Why You're Not Entitled to a Good Boss or a Good Job
In boardrooms and business meetings, it's just as important to have an open mind as it is to present your ideas. After all, when you're surrounded by really smart and accomplished people who might actually be right, it's a good idea to listen.
You might say the same thing about blogs, LinkedIn discussions, and all sorts of online debates. But then, you'd be wrong.
I know, in the era of social media and crowd sourcing, where everyone has a voice and a platform to deliver their message, it's heresy to suggest that all voices aren't created equal. But they're not. At least not to me.
Sure, we have freedom of speech in America, but you've got to admit, it's hard to keep an open mind when millions of people are trying to get your attention all at once. So, when it comes to the Internet, you've got to have some sort of filter mechanism. We all do or we'd go out of our minds.
Want to know what I use for a filter mechanism? It's called a BS filter. When I read or hear complete and utter BS, I filter that content right out. And the source too. Whoosh, it's gone.
Case in point: These days, it's popular to whine about your boss. There are books, blogs, and websites dedicated to complaining about bad bosses. People try to outdo each other in the comments; each story is more entertaining than the one before it.
And, among the whine-fests that sound remarkably like children crying that their parents won't let them do stuff, there's a common theme, that people are entitled to something better. They think they have the right to a good boss.
Here's another example of the same sort of thing: There's a common theme among the "occupy" protesters that people are entitled to a job. They think they have the right to a job. And some of the "occupy" protesters even think they have the right to a good job, as in not flipping burgers at McDonald's.
Well, both those examples got caught in my BS filter. Nobody has the right to a good boss, a good job, or any kind of job, for that matter, for the simple reason that there are no laws that say they do. No laws, no rights, no entitlement. Complete and total BS.
And you know what? It was damn right of our founding fathers not to go there. Now, don't think for a minute that people weren't desperate for work and to get out from under tyrannical bosses back then. It was way worse then than it is now.
The reason why the founding fathers didn't get the government involved in that sort of thing can be found in the words of the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.Now, if you've ever been involved in writing important documents, as I have, you know that every word counts and has meaning. And the reason why the words "pursuit of" were inserted before the word "happiness," is simple. The words "life" and "liberty" are clear and discrete. You pretty much known when someone's lost his life or freedom.
"Happiness," on the other hand, is subjective. Clearly, one person's happiness can infringe on another's. Instead, the founding fathers inserted the words "pursuit of," which makes a lot more sense. After all, that's why our ancestors left England to come to the new world in the first place. They were escaping a monarch's subjective rule to pursue their own happiness.
So, the reason why you don't have the right to a good boss is because that's too subjective. What you think is good, what makes you happy, may infringe on another employee's or even the boss's right to pursue his own happiness. And the law isn't about to get in the middle of anything that subjective.
The same thing goes for having a job. You have the right to seek any kind of job you like, change jobs, even start your own company and be your own boss. You have the right to pursue whatever job makes you happy, as long as somebody is willing to pay you for it and it doesn't infringe on someone else's pursuit of happiness. After all, it's a free country.
But when the law starts getting into the realm of the subjective, it ceases to be effective and becomes unenforceable. The founding fathers knew that. They also knew that guaranteeing the right to a job was not the government's business. They believed people have to earn that right. Damn smart, those founding fathers.
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