The bobos project: work
I’ve skipped the chapter on consumption, and I do need to write about that later, but for now let’s explore David Brooks chapter on work from his book Bobos in Paradise. Here is an excerpt:
… Today’s executives will tell you, and they will tell you again and again until you want to plug your ears with cotton, how fervently they have rejected the old Organization Man models. “Organizations are disappearing!” Tom Peters shouts at his audiences. “At HP, people don’t become cogs in some giant corporate machine,” the recruiting literature from Hewlett Packard opens. “From their first day of work here, people are given important responsibilities and are encouraged to grow.” Indeed, the companies that are celebrated by the management gurus are those that have stood the Organization Man on its head. Companies like Dream Works throw out job titles because they seem to hierarchical. …
There are pages and pages of this nonsense. Most of what you need to know about this chapter can be obtained by just reading the short excerpt above. Although there was also a long review of the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
I think the problem with this chapter is that David Brooks has been a journalist and writer his whole life and has never worked at a real job. The new-agey stuff from the excerpt is enacted for real at only a tiny minority of companies, and at none of the companies that I have ever worked for in my life. Brooks makes the mistake of reading HR propaganda from some big corporations and thinking that it’s for real.
That’s not to say that nothing has changed at all at work in the last thirty years. Back in the 1980s, men still wore suits to work, but that’s rarely the case anymore. Casual dress may have something to do with bobofication.
Also, the fact that people think they should get self-actualization from their jobs means that the recruiting literature now has to speak to that, even if it’s not actually practiced.
Nevertheless, the best way to get ahead at a big corporation is to ignore David Brooks and try your best to act like the Organization Man, and at least pretend that your only goal in life is to do what’s good for your employer, but not in a way that steps on someone else’s toes or gets into their business. And nothing will kill your career advancement prospects like individualism. Study how the people at higher levels in the organization behave, and try to become a clone.
Lion of the Blogosphere 
Is there any difference between bobos and SWPLS?
melykin
January 4, 2013 at 12:15 AM
best way to get ahead in a big corporation is to be a good looking girl who is slightly tomboyish. as a white male you’re basically screwed no matter what you do
anonymous
January 4, 2013 at 12:17 AM
Lion,
I think one of the things that Brooks did not anticipate is the job hopping of the Bobos. The way the elite seems to get “self-actualization” while working is by constantly hopping jobs. Brooks has been at the Times for years but someone like Matthew Yglesias seems to change jobs every three years. Look at how the elite in silicon valley are constantly changing jobs. Look at how the hedgefund types change jobs.
What Brooks should have realized is that the ability to change jobs often is a function of geography. That is SWPLs/Bobos are forced to live in NYC/DC?silicon valley. One cannot hop jobs living in Salt Lake City.
superdestroyer
January 4, 2013 at 7:07 AM
Lion: How do you think that the status of elite Silicon Valley compares to the status of the elite Wall Street firms? Are they now comparable, or is there still a large gap?
Most of my friends have gone to work at Google/Microsoft/Amazon (seem to be the big 3 employers) and their starting compensation packages are in the mid/upper 100ks if one counts equity and signing bonus. This is comparable to starting salary at bulge bracket banks.
I think that Silicon Valley is still somewhat lower status because the jobs are less competitive and are open to students from a wider range of schools. What do you think?
Alex
January 4, 2013 at 10:04 AM
I’ve worked in two corporate jobs for 12 years after having had graduated from an elite liberal art school (rhymes with Dingleberry). At my first employer after college I was spoon-fed the corporate HR bullshit that you need to “push the envelope” and be the “800lb gorilla in the room”. When I actually tried to implement said advice in my day-to-day job, I stepped on a lot of toes and was reprimanded more than once for being “cocky” and “a jerk”. I learned my lesson pretty quickly from that.
Thereafter I moved up quickly to middle management and now command a significant salary. My experience echoes the author’s thoughts, i.e., to act like an Organization Man.
My specific path to success is as follows: 1) dress extremely well every day and spend more money on good-looking work clothes than your peers. Looking sharp daily and not sloppy has paid back in dividends; 2) work-out regularly and eat healthy to always look better than anyone else; 3) get your Master’s as soon as possible to differentiate yourself from most other employees who are too lazy for it. I had my employer pay for my Master’s (continuing education); 4) write and speak eloquently. That means reading more books, writing more posts, etc.; 5) be the Yes Man most of the time as your superiors want a sounding board and not a critic. Critique your peers if they’re willing to accept it; 6) obviously have one insightful comment every time you enter a meeting with one or multiple superiors. That’s it; 7) do whatever work they give to you without every questioning it. In my experience I’ve been saddled with less work on account of my looks and professionalism, so it’s no big deal. Ensure you submit quality work that your boss doesn’t have to think about. That means reading through whatever you’ve written/created at least once; 8) be willing to move if they offer you a higher-up position in another city/country. I did this and it was the biggest bump for my career path/salary. That means that you should not be thinking about family creation until at least your mid-30s to ensure that you get one significant bump by moving intra- or internationally for your employer (or better career prospects).
Less important stuff: 1) be good with the ladies and social: a boss wants a person that dates pretty girls, is funny, and with whom he can shoot the shit. My good buddy is already hitting the corporate ceiling at his employer even though he could climb farther, and I think it’s mostly attributable to the fact that: a) he doesn’t like to socialize; and b)he married an obese and unattractive girl at the age of 24; 2) speak a foreign language. I do and have carved out a niche in my career solely based on that asset; 3) be nice to all of your colleagues and help them out when they need it. Your boss will be reticent to let you ago if you fix all the problems and create harmony within the team.
Obviously the above reflects my own opinions and should be evaluated on an individual basis. I am also male, thus my advice applies less so to women who want to work their way up in corporate.
DdR
January 4, 2013 at 11:02 AM
I think the problem with this chapter is that David Brooks has been a journalist and writer his whole life and has never worked at a real job.
That’s true of almost all journalists except financial journalists who normally have some prior experience in the business world. This is why journalists are constantly wrong about everything they report on.
I’m looking forward to many thousands more layoffs in the newspaper industry thanks to the internet revolution so I can one day walk into a Starbucks in Manhattan and order Maureen Dowd to make me a hot venti greentea.
The Undiscovered Jew
January 4, 2013 at 11:46 PM
Was the name “Peter Drucker” mentioned??
I believe he was the progenitor of much of the modern Management paradigm. Towards the end of his life, his conferences were sort of like TED conferences for executives/wannabe executives: more about status markers/prestige/schmoozing/networking than actual tangible productivity enhancement. Of course, I guess from the participants’ perspective, practice in ‘living the lifestyle’ is substantive. The game, after all, is all about soft skills, polish, and the assumption of upper-middle class shibboleths.
To be fair, Drucker did have some prescient insights. His “knowledge worker” concept seems to dovetail with the bobos ethos.
anon
January 5, 2013 at 1:32 AM
The issue for many corporations is that eventually the smoozer and management looking types have to make money. When pushed to make money, many of them throw ethics out the window Of course, many of still fail to make money and many of them get caught violating ethnics.
When Brooks talks about fulfilling jobs, I doubt if he thinks about making a profit as part of having a job.
superdestroyer
January 5, 2013 at 10:16 AM
The rule of thumb is to do the opposite of whatever society deems important. Civilization wants you to fail because there is not enough room at the top for everyone, so success for some depends on the failure of many others.
Our society preaches individuality. It’s important to be conformist. Our society says “be yourself.” It’s important not to be yourself. You get the point.
map
January 5, 2013 at 2:26 AM
HP did have a distinctively personable corporate culture until Carly Fiorina became CEO. The Silicon Valley has featured the corporate culture Brooks outlines, though they’re surely in the minority.
Sid
January 5, 2013 at 8:35 AM
Couple of points:
1) this dilbert cartoon sums up “the lion”s points beautifully: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2013-01-03/
2) the company currently called HP is really just the consumer PC and printer business of the old hewlett packard, and it is doing poorly because those businesses are commodities where HP has no edge. the company called agilent is really the main business of the company originally known as HP and it is doing just fine, still makes leading edge equipment for professional markets.
topic for the lion: Steve Jobs is the bobo version of Ron Popeil.
ralph
January 5, 2013 at 1:44 PM
[…] the chapter about work in the book Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks, there is a chapter about the “intellectual […]
The bobos project: intellectual life « Lion of the Blogosphere
January 10, 2013 at 8:55 PM