There are many hidden gods in the workplace — none of them worth worshiping

I was struck recently by a thoughtful post in the management blog published by The Age newspaper in Australia. It began with a reference to Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift’s masterpiece of a satire on the society of his day. Despite the passage of more than 200 years, it seems some things have not changed.

This is how Swift describes Gulliver’s pocket watch, from the point of the view of the people of Lilliput:

“We directed him to draw out whatever was fastened to that Chain; which appeared to be a Globe, half Silver, and half of some transparent Metal: for on the transparent side we saw certain strange Figures circularly drawn, and thought we could touch them, till we found our Fingers stopped by that lucid Substance. He put this Engine to our Ears, which made an incessant Noise like that of a Water-Mill. And we conjecture it is either some unknown Animal, or the God that he worships: But we are more inclined to the latter Opinion, because he assured us (if we understood him right, for he expressed himself very imperfectly) that he seldom did anything without consulting it: he called it his Oracle, and said it pointed out the Time for every Action of his Life.”

True worshipers

Even more people worship time today than in Swift’s time. Every action is made subject to its passing. They consult calendars, to-do lists, and schedules constantly. Obsessed with time, they strain to fill every moment with something “important.” No time is left for frivolous things like love, or relaxation, or enjoyment, or life itself. They devote far more attention and importance to “managing” time than the most devoted believer ever lavishes on religious duties.

Of course, time isn’t the only false god in today’s workplaces. People worship power, money, status, achievement, even team membership.

What all these “religions” have in common is the complete devotion with which the worshipers obey the slightest whim of their god. Whatever is asked, they offer in a moment. And though they always hope for a reward, many go on worshiping , even when their god brings them little but heartache and worry.

So what is your god?

It may well be worth a little of your time to look deeply into your heart and discover what, if anything, you have been worshiping. Is it the notion of career success? The desire to be someone that others will defer too? The belief that your life would be endlessly happy, if only you earned as much as those guys you read about in the paper: the ones that ruin their companies, then retire with a fat handout?

The Ancient Greeks knew just how tricky the gods can turn out to be, however devoted your attention to them. Their myths are full of stories of hapless humans caught up in the gods’ private feuds and arguments. If you turn some natural process into a god — like love, war, the ocean, or the thunder . . . or money, power, and status — you give it power over you that you may well come to regret.

With gods like this, atheism is the only sensible course.

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