What if we were free to work? | Olivier Schneller | TEDxBSEL

To Olivier, today's common perception of work as a burden we must bear to finance our living is one of the biggest misconceptions of our time. Looking at the past and present of work life, he illustrates why he strongly believes that rethinking work may unlock an immense hidden potential in our society.

Video credits: Eva Hoffmann & Dana Ghafoor-Zadeh

Olivier Schneller is a business and life coach, economist and disruptive thinker that is driven by the idea to make work more fulfilling for everyone. He was born and grew up in Zurich, Switzerland, and is currently living in Hamburg, Germany. Before starting his coaching business, Olivier experienced work from very different perspectives. After working in the academic sector and obtaining a doctoral degree in economics, he has co-founded a start-up company to experience failure as a success. He then has worked as an innovation and strategy consultant in a large international corporation. Currently, Olivier is enjoying a one-year parental leave with plenty of room for new ventures.

[maartenplug]

He is right. It is time to rethink work and promote the idea of a universal basic income. Spread the word!

[nal]

This has been a huge problem for me ever since my days in school. Even now, with a university level degree, I still struggle with overcoming the negative impact of obligation on things that I actually want to do for myself. Be it study, work or a hobby that requires some practice.
Hopefully I'll live to see some of the inevitable changes for the better in the mindset of our society.

[Orf]

If more were free to work, people could be so much more productive. Oh and we'd have more great talks like this.

[TheodoreBolha]

This man is genius. Being forced to work is the cause of drug addiction, domestic violence, unhappiness, unnecessary stress= health issues, and many other negative things. We need a universal basic income now.

[MrHavk]

I absolutely love this message. Perhaps something like a basic income that would decouple survival from our work would be a good first step. If people want to bum off of the income then so be it, but most would try to work. Even if it was only part time.

[mamh]

love your mentality Olivier, good Father and good person you are

[durgatruex]

I highly recommend watching "Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century." Historical context is everything when trying to make a sea change against the status quo. In the case of work, our currrent experience was specifically designed to be the way it is for a very insidious reason. The real history of why work is the way it is originated with the industrial revolution, where the economic elite (ie. factory owners) could not find or retain enough labor to work for them. The problems were having a literate population that was wired to be in business for themselves. When skilled laborers DID go to work for a factory, they fully expected to have a voice in how they were treated, or they would walk off the job.

This presented a problem for the industrialists (the elites- Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Harriman, etc.) because, for example, if you need to build an airplane and your one guy that knew how to build it just ditched you, your business suffers. Enter Frederick Wallace Taylor, the "efficiency expert, " who discovered that if you take that same airplane and deconstruct the building process into 200 menial tasks, and hire 200 workers- each of which would spend all day doing one menial task- you gain control of your labor population. Now, they are replaceable. Now, they are disconnected from their skills, their motivation, their inspiration- from their inherent selves. They have become automatons. Now, if they get too loud or too vocal about their "rights, " you can just dispose of them. After all, they still need a job.

It wasn't just Taylor, though. The inception of behavioral psychology and several other influences were developed and funded solely for the purpose of controlling the masses- one huge way of doing that was turning work into exactly what it is- and the opposite of the speaker's message. On purpose. Sit with that for awhile. An inspired, motivated, population that are fully self-determined is a population that cannot be controlled. One that pays attention to things formerly kept in the shadow, that they had no time to think about before when their bandwidth was taken with struggling to survive. An inspired, self-determined population is unafraid to collectively challenge- even overthrow- institutions that are not serving their needs as a society. And that is precisely what some will obstruct at any cost. A debt-laden, uninspired, exhausted population has no time or energy to do anything but struggle. Is passive and ignorant. Does not challenge norms for fear of losing the little that they have. Sit with that.

-But don't take my word for it, watch the film, then do your own research of the cited sources. It will really open your eyes.

[robotjack]

This guy just nailed the way I've felt about jobs ever since I first got one. At work I can't help but think about all the ideas I have had. Ideas I've wanted to write about. Ideas about things I want to make. New methods for things. The way to build a better seal for refrigerator and freezer doors. Those things are worthless. Haha. But no bull. I've thought about it and a lot of other things. And I've come up with ideas that are worth looking into. But every job I've ever had basically ruins every day that I work. Because of anxiety and ADD, it takes an awful lot for me to keep on top of what my jobs have required. When I was younger, I felt completely mentally drained from my jobs. And I had a constant anxiety about losing my job due to sleeping problems which caused me to sleep through alarms; or better yet, to turn them off in my sleep. And I lost more than one job because of that, even though I was told at each job that I was a good worker and that I only needed to get there on time. Now, I'm middle-aged and while, for the most part, I've gotten my disorders in check, now I am just too damn tired and achy after work to do anything productive.
I still do a little work, though—on music. Music is my first love. Writing music and recording it is really all I've ever wanted to do. And, in my youth, I managed to make use of almost all of my free time writing and recording. Now I have quite a collection of songs recorded and albums released by the band I play in. I can't imagine that I will ever quit writing music. I constantly have some made-up tune bouncing around in my head. I can't not work on those ideas.
The most productive time in my life was when I was going to college and mostly living on my student loans. Going to classes does not wear me out like going to a job does, even though it requires a lot of it's own kind of work. But those classes were inspiring. I had more ideas, and actually produced more work of several kinds, than I did before or since. And that was mainly because I didn't have to worry about making a living.
Like Herr Schneller said, I only want to be "free to work."

[pokerprincess]

This man is indeed a genius. I'm really unhappy right now, and if I examine my thoughts, they all relate to my boss.

[DoreenBellDotan]

Benjamin Franklin said that a 5-hour work day is all that is necessary to sustain a comfortable standard of living.
I asked a friend, who is an engineer with a number of patents on his name, what would be the case today. He said: Were technology applied to our benefit, a 2-hour work day would certainly suffice for a very comfortable standard of living by our standards.
There is no reason why those two-hours shouldn't be fulfilling and fun too.
Rule of Thumb: Any social program that starts from the premise that Humanity, as a whole, is basically negative, is basically negative and dead wrong.

[siegfriedbraun]

I was free to work my whole life. I was also free to not work. What a genius idea. Not only was I free to do what I wanted, I was also privileged to not get any pay. I was free to starve, to freeze, to be homeless and lose my family. I recommend everyone follow this paradigm.

[craigstockham]

Money drives people to step on others to get ahead. I believe this is holding back human potentials.

[sevenedge]

Absolutely, spot on! I'd love to see a reform to our educational system where people are mentored to pursue and hone their passions from elementary school...helping kids explore and discover their natural talents and passions would revolutionize our work force and radically change our society.

[HannesRadke]

I do art workshops both at public schools (obligatory for pupils) and at art school (voluntary). The productivity difference is like night and day, as are the engagement levels. I agree with Schneller all day long from personal experience alone.

[CartoonManWhoo]

If I had a safety net, a basic income and healthcare (I live in the U.S. so if I get sick they wont help me) I would make art, write novels, sell homemade jewelry and fix my car/home.

[craigstockham]

Those who don’t want to work can help the elderly.

[ingeleonora-denouden]

officially I am 'jobless'. I do all kinds of work ... only that work is not paid. The 'system' wants to force me to find a paid job, but I think the work I do is just as important as a paid job. I would love to have the 'unconditional basic income' instead of the 'payment' I get now

[theokirkley]

Simply amazing. I added two quotes of his to a blog post.

[dearman]

The notion of having to work has generated sayings like "back to the grindstone."

[robndaggi]

A nice presentation. I like the idea of an Unconditional Basic Income (a better term than Universal Basic Income). Has anyone devised a model of how it can work in, say, Germany?