The George Clooney film, Up in the Air, has been hailed as far more than just light entertainment, as it contains plenty of valuable lessons for business owners on how to succeed.
Based on a novel of the same name by US author Walter Kirn, the 2009 comedy drama is a cautionary tale on what can happen if you take the wrong approach to your job.
On the surface, Clooney’s character, Ryan Bingham, is a highly successful executive at a human resources consultancy, specialising in conducting company redundancies for clients. His job takes him all over the country to deliver the layoff news in person to employees, but he has stopped really listening to what they have to say at this devastating time. Instead, with every round of employment terminations, he becomes increasingly obsessed with collecting American Airlines’ frequent flyer miles while travelling.
As the film progresses, it becomes apparent that Bingham has lost sight of what really matters as a business leader, such as having a good work life balance and combining ambition with empathy.
While the Up in the Air film has enjoyed box office success, today it’s held up as an example of what NOT to do in the workplace, sharing its wisdom for career people everywhere.
Being career focused
Bingham is an ambitious professional in his 40s who’s totally career focused, to the exclusion of all else, but as the story progresses, it leads him to start questioning his goals. Asking himself, “What does ‘ambitions’ mean?” he realises his goal of achieving the magical ten million frequent flyer miles is ultimately flawed.
While being career focused is a positive, it’s easy to lose sight of our original ambitions and purpose. Bingham has always considered the flying and travel of his job to represent freedom. However, when new remote technology leads to less travel, he realises his whole lifestyle needs an overhaul, as he has focused on the wrong goals.
On discovering this, he eventually gives his frequent flyer miles to his newlywed sister Julie and her husband Jim, so they can afford a honeymoon.
Ambition vs isolation
This leads to our second point: ambition vs isolation. There are potential pitfalls for business leaders who prioritise career success over personal connections and work life balance. Bingham discovers this when he is invited to Julie’s wedding and makes a rare visit to see his family. He experiences a strained reunion with family members, whom he has hardly seen in years. They resent his prolonged absence and the fact he always seems to put his job before seeing loved ones.
He realises that if he was fired, his whole world would collapse, as he had never thought about what life would be like without the corporate travel. Having avoided cultivating personal relationships, he doesn’t have a Plan B, should work go wrong.
It’s damaging in terms of mental health to become solely devoted to your career to the point where you have no personal relationships outside of the office.
Ambition and career success
Ambition has helped Bingham’s success: he has established himself as an expert in his role. A powerful tool for a successful career, it motivates you to have dreams, set goals and take action to achieve targets. Realising the ambition will help you persevere, even when faced with challenges, which will encourage you to keep working on yourself to overcome them.
Regardless of all the positives, it’s still vital that you find the right balance between your career and personal life. Working in a flexible office can help you to escape the rigidity of the 9-5 workload, helping to maintain a good balance.
Balancing ambition with empathy
One of the most important aspects of your career is balancing ambition with empathy and purpose. There are several turning points in the film where Bingham starts to question the meaning of his work and the cost of his ambition.
His sister’s wedding is one of the turning points: realising he has let his career take over his life, he is missing out on family relationships and personal life.
He realises he stopped truly listening to everyone around him, especially clients and employees, after someone he laid off commits suicide. When Bingham is sent with a new colleague, Natalie, to downsize a company, one of the employees being laid off says she’s feeling suicidal. Natalie tells Bingham she’s concerned about the distressed woman. However, he tells her not to worry about it and doesn’t give it a second thought, until weeks later he finds out the employee has taken her own life. Natalie quits her job, as she’s so upset by the news.
Bingham had become so used to his job of firing people that he stopped listening to their reaction and had become detached and unaware. Had he really listened, instead of brushing aside Natalie’s concerns, he could have directed the suicide victim to someone who could help her, rather than not taking her seriously. With some empathy, he could have helped to prevent her death.
The lesson is that even if you deal with thousands of customers and colleagues in your day-to-day, you will serve them better if you make listening part of your personal attributes.
© Marco Iacobucci Epp / Shutterstock.com
