Tech Support Issue #7: maslow's hierarchy of work needs

Dear Tech Support,

A friend recently told me that it's obviously important to me to be perceived as politically left because I talk about it a lot, which was mortifying, but true. I volunteer outside of work, give money to causes I care about, organize activist groups with people, and am generally a community-oriented kind of person.

I got a degree in a social justice adjacent space right after college, but have worked on and off in that field but I feel like I am underpaid and overworked in a toxic field where my skills are underused. Since grad school, I've been working in tech, mostly nonprofits and educational products. It turns out I am excellent at digital marketing and have been successful in the field.

I hate how much I love it, but I'm detail oriented, opinionated, and good with words and numbers. I have an eye for design and can write just enough code and enjoy learning more. I like feeling secure that I can pay the bills, and I don't have the kind of risk tolerance to just quit and go work on an organic farm or something. Also, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic and recession! Jobs are scarce and nothing feels secure.

I am currently looking for a new job, and while I've applied to a few positions at nonprofits, I know that it's likely that I will get hired at another tech company— one that's values adjacent or values neutral— and I can't get over it. I saw myself as doing something world changing by this age, not thinking about MQLs and how to increase mailing list size. But every time I start doing it, I enjoy the work more than anything else I've done for money. I'm also aware that the nonprofit industrial complex means that the majority of nonprofits are funded by these same companies, or the foundations that surround them.

I look at other peoples' jobs and achievements and I think "Wow! That's so cool!" I know that other people look at my jobs and life and think the same, but I can't get over the feeling that I'm selling out. I'm not fighting climate change full time or making art for my job or running a community space.

My family tells me to get over it, that I'm not actively doing anything evil and that there's no shame in enjoying marketing and having enough money to pay the bills. I know there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, but I feel torn. Help!

-- Marketing Is Supposedly Evil, Right? Yet... 

To whom it may concern at Idealist.org:

This question is so vast, so total, so symphonic in the number of notes it hits, that I started researching for my response (“research”–I do do it...lest you assume that this blog is all toe-tapping word salad foolishness, though it is mostly that) by googling “thomas pynchon + meaning of life?” Felt prudent to bring in the big guns on this one. (Nothing really reeled me in on the first page of results, though it DID jog the memory that there’s a Gen Z/Millennial-bridge Pynchon son out there [“Jackson”] and off I went on a fruitless quest to find some sign of his existence/voice on the Internet. Three quarters of an hour later I was knee-deep in the Instagram following list of one of the Pynch-son’s purported Vassar freshman year bandmates, combing it for pseudonymic handles, becoming a little misty-eyed thinking of how proud TP must be of Jackson’s fastidious, near-perfect online anonymity...the apple certainly didn’t fall far, Mr. Pynchon, sir *salutes*…[this newsletter is approaching 100% toe-tapping nonsense]). 

OK, deep centering yoga-breath (not for you–sorry!–but me…you’ve got to put the oxygen mask on yourself first etc). Let’s look at your predicament through the lens of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, work edition, because you don’t just have the basic needs met, brah, you’re enviably crushing them. I’m picturing you on one of those treadmill desks, racking up the MQLs (had to google that acronym, and to think I too call myself a “marketing professional,” smh…). I can feel the flow, the zing of the cold brew, the clenched air-fist of satisfaction of a task well done. Just pausing here for a moment on your behalf to bask in the blessing of having found a work-track that you like, are genuinely good at, and get paid for. This will carry you far in the new economy/post-apocalyptic Bread Wars and I entreat you not to forget it. 

So above work on this purpose-actualization pyramid that I’m constructing on the fly is the home of the work, i.e. the job. At the risk of showing my hand a bit too much, the working thesis for this newsletter (& shoutout to my “future of work” consigliere/high school friend, Nick Rizzo) might be “do all jobs suck?” Hierarchies are inherently problematic, those with a will to power tend to abuse it, toxic dynamics are pervasive, ubiquitous, difficult to escape, and so on and so forth. My wise former coworker Diana Scholl, whose career had mostly been in nonprofits before making the jump to Big Tech, informs me that institutional bullshit and bureaucracy are pretty much the same everywhere. And my stock job-seeking advice (just hitch your wagon to a good manager / inspiring person!) rings especially hollow now, because frankly the global context around work is so fraught, the world we live in so noisy, corrupt, and frustrating, not to mention extremely dumb, that no manager is going to solve/salve the existential unrest for you. The managers are not exactly going to lead the revolution. 

BUT WHO IS? So here’s the thing (I’ve just apropos nothing put on a straw hat and brought my hands together in front of my face in a triangle): the economic and political forces are so totalizing right now that the pursuit of self-actualization and ~making a difference~ seem downright quaint; it presupposes that selves matter at all. One of the side effects of the house being on fire w/r/t the overlapping crises of the pandemic, rampant inequality, systemic racism, and looming climate misery is that I think we can go ahead and lose “careers” as a concept. And maybe just de-couple purpose from jobs altogether while we’re at it. I’ve probably been way too deep down the Epstein hole this week but I struggle to think much of anything matters beyond, like, the love of your family and having a laugh with friends and maybe protesting in the streets and making something with your hands sometimes. 

This is not to say that you, a well-meaning and smart and capable person, should just give up on doing good or having a job that unlocks some higher level meaning. But I do think you can worry less about where you work and what people think. The move, imo, is about finding your moment and making the most of it (AOC incredible speech this week was an absolute master class in moment-seizing and should be studied in New Left School). Jobs may not matter all that much but small acts can be really valuable (though they generally exist off social media or otherwise disconnected from pleasure centers / personal brands / credit). For further inspo, this thread: 

Tor Ekeland @TorEkelandPLLC

Second, resistance doesn't have to be a dramatic act. It can be a small act, like losing a sheet of paper, taking your time processing something, not serving someone in a restaurant. Small acts taken by thousands have big effects.

And also this (not all heroes wear capes…literally! I’ll see myself out now.). Maybe you take a new job in tech and end up organizing there (Buzzfeed’s Facebook exposé this week was very boi-oi-oi-oing). The people I met this way at Google were the most invigorating band of weirdos you can imagine (shoutout to my life-affirming Signal group, you know who you are). Maybe you’ll stumble upon a whistle to blow, or a way to smuggle Chelsea Manning out of jail. Or maybe you’ll personally amass enough MQLs to finally make Medicare for All happen. Wouldn’t that be something?

Whatever it is, whenever it is: you’re going to have a moment. Trust.

have a query? askclairest@gmail.com

Sorry this is so long but I do think Pynchon would approve of you making it this far -

Claire