in a social situation in that company but to get back to that aspect of social contributions for our last time if you really do not find corporations which support even if as a part of the csr societal development or community development projects and support time that their workers will spend on such projects formally and there are such companies now and they realize that it is more productive for their employees and for themselves make your career choices if not for such companies then at least for such enterprises which are focused on social contributions and that's another trend becoming a social entrepreneur creating your own enterprise is very very fulfilling even if you have an enterprise which is financially not so large the sense of fulfillment that most entrepreneurs have in a going concern is rather immense in terms of personal well-being being masters of your own situation is perhaps emotionally a major aspect of lb and therefore as a career choice you should seriously also look at in this day and age careers in social entrepreneurship because ultimately all corporations are only serving a social need whether they have that agenda or not it has been seen that those who have a mission to serve society far outlive other corporations which only look at profit as a motive so let me end by saying that if you do make a career choice please keep in mind not just financial or economic well-being but also your social your emotional and your personal well-being and i wish you the best of career choices and the best of careers thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 764

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Career, English, Hope, Life, Social Entrepreneurship, TEDxTalks

Id: KvcmAvPefnI

Length: 21min 45sec (1305 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021