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But being inspired by bosses isn’t the only reason to do more than you should. Perhaps, despite poor leadership, difficult circumstances, and worsening conditions, you believe deeply in your university and its public education mission and know that your work can contribute to that. Perhaps you care about students who will benefit from your additional efforts. Perhaps your business relationships are at the top of your mind; You care about your colleagues, with whom you can make their work life more meaningful. Unlike people who are stuck with what anthropologist David Graeber says “nonsense” You don’t think your job is meaningless. Then you might want to broaden your ambitions because you want to be the kind of person who does an excellent job, because you believe in the mission, because you want to live a more important and successful life.
Again, we’re not talking about your obligations. If morality is the domain of what we ought to do, ethics is the domain of what we ought to do. In the classical tradition, ethics is about what it means to live a good life. Considerations about importance, success, mission, what kind of person you are: All these are ethical values. If they apply, they should get you moving, in part because of what they mean for the life you live – roughly a third of which will be spent at work.
A few obvious caveats. When your ambitions involve other people, you must make sure that what you have in mind is meaningful to those you will influence; A manager with extra time should think twice before assigning more work to staff who aren’t doing it. And, of course, for many people the sources of importance in their lives have little to do with their work. You are unfortunate to work in a place that suffers from public investment and lackluster leadership; You are lucky to be able to be proud of what you and the larger organization can achieve.
In the midst of the “Great Resignation,” they say, we are living. There are nearly 10 million vacancies in the U.S. economy, and while the reasons are complex, it has been suggested that places with a better workplace culture are more likely to retain employees. Many potential workers have undoubtedly faced pandemic challenges in securing child care. Other people say they are emotionally withdrawn from the whole concept of career. Paradoxically, Overemployed fall into this category, they are both busy and disconnected. Few people aspire to be lotus eaters, but what we hear will be Stakhanovist souls who tirelessly publish a daily Substack newsletter about the pleasures of doing nothing. Still, this get-the-work-and-forward alliance will certainly be dwarfed by the do-it-yourself crowd that’s-and-it-and-it’s enough.
In rare cases – especially the kind of union action I’ve been talking about – underperformance can be part of a concerted, collective action to achieve a particular outcome. This might also be a meaningful project, but it won’t describe your situation. A year from now, you may find a new workplace where you (and your colleagues) will be better appreciated, enabled and supported. In the meantime, you can start by asking yourself what would make your work life a source of fulfillment and self-esteem. Not because you owe it to management, but because you owe it to yourself.
Kwame Anthony Appiah He teaches philosophy at NYU. His books include “Cosmopolitanism,” “The Honor Code,” and “The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity.” To submit an inquiry: send an email to ethicist@nytimes.com; or mail The Ethicist, The New York Times Magazine, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018. (Include a daytime phone number.)
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