Can You Afford to Say No? Adam Smith on Choice at Work
The company is growing, but you still hesitate to turn down a Saturday shift. Adam Smith's chapter on wages helps explain how time, money and job options shape what we can ask for.
← Back to the Who Gets to Choose? series
It is Friday evening. Your manager sends a message: “Can you log on tomorrow?” You promised to take a family member to a medical appointment. You type, “I have plans tomorrow,” remember that bonuses have yet to be announced, and delete it. What you send is “Sure.”
Imagine a colleague receiving the same message with an offer from another company already in hand. They might say, “I can’t tomorrow. I can pick it up Monday morning.” Both people care about doing their jobs well. Their replies come from very different places.
This is the first essay in Who Gets to Choose?, a series on economics, politics and society. I want to start with work. A good salary should eventually give you enough room to leave. If you still want to stay, that room might let you say what would make staying worthwhile.
Who can wait if talks break down?
Adam Smith devotes a chapter of The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, to wages. Workers and employers have different interests, he observes. Employers were typically fewer, could organize more easily and could generally draw on their resources for longer. Both sides needed a bargain, but they could endure a stalemate for different lengths of time. Smith also saw that when workers were scarce, employers could bid against each other and push wages up. The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VIII
Think again about Friday evening. The cost of saying no depends on how you would pay next month’s bills and where you could interview if you lost this job. A small-business owner may be short of cash too, waiting to deliver an order before getting paid. Smith’s question works from either chair. If the bargain falls through, who feels it first, and who can hold out a little longer?
What the headlines and the household budget can tell us
On October 30, Taiwan’s statistics agency estimated third-quarter real GDP growth at 14.36% from a year earlier. In a separate release on November 5, it reported that consumer prices in October were 2.33% higher than a year earlier. One measures a change in output. The other tracks prices for a basket of goods and services. Each answers its own question over its own period. Taiwan national accounts releases · October price indices
In August, median regular monthly earnings for Taiwanese full-time employees in industry and services were NT$41,353, up 3.46% from the same month a year earlier. That figure covers a defined group, so other workers need to be understood through other data. Two people on the same salary can also have very different bills. One may be paying for a parent’s care while the other already owns a home. Their pay stubs say little about how long either can go without a paycheque. August earnings release
I would give growth one more test. When the economy expands, how many more people can turn down a bad arrangement and find one they can live with? If suitable openings multiply and people who move jobs get better pay or more workable hours, that is one way growth reaches everyday life. To look for that change, compare inflation-adjusted pay, vacancies and hours after a job move over the same period. Then ask which workers and industries saw an improvement.
Savings buy time. A workable alternative makes that time count.
Imagine two people with equal savings. One takes a parent to physiotherapy each week and can work only near two bus routes. The other can move and has several companies calling. Both could manage for three months without a paycheque. At the end of those months, they may have very different places to go.
That is why I care about what happens beyond the paycheque. A predictable roster might let a caregiver take a job they would otherwise turn down. One more employer willing to train people changing careers gives local workers another door to knock on. Scheduling and training take time and money. If people still cannot find work that covers their bills and leaves room for care, it is worth asking what is still keeping those jobs out of reach.
Back to that Friday message. I would like to be able to write, “I can’t tomorrow. I can handle it first thing Monday,” and go back to dinner without spending the evening wondering what my manager thinks. I want to stay. I want staying to be my choice.
If you had six months of living expenses set aside, what would you renegotiate first: pay, hours, location or time for family care? Think of one sentence you would actually say. The next essay turns to politics and asks what people can change together when speaking up alone costs too much.
Listen to the conversation
Listen to Can You Afford to Say No?. In this Mandarin episode, M.K., Dorami and an interpretation of Adam Smith start with a Friday evening request to work the next day.