Gail Stewart:
> I don't think we should assume that everyone using a temp
> agency is always desperate for work. I suspect that some do
> it just to provide discretionary income, or for a change of
> pace in a life that may involve a different kind of work.
>
> Just using myself as an example, I had worked as a
> professional in offices for a number of years and decided to
> do a month one summer as a production worker in a
> non-unionized commercial bakery. I did this simply for the
> experience and to remind myself what life can be like in
> that kind of situation. It worked. I still remember it
> vividly and as an economist have been affected by that
> experience in a continuing way.
>
> As it happened I didn't use a temp agency, I used the
> classified ads in the local newspaper. However I am far from
> the only person, even on this list, who must at least on
> occasion have related to their work as being a choice rather
> than a necessity. While I agree wiht you that being
> completely reliant on temporary work is an unenviable
> situation, not everybody using temp agencies is likely to be
> in that position. I have heard that some people use them
> simply to help them get out of the house.
>
> My concern is this. If we assume that everybody wants to be
> an employee and needs all the income that they can get, then
> we not only belie the statistics and the experience of daily
> life but we would have a society that couldn't see its
> creative options, which lie in that space between need and
> choice. How dull and dangerous that would be.
>
As I'm sure you appreciate, there are many different kinds of work and many
different reasons for working. One is yours, and, for that matter, mine.
You could choose to work in the bakery for the experience of it, when you
didn't need to. I've done similar things - e.g. spending a month wheeling
rubble and piling lumber in the slums of Sao Paulo. I could let myself do
that and, in a perverse sort of way, actually enjoy it because I had an air
ticket out. The people I worked with were not as fortunate. They lived in
those slums and are probably still there.
Whether as a consultant or as a volunteer, I can say that I now quite
honestly enjoy my work. But I've been lucky, able to leave a less enjoyable
work environment behind. When I was a teenager, I dropped out of highschool
for a couple of years and spent fourteen months working in a sawmill. That
is not something I would ever want to do again, but many thousands of people
are still doing it or something quite similar. Many of them are in their
forties and fifties, not young dropouts with plenty of options left. Yet
they do have jobs and some sense of continuity and security unless of course
the mill closes, as many have on the west coast.
My point is that only a relatively few people are in a position to feel good
about their work and make it a creative experience. The problem lies with
the nature of work itself. Much of it is simply neither pleasant, creative
nor inspiring, and there is little that can be done about it. Though
backhoes help, digging ditches still requires a certain amount of manual
labour, as does farming, as does road maintenance, as does a lot of
manufacturing and construction.
I believe this thread began with a discussion of casual or temp type work.
I mentioned my wife's experience. She was one of the lucky ones. Because
she was very, very good and because the woman who ran the temp agency liked
her and looked out for her, she got snapped up by the Mackenzie Valley
Pipeline Inquiry, an absolutely exceptional place to work, heaven itself,
and has worked in good situations ever since. But many other people on the
temp circuit at the time were not so lucky. They found it difficult to fit
in or were at the wrong place at the wrong time, and never quite got the
breaks. I don't know what temp circuits are like now, but I would guess
that they're not too different. And yes, people do temp work for many
different reasons: some simply want to get out of the house, but others want
to scrape together enough money to pay the rent and supplement what
groceries they can pick up at the food bank.
Personally, I don't think we can do much to make work a more creative and
fulfilling experience, except for the fortunate minority - you and I and
others like us. My suspicion is that most people who work would rather be
doing something else. However, they will work, and work diligently and
productively, if they are paid well, treated fairly, and given a possibility
of moving up whatever ladder they're on.
Ed Weick
Visit my rebuilt website at:
http://members.eisa.com/~ec086636/
