What does money mean to you? What are you willing to do to get money? Do you have all you need or do you always seem to be running short? What are your beliefs about money?

The Power of Money

We live in a society where money has many meanings. As a medium of exchange money is a useful tool. It facilitates trade and provides a scale for attributing value to goods and services. However, money is also a way many of us establish our worth, both in the eyes of others and our own. In addition, it is the gateway to freedom from dependence on others for meeting our basic needs as well as providing our luxuries.

Do you remember your first job? At age 16 I was hired as an usherette by the local discount movie theatre. My job consisted of leading people up and down the isles with a flashlight and disciplining children, who put their feet on the seats, threw popcorn or disturbed others.

My original elation at having a real job just like the grown-ups was soon replaced by a feeling of frustration at all the rules we had to follow and boredom at having to stand at the back hour after hour watching the same movie time and time again. It got to the point where the measly minimum wage paycheck wasn’t worth the price and after a couple of months I quit.

Yet quitting left me with a nagging feeling of self-doubt. Why couldn’t I stand a job that my friends who stayed had no problem doing? Why did I care more about my freedom than about making money? This dilemma followed me through the various jobs and occupations I have had since then.

Looking back, I realize now it was my relentless desire for personal power and my lack of understanding about how to create it in the business world that caused my frustrations. This lack of understanding was a direct consequence of the experiences I had in school.

Schools are for Job Training

Several hundred years ago, public schools did not exist. There were private schools where the elite in society sent their offspring, but the majority of children grew up learning an occupation or trade either at home or in an apprenticeship situation. The original inspiration of the founders of public education to provide equality for all through schools was soon subverted by the need for a work force that fit the structure of the industrial revolution.

The personal power of the individual had to be sacrificed if the factories with their mass production lines were to function efficiently, so education succumbed to the “hidden curriculum” of preparing children for their future disempowered lives by getting them used to that state in the classroom.

All the principles that schools value highly: discipline, conformity, competition, obedience to authority, serve to promote the kind of behavior that makes good employees. Those students who excelled under these principles would eventually be rewarded with better paying jobs in the system and the possibility of being at the top of the hierarchy rather than the bottom.

Some children are naturally more rebellious than others. Something prompts them to resist the hidden curriculum, whether it is an intuitive perception of the flaws in the system or a simple inability to meet its demands. Some drop out of school, feeling like failures and maybe turning to crime to survive, some barely scrape by till they can get out and start their own business and some become reformers, determined to make changes in a world that doesn’t support human integrity and authentic power. Of the latter, many get discouraged after a few years and give up, succumbing to the demands of survival or family obligations.

Exercise #1

Think back to your own experiences in school. Were you a compliant student, or a rebellious one? Were you a high achiever or one who barely got by? Now, most important of all, what beliefs did you pick up about yourself and about what life was like in “the real world” from your school years? How were those beliefs reflected in your later work experiences?

Beliefs and Their Effects on Experience

I was a rebel in school. I questioned everything I was told to do. When I was young and didn’t know any better, I questioned out loud. Later I simply tuned the teachers out and did my own thing. My beliefs about school, and consequently the real world (the world that existed outside my family) were that people didn’t listen to me, people didn’t understand me, and people expected me to do what they wanted or else they would punish me. In short, I believed I didn’t fit in and never would.

Consequently, I carried that belief into my first job, which created an attitude of discontent. Instead of living in the moment, enjoying the people I met, I spent my time judging and condemning everything…the job, my employers, and the people who came to the theatre. No wonder I was unhappy!

It took me years to overcome those limiting beliefs. You may or may not be able to identify with my story, as everyone’s experience is different. However, it is a good illustration of how the “hidden curriculum” may at times be counter-productive. It certainly didn’t make a good employee out of me!

The Anatomy of a Job

What exactly is a job? One dictionary defines it as a regular activity performed in exchange for payment. There are “unpaid” jobs like volunteer work or homemaking, but let’s look specifically at the business world and the job as a synonym for paid employment.

We can divide jobs into roughly two categories: employment in a business owned by someone else and self-employment/owner-operated business. Who has more power? Well, that depends. Our first inclination might be to say that the person in his or her own business has more power than the employee, because the employee has to do what he or she is told, but appearances can be deceptive. For example, how easy would it be for the business owner to simply walk away from the job without facing severe economic penalties? If the business has an operating loan, how much power does the loan company have over the business?

In contrast, the employee may have an excellent contract that empowers him or her to fairly exchange services for wages within well-defined terms. The employee is usually free to go elsewhere without economic penalties, assuming the terms of the contract are met. This power of choice may be one reason why so many people remain employees.

Exercise #2

Whatever your job category, take a moment to imagine the opposite. If you are an employee, imagine what it would be like to work for your own business. If you are self-employed, imagine what it would be like to be an employee. In which position do you feel you would be more empowered? Why?

Personal Relations in the Business World

I have come to believe that authentic power in the world of work has very little to do with what we do or what our job status is, and everything to do with how people relate to each other. My 16-year-old daughter works at McDonald’s part time and enjoys it. According to her, employees and management see themselves as part of a team where all are equal.

Everyone uses first names only and everyone’s contribution is valued. Part-time employees have the freedom to set their own hours and book off at their own discretion without penalty. There are opportunities for employees to express grievances as well as make suggestions for improvement in working conditions. In short, this particular restaurant seeks to empower its employees.

Not all businesses operate that way. Many still have the philosophy that an employee is a form of property, bought and paid for, and therefore managers should push as hard as possible to get their money’s worth. An employee may have contracted for certain hours and certain services, yet be pressured to contribute more than the original agreement. Fear of losing a job in an uncertain job market causes employees to yield to this form of coercion. Ironically, the harder managers push, the less efficient people become, as the energy required to cope with the stress of disempowerment is no longer available for work.

If you are caught in this position, what can you do? One option, of course, is to look for another job. However, this may not always be possible, or even in your best interest. Another option is negotiation with management. This can be frightening because many of us do not feel worthy of being listened to. We were raised to be good, obedient employees and it is even possible that at some level we may believe we don’t deserve any better. So the first step in changing one’s outer circumstances is always the inner work that clears the self-limiting beliefs we hold.

Exercise #3

Take a moment to reflect on your personal worth in the business world. What do you believe your value is to an employer, to a client or to a customer? Does your present job reflect what you believe your value to be? Do you get paid more or less than you deserve, based on your perceived value? If you are a business owner or employer, do you believe your value is greater than that of your employees? If you are a professional, are you worth the fees you charge?

Changing Beliefs About Your Worth

Your perception of worth will directly influence how you treat others as well as how they treat you. We may think we can hide our low self-esteem, but it is visible in everything we say or do and will be reflected to us without fail. Many of our beliefs are not realistic. They are based on something someone told us in the dim and distant past, yet they rooted themselves in the subconscious, forever influencing our perceptions. Does that mean we can’t know what they are? Absolutely not! We have before us, each and every day the perfect mirror of our beliefs. That mirror takes the form of our employer, our partner, our client or our friends.

Anytime someone says something negative, you are presented with an opportunity and the most empowering response is: “Thank you!” (You do not need to say it out loud for it to be effective.) That person has given you an opportunity to see whether you hold a self-limiting belief. The comment may have nothing to do with you, in which case you will find it easy to let go. If it pushes a button though, dig deeper. You have found one of your disempowering beliefs and now have the opportunity to change it forever, if you choose.

Here is an example:

Your employer has just asked you to do some extra work after hours, without extra pay. The implication is that you are not working fast enough and you owe the employer this extra time, even though you have put the same effort into your job as in the past. Do you quietly discuss with your employer the reason for the extra work and the possibility of either getting help or extra compensation? Or do you quietly submit to the demand, feeling unjustly treated and angry, but also wondering if you should have been working harder during regular hours to satisfy your employer? Do you fear that if you speak up, you may lose your job because there are lots of people out there as good as or better than you?

(Of course, you may feel so good about your job and the people you work for that doing a little extra work in your off time doesn’t bother you. In that case, congratulations! You are functioning in a position of authentic empowerment and in this situation there is no inner work to be done.)

Whatever your limiting beliefs, chances are if you change them, your reactions will change, which will in turn effect how you are treated. You can prove this to yourself by looking around at other employees. Generally, if a boss is pressuring employees, some will be pressured more than others. Why? Probably because the boss has more success getting extra work out of some people than others. And the reason for that…you guessed it! They probably have the limiting belief that they deserve that kind of treatment.