The recent resignation of Jacinda Ardern as the prime minister of New Zealand caught the world by surprise. Here was a popular prime minister who seemed to have a long political career ahead of her. She said: “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple. We need a fresh set of shoulders for that challenge.”
My personal political experience
I have a less intense experience with Ms. Ardern’s plight. From 1986 to 1992, I was an active member of a political party in Canada. However, I had a small business to run. I was on 24-hour call and often out of town. I set my priorities so that the business came first and whatever was left over went into politics. I was younger; I liked juggling too many balls.
Because I was unreliable for attending political meetings, my rise in the party was limited. But the party still liked my time contribution. I attended many meetings; some public, some in the back rooms. Politics was exciting.
Early in my political career, I had the ambition of becoming an elected official one day. That ambition changed when I attended a non-political, social event of about 200 people. Our local member of Parliament showed up. He moved from table to table, talking to many people. When he got to our table, we found out that he had come from a similar event earlier in the evening and was going to a similar event later. I could only think: “Doesn’t this guy ever put up his feet and watch the hockey game?” That was the day I decided I could not do a great job mingling with the public on a continual basis. I just don’t like people that much. So I gave up on my elected career, but I stayed in the back political rooms — until I figured out that I was wasting my time to make a better world in this way.
A couple of decades later, I seemed to be crossing paths with another member of Parliament, seeing him at several functions within a few months. These encounters reinforced my understanding of the busy life of a politician. When Parliament was in session, he was making the trip back to the constituency every second weekend. This meant catching an Ottawa-Calgary flight on Friday afternoon. Then a three-hour drive to Medicine Hat. His handlers had him attending local events all day Saturday and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon was his drive back to Calgary to take the plane back to Ottawa.
The political parties really want their elected members to be meeting the public. If these members are taking too much “relax” time, the local party associations will start looking to replace the incumbent at the next internal election. There is a lot of pressure for elected politicians to be “pressing the flesh.”
The prime minister of New Zealand could not have too much idle time. Many issues to juggle. Many meetings to attend. Many partisan and non-partisan people looking for attention from the prime minister. The prime minister’s handlers ensured that this high-ranking politician is attending the better events, seeing the appropriate people, and being properly briefed. Ms. Ardern was likely working 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week. If she wants the job, that is the price to pay. Not much time for this mother to be with her little child.
It should be no surprise that she was burned out.
Being a professional
I saw a brief news video with a cardiologist working in Calgary. He was also a very busy man. There was a shortage of cardiologists in Alberta. People have heart attacks at any time. So this man was on 24-hour call. He could always be in an operating room two hours later.
He would be very unreliable to be an effective political worker. Or for any other volunteer work. While he planned and looked forward to family functions, he did a lot of cancelling at the last minute. His kids were disappointed too often. While he was earning a lot of money in an exciting career, there was a price to pay.
Would it not be better for Alberta to train more cardiologists? Maybe cardiologists could spend less time on the 24-hour call schedule. Instead of burning out, they might last another 10 years in their profession, providing their valuable medical training to Albertans.
But our Canadian medical structure is designed to work its doctors — and other medical staff — much too hard. How is all this overwork affecting their professional judgment?
When doctors, other medical workers, and other workers get burned out too early in their careers, society loses. This burnout speaks to our inability for appropriate long-term planning. But this is a matter for another discussion.
Being a worker
Today I was at a local Tim Hortons coffee shop. The business model for “Tim’s” is about 10 workers in the kitchen taking and preparing orders for coffee, pastries, and light lunches. There is lots of teamwork required; workers are always thinking of what position to play for each order. Each order is different and must be filled right. There are inevitable conflicts between customers and co-workers. I would call working at Tim’s a chaotic assembly line.
Tim’s is a good job for young people looking for a part-time income and life experience. This employer is respectful of their employee’s time availability, so many students work there.
But for most full-time workers, the fast chaos is an incentive to find a better full-time job. There are jobs with the same stress but higher wage. And there are jobs with less stress for the same wage. Workers have options. Working full-time at Tim’s proves a certain fortitude that other employers would like to have in their employees.
Tim’s is one of these employers befuddled by the labor shortage. I have a solution for this business: raise the wages! If it means passing those wage increases to customers, so be it. Let the customers decide how much they want to pay for coffee and doughnuts. Many businesspeople do not understand this part of Economics 101.
Quiet Quitting
A friend of mine got a new job. She has about 20 years of experience with urban planning. She wants an easier pace. Her new employer requested full-time, on-site. She said, “Half-time, remote.” The employer decided it needed her expertise enough to adjust the job conditions. My friend is doing her own version of quiet quitting.
There’s been all sorts of reasons for the labor shortage we are seeing. My preferred reason is not getting enough media attention: some workers are adjusting their life priorities. They are seeing that the designer wardrobe, concert and game tickets, resort/cruise vacations, etc., etc. are just not that important anymore. These workers are no longer as deep in the rat race as they used to be.
The labor market would need only 2% of workers to move to a simpler life to cause the dislocation we are currently seeing. Even though 98% of workers are still either chasing consumerism or just earning survival money, that 2% withdrawal has all sorts of ripple effects. I believe quiet quitting is a good trend for society. The economy will adjust as more people make similar decisions.
I have doubts that our current policymakers are planning anything around this trend. But this is a matter for another discussion.
Long hours find better politicians, right?
Our current democracy demands our elected politicians work 80+ hours a week. While we can find people willing to work under these conditions, are these people really the best people we should be putting into governance?
Of course, our current elected politicians believe they are the best people for governance. They point to the great time sacrifice they give to politics to make their point. I believe that is called “circular logic.”
If anything, the long hours discourage many capable people from participating in politics. Society loses a lot of its talent for governance.
A new way
I have an alternative democracy. When implemented, it is going to change how we do politics.
My book “Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG)” gets this new democracy started. Other than the four salient features of the TDG, I have left each local TDG to design itself. There is going to be a lot of experimenting with TDG democracy, with effective features being retained and ineffective features being changed out. So, I cannot predict the final structure of any TDG.
I hope the TDG builders will be watching carefully how much time the TDG elected representatives spend on the TDG.
In the early stages or lower tiers, TDG work should be volunteer service. So 10 hours a month should be enough. These TDG representatives need to fulfill other life obligations and cultivate non-political interests and friendships. In fact, their activities outside of politics will actually contribute to better judgment in TDG governance. So if the time commitment is consistently greater than 20 hours a month, I recommend some structural adjustments to lower the volunteer time. This will be done by amending the local TDG constitution. The TDG needs all sorts of people to serve, not just hyperactive people.
As the TDG grows, it will need full-time representatives at the higher tiers. And these representatives should be paid reasonably well. When their workload reaches 60 hours a week, their former good judgment will decline. They too need non-TDG activities to nourish their soul.
Let’s build the TDG around a reasonable time commitment for all its representatives.
Returning to Ms. Ardern
From what I have heard about Jacinda Ardern, she could be a long-serving and effective elected representative in New Zealand’s future TDG. And she could be a loving, nurturing mother at the same time.
Isn’t this what we want?
Published on Medium 2023
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