Life InsuranceOct 30 2014

Work should be fun

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I did not know what to make of It Wasn’t All Work, the new eBook from Brian Lawless and John Woolley. Was it meant to be taken seriously? Is it an undemanding read to pass the time or a homage to a bygone age of financial services?

After reading it on my Kindle on the plane, I decided it was a mixture, essentially a tribute to what many look upon as the golden age of working in financial services - a time when status was all, the company expenses card was on steroids and political correctness was a long way off.

On average, we only have 27,350 days on this planet and we usually spend 10,575 of these working. So it makes sense to enjoy them. Judging by the stories recounted in the style of an after dinner speech, both Mr Lawless and Mr Woolley appear to have experienced many an adventure, meeting some very unfortunate individuals along the way. They range from those with disastrous office romances to mix-ups with company cars reminiscent of Mr Bean.

Most of the tales are from the 1970s and 1980s, well before my time, but I can identify with them having worked as a young financial sales professional with many characters who trailblazed the role of inspector and broker consultant.

It Wasn’t All Work, is not a long book and only available to download as an eBook, which is just as well as it is a one-time read. That said, it is a humorous and enjoyable pastiche of the absurd, bizarre and downright unlucky events that have befallen many of our colleagues in financial services.

My personal favourite is the hapless new salesman’s encounter with his first company car, which was a fantastic shade of British racing green (remember that colour?). I will not ruin it for you, but if you do not laugh, you are taking life too seriously.

Perhaps it is unfair to class It Wasn’t All Work as simply a light bite, because it did reiterate to me that work needs to be enjoyed as best it can be, but perhaps not in the manner outlined by Messrs Lawless and Woolley.

Many of us need to discover what I call our business happy meal; we all know our kids or grandkids get more pleasure from the toy in a fast-food happy meal than the meal itself. The secret in our roles is to identify what is our own business happy meal.

Simply, what gives you the greatest motivation in your role and business? Think about this, does it not make sense to build your vision and day-to-day plan around how you can spend more time doing this, be it working with clients, developing staff or meeting the targets you have set yourself.

Then perhaps, when our time comes to enjoy our retirement, we can look back and, with less tedious memories, remember a career that perhaps was not all work.

Kindle edition

John Joe McGinley is head of business brain at Aegon UK