Paid work can be an avenue of personal expression. It can provide a platform to share one’s ideas,skills and talents with the world. What it rarely,if ever,does is encourage truly free speech,and almost by definition it limits our actions.
“If you haven’t got a problem,you haven’t got a job,” said the industrialist John Paul Getty. In other words,people are employed to solve employers’ problems. Can’t cook and serve customers? Employ a waiter or a chef. Jobs are defined by a limited set of tasks and skill requirements defined by an employer,constituency,or customer. In other words,it is highly unlikely that you will ever be employed to do whatever takes your fancy. Employment limits our actions.
Be careful what you say.
Employment also limits our freedom of expression. Increasingly this is written into employment contracts that have teeth. While we may be free to say whatever we like,we are not free of the consequences.
As private citizens there are limits on our expression which mostly prevent harm to others through incitement or vilification. However,once we become employed,those limits on expression increase substantially. Many employment contracts contain clauses forbidding any actions or expressions that bring the employer or even the occupation as whole into disrepute,or that are damaging to the interests of the employer. Even if it is done outside of work.
So merrily telling the world that the product or service your employer offers is total crap may feel liberating,but it could well involve you being liberated from your job.
It does not necessarily require an explicit employment contract for the consequences of our public utterances to be career-killing. Famously,many years ago,the CEO of a large jewellery company,Gerald Ratner,described one of his best-selling products as “crap”. He had to step down soon after.
The degree to which limits are placed on our freedom of expression varies by occupation. In some professions,there are very tight guidelines regarding how,for instance,diagnoses are made and described. Medical practitioners are not free to make up their own descriptors that disregard accepted frameworks,and are liable to significant penalties if they do.
Academics on the other hand have long fought for so-called academic freedom. Once upon a time this may have been an open invitation to opine on anything,but nowadays,most academic employment contracts will have clauses related to restricting public comment to areas of professional expertise and not bringing their employer into disrepute. What was once an unquestioned aspect of the job of an academic has become increasingly contended.
Journalists,broadcasters and artists can also find themselves out of a job,or their funding cut,should they step too far outside of the lines. Even politicians,if they are wise,will not stray too far from party lines or from their electorate’s expectations and values.
We can never be completely free in our actions or speech,which is a good thing for those that do not wish to be murdered or vilified.
However,it does seem that if you are lucky enough to have a few billion under the belt,you are freer to say what you like than the rest of us suckers who have to shut up and work for a living. Is that right?
Jim Bright,FAPS is Professor of Career Education and Development at ACU and owns Bright and Associates,a Career Management Consultancy. Email to. Follow him on Twitter @DrJimBright