Before joining my internship back in 2022, I had never had a proper corporate job. One that sets your schedule from 9 to 5, earns you a paycheck at the end of the month, has 1 hour for lunch with other colleagues, after-work activities, or overtime.
I had a couple of side gigs like my music producer project and my SEO agency. Joining the workforce and diving into such a tight schedule made me think about it and how I should be facing it for the years to come.
That’s the moment when I saw work itself as a kind of game and identified the set of ground rules and mechanisms composing this game. This game I ended up calling “The Game of Work.”
As with every other game you’ve played, the Game of Work has its own set of rules that you must follow in order to keep playing the game. Following them is the minimum requirement to continue and not disqualify yourself from the match.
Some rules include:
- Check in on time
- Collaborate with other peers
- Deliver the requested amount of tasks
- Work your hours
These rules set the basic framework to play the game. Failing to comply with the basic rules puts you at risk of losing the game by landing you in the sand trap often called unemployment.
Some rules and frameworks may be different depending on the variant you’re playing, but in essence, these are the basic ones that people need to follow.
Winning in the game of work is not easy and depends on many factors. Factors can be external (your company, global economy, sector health) and internal (your capabilities, motivation, strengths). External factors can be hard to control, so it’s best to focus on the internal ones so they end up outweighing the others.
Internal factors that can make you win the game are:
- Self-sufficiency
- Proactivity
- Constant learning
- Thinking outside of the box
These soft skills can make you level up in the game to keep playing it for a long time. Failing to apply them can make your way in the game much harder, causing you to lose the game (unemployment).
No one likes to lose, so you’ll avoid unemployment by all means… even more when you realize you’re addicted to this game. As famous writer Nassim Taleb would say:
“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.”
Have you ever counted the days until your next paycheck to buy the next thing that you didn’t know you wanted thinking it will make your life better? Or to pay the bills or that debt that keeps piling up?
I’m trying to get rid of that mindset, but it’s hard because I’ve been playing the game for the past 3 years, and it has distorted my previous view that I had before joining the corporate world.
The cure will be worse than the disease, but it will be best to apply it before it’s too late.