How many times do we, as human beings, expect things in life to be the same? Arguably, more than we realize. When we go to the grocery store, for example, it’s likely that we leave our residences believing that we’ll return and our belongings will be there waiting for us. It’s also a good bet that when we’ve spent time with a friend and left their company, we think we’ll see them again in the future. Imagine what it would be like if we literally couldn’t assume anything? You get what I mean.
And yet, life is the same, until it isn’t. The philosopher David Hume wrote that we incorrectly assume what the future will bring based on what’s happened before. It’s known as the problem of induction. The philosopher Bertrand Russell also wrote about the problem of induction. He essentially said that although it’s reasonable to make predictions of the future based on the past, what’s happened before isn’t absolutely, definitively certain to happen again.
In everyday life, we bump up against the discrepancy between what’s always been and what is in an assortment of ways. Some examples are insignificant. You go to Trader Joe’s expecting to find the delicious knife-cut noodles they always have, and your taste buds cry out in displeasure when they’re not there one day (uh, not that I would know anything about that). Other examples are colossal. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that. It overturned life as a whole. In the face of enormous change and upheaval, could work offer an anchor of steadiness and consistency? And could it be connected with emotional wellness?
In a newly published study, a team of researchers looked at the possible link between the feeling of normalcy people may experience when working and their emotional well-being during the first several months of the COVID-19 pandemic. They framed a “sense of normalcy” as a “sense of stability, familiarity, or predictability after experiencing a crisis or disruption to everyday life.” They found that people who had this sense of normalcy through their work life also felt less upset and worried. Why might the experience of sameness through working help people weather chaotic, harrowing waves of change? The researchers noted that it could turn down the volume on how overpowering the situation seems, enabling people to see it as hard but doable. They also said is might fortify people’s view of themselves as able to personally confront and deal with what’s before them.
The research team rightly made it clear that the scope of their study is limited, as work wouldn’t serve as a platform of steadfastness and regularity for everyone. They were also correct to call for more research on the relationship between work and other upheavals.
In the meantime, what might we take from this work? If life as a whole, or some aspect of it, suddenly capsizes, it can’t hurt to think about the role of work and whether it might be a way of turning things right side up, at least for part of the day.
