Society of Esteem

8 October 2008

Esteem for performance?

Posted by Cecilia under: Economy .

In our society there are people who cannot work for physical or psychological reasons. Others may not work because they are too old. Many countries have pension plans that dictate when citizens have to stop working. Some people willingly comply with this system. They look forward to retirement. Some of them didn’t like their jobs because it wasn’t what they really wanted to do. After a full working life they are content to enjoy their hobbies and do what they love most.

Other people would prefer to work longer than the mandatory retirement age. Stopping work only because of age doesn’t make sense to them. Most likely they work in a job they love to do. Their profession is their vocation. They don’t see any reason to stop working as long as they’re healthy and successful.

The society of esteem allows everybody to work as long as they want to. There are always people who want to stop working early in their lives, they can do it in the society of esteem. The main reason why people want to work until old age is that everybody in the society of esteem chooses the job according to their talents and personal preferences. Everybody works at the place they want to be, they perform the best and they get the most satisfaction.

As we wrote in the last post, in the society of esteem everybody gets esteem no matter what their job is. There is no profession which gets less esteem than others. This also means that in the society of esteem people don’t have to fulfill the traditional definition of success to get esteem.

In our society, on the other hand, esteem is bound to performance. Whoever doesn’t perform, due to health or age reasons, doesn’t get any esteem. Achievement and esteem are inseparably connected to each other. No performance means no esteem, no attention and no acknowledgment.

This is the reason why in our society elderly often feel themselves socially marginalized. Retirement homes are merely an outer sign for absent social esteem. Just imagine what a treasure of life and working experience goes lost in the society because the elderly have to stop working at a certain age.

In the society of esteem the decision to work is made personally. People who are happy in their work continue as long as they want to. In any case everybody gets the same esteem just for being here on earth as well as for their work.

Esteem isn’t bound to achievement. That’s why people answer the question “esteem only for performance?” with a clear “No.”