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Ray, to the two points you raised about why people work - to keep people
busy and out of trouble and to redistribute income - I would add a third: work
is a form of punishment for original sin, or so the Bible (NIV) tells us in
Genesis when God says to Adam when he was driving him from the Garden of
Eden:
Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food ... etc.
When I was a child in rural Saskatchewan, people would often quote that
passage to rationalize their miserable lives and the lives of their children
who, again through biblical injunction, were not spared the rod if they were
idle.
The concept of work as punishment has been pervasive in Western
culture, perhaps not always as a primary motive but certainly as an underlying
one. The surface rationale for serfdom, slavery, the Gulag and work gangs
may have been economic, social or legal, but to treat people so
callously required a deeper motive, one which being cast out of Eden would
have supported: "Because you are guilty (under God or his replacement, the
ideologically based State), I can make you work by the sweat of your brow to the
end of your days." If people had remained innocent in Eden they could not
have treated each other that way.
We now live in a more secular, less ideological, world, but the concept of
work as punishment is still with us in, for example, workfare programs, which,
ostensibly, have been organized to teach people on welfare the value of work,
but which are often punitively motivated and administered.
I would also add a fourth reason - people work because they want to earn
sufficient income to keep themselves and their families in a state of
independence. In pursuing this, people have had mixed results. Some
have achieved it - one thinks of the pioneer farmer or merchant. Others
have tied themselves to industries which provided them with good income for a
time, but ultimately failed them - one thinks of the present day farmer or small
merchant or the downsized blue collar worker. In the post WWII world,
education and training was seen as the key to independence. It may have
been the key for a time when job opportunities were abundant, but it no longer
seems to be. When I graduated from university with nothing more than a
Batchelor's degree in the late fifties, I had six firm, very good, job
offers. Kids who graduate, even with post-grad degrees, now are lucky to
have one.
And now I come to my final reason for work: addiction. Work is a form
of masochism and thus related to work as punishment. But here you want to
keep beating yourself with it, not others. You can't live with it, and you
can't live without it! It's something some people suffer from,
deeply. I'm one of them. I retired from official, nine to five, work
fifteen years ago but have worked hard on a variety of contracts ever
since. I'm now beginning to really hate work. But what I hate even
more is not working. I'm not alone. There are many people like me
out there. It's probably terminal!
Best (and not to be taken too seriously), Ed
Ed Weick
577 Melbourne Ave.
Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7
Canada
Phone
(613) 728 4630
Fax (613) 728 9382
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 6:54
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] The world of
work
This is an interesting study,
Such statistics are often given to explain why I
shouldn't be paid. After all if I'm happy in my work and
they are in pain then they should be paid and my pay is my happiness even
though I don't have the money to do the work and eat.
The problem as I see it is that the society needs
for everyone to work. What would it do with all of those
people meddling around as a result of too much leisure
time? That is, after all, the sole reason for the existence
of public schools as well. You guys worry about public education
but education for what? To take your place in this workforce
that does little of significance! And knows that that is the
case! I should ask my ex-Sister-in-Law who is happy in her
work. She works for Towers Perrin. She gets to be an
explorer and get paid for bringing the news to the
Rubes.
The purpose of work in this society is
two-fold:
1. to keep people busy and out of trouble and
2. to redistribute income based upon who gets the
prize for being the busiest.
Remember the Reagan Revolution that put all
those "druggies", finding themselves in the 1960s, to
work doing drab jobs? You guys need work for
control. You don't need it to make money but to
redistribute money that is truly in excess as a result of Lean Manufacturing
i.e. automated slave machines. That is like that Black Stone
that the Moslems love to touch and then run away from unchanged.
In fact people on this list
recently referred to people not as resources but as slow, overweight
computers. That's because computers and slave machines are better
equipped for Mr. Ford's meditation than human beings.
But once you do that, what do you do with all of this excess
protoplasm?
As if human subtlity didn't exist and human
talent was of no purpose or use to the future of the
species. Once upon a time they said that it was in order to
be able to make Art. But today you've lost the
way. You don't even know what the impulse behind the Art is
so why do it? And if there is no reason then go back
to work and fight the machine except you are only second rate next to all of
that tortured stone out there working in the darkness of the black
factory.
So we find the next scientific
Mess-iah. Eu$gen-hicks. Eugenics is the biggest
cop-out of all. Instead of working and growing those old decrepit
brain cells you want to build a bigger and better human not through mastery
but through chemistry and DNA manipulation.
Where is the science as
exploration? Buried in
Utility! But the Utilitarian "usefulness"
of science is a bastard child. Sort of like using Velcro as
an excuse or rational for going into Space.
Unlike the abused child J.S. Mill (by a demented
father), I got my abuse from the results of J.S. Mill's
abuse. But we both share the same sadness and rage from
that abuse. They said Utility was for
happiness but if that were true then only one half of one percent of the
Nation would be successfully happy with their immense wealth. But
they are not! I've met them and even know a few and they
ain't happy but they sure as hell feel vulnerable. I
"share" the feeling.
Happiness through economic value and
"usefulness" (manipulation of the money supply for redistribution
through work) is a bust. They are always
living in the future! Now we even have
FUTURISTS! I remember them wheeling my Father into the
operating as he said that he would be back because he hadn't finished his work
and that would guarantee his return. I loved my Dad but
he didn't come back and it doesn't matter that he hadn't finished or found the
future. It found him. I hope he had what he
needed.
In fact, on this list, we are
talking about the FUTURE of more of the same. Is this not a
waste of the one truly valuable dimishing asset that we possess?
Time?
The future is for
growth. For Knowing, NOT for Standing
Under. Knowing is an instantaneous holistic response
to a problem that raises learned habit to the level of "Natural Intuitive
Mastery." That it is so Natural that the Rubes believe you
are born with it. That its genetic, chemical or some
other excuse for their not trying.
Happiness comes from success and meaningful
growth that brings
fulfillment. If it doesn't do
that you get a C-. Industry could never do that,
it posited all happiness in the family and in working for the future
generations. They called it "Profit" but to what
end? For the family, for the child, for the nation because it sure
as hell was not worth the effort but it might be "Un bel
dì". So it was OK for poor Butterfly to be
miserable as she waited so delicately for her "American
Future" . "Your life wasn't a waste
Butterfly!" "You WILL be appreciated some day!" (That
is the Art Composer's Creed that creates and sustains hope in
misery!) When the LSD told them this was the dream
and life was elsewhere, Reagan said "forget the pursuit of psycho-physical
values, ground yourself instead in WORK! Work for the
Future generations! If this is a Dream then let us Dream
On!" But that dream was found in all of those old
celluloid tapes filled with banal cliche's that made it impossible to imagine
anything else. There are those on LSD who spoke of their
chest breaking open and seeing the sacred heart at the center beating, while
all the way down were layers and layers of old Hollywood movies.
The Soviets made the same mistake but they were
not as good at promises and novelty as the Capitalists and so eventually
people ceased believing in their Dream,
their Future. Reagan called them the Evil Empire
but what would you expect? Reagan was an idiot, a lousy actor
whose main worth was PR for mediocrities who liked to claim the mantle of the
scholar but who wouldn't know one when they met her.
And if they did realize it they would try to kill her because of their
own fear of mirrors.
So we have this mediocrity in the White
House now and thank God we got rid of the genius who was there before.
Did anyone truly understand the cynicism of William Jefferson
Clinton? What kind of person would see as much as
he saw and understand as much as he did and turn the meaning of life into
"keeping the old dog on the porch?" Clinton on the Sax
and Blair on the Guitar knowing that everyone was happy being manipulated and
"working" to no purpose whatsoever. Now its Blair and the Baseball
Owner. Same game. May as well play Rock and
Roll. Or have stars on the brain.
Star Singer aka Ray Evans Harrell
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 2:25
PM
Subject: RE: [Futurework] The world of
work
Ed,
Reminds me of a
study that Lee Iacocca (sp?) once commissioned and buried. He was the
Chrysler CEO who got the Feds to bail Chrysler out. After he got them
earning money again he was thinking about running for president. He
commissioned a study (at least $1,000,000) of the US workforce to get
attitudes of workers, etc. The results were so disturbing, that those
who did the work were sworn to never write about any of the
results.
At that time
dissatisfaction levels were so high that a high % were ready to commit
sabotage at the work place.
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 9:08
AM
To:
futurework
Subject:
[Futurework] The world of work
For a lot of people, the sad, grey world of
work!
Ed Weick
577 Melbourne Ave.
Ottawa, ON,
K2A 1W7
Canada
Phone (613) 728 4630
Fax
(613) 728 9382
One-third
of employees loathe their jobs, consultants find
By VIRGINIA GALT, WORKPLACE
REPORTER, Globe and Mail
Tuesday,
January 28, 2003 – Print Edition, Page B1
TORONTO -- Hate your
job? You're not alone. New research to be published today by Towers Perrin
management consultants shows that one-third of employees are profoundly
unhappy in their work.
"It's the saddest
feeling you can ever have, when you wake up in the morning and dread the
thought of going to work," says graphic designer Anthony Pimenta, who felt
stifled and unchallenged -- but fairly treated -- in his previous position
with one of Canada's major banks.
It was the monotony
that drove Melissa Alvares to flee her previous job at a market research
firm, where she spent most of her time closeted in a room going through
stacks of forms, checking for missing postal codes.
Employees were under
constant pressure to process the forms faster and faster. "It was like a
weird boot camp," said Ms. Alvares, who has a combined business and science
degree from the University of Waterloo and who now works, happily, as a
marketing co-ordinator with Toronto-based Softchoice Corp.
For communications
specialist Stacie Smith, it was the total lack of control over her own time
that led her to quit a Toronto public relations agency and set up her own
shop.
The pay was good, the
work was interesting, "but I couldn't even have lunch, unless I had it at my
desk," Ms. Smith said in an interview yesterday. "I couldn't leave at six
o'clock to watch my nephew play hockey."
The Towers Perrin study
found that most people have strong feelings about their jobs -- "employees
are not apathetic or indifferent, as many suppose" -- and these emotions are
predominantly negative.
More than half of 1,100
employees polled in Canada and the United States reported negative feelings
about their jobs, and one-third of employees in that sample group described
their feelings as "intensely negative."
Towers Perrin suggests
that the mood of employees has worsened as a result of a decade of
downsizings.
They "have never worked
as hard or as fast," said one of the firm's representatives in Toronto
yesterday. Towers Perrin said in its report that "people are burned out --
doing as much or more work with fewer resources and less
support."
The researchers found
that senior managers have an accurate sense of the current mood of the work
force, "but they misjudge some of the root causes," Bruce Near, managing
director of Towers Perrin in Canada, said in an interview
yesterday.
Employees cited
boredom, overwork, concern about their future, and a lack of support and
recognition from their bosses as key reasons for their
unhappiness.
"Where pay was an
issue, it was largely about perceived unfairness, specifically insufficient
pay for the level of effort or results provided, rather than absolute pay
levels," Towers Perrin reported in its study, Working Today: Exploring
Employees' Emotional Connections to Their Jobs.
"Among our discontented
group, 28 per cent are actively looking for a new job or planning to leave
their company," the report said. "Equally disturbing, fully a quarter of
these individuals plan to remain with their current employer -- suggesting a
company could have a segment of disaffected workers just 'hanging on' to
their jobs and, potentially, adversely affecting others with their negative
attitudes."
Mr. Near said many
employees are sticking with their jobs in the current economic environment.
But as the climate improves, many of the disaffected will move
on.
For every 1,000
employees in any large organization, he said, roughly 600 are either
actively or passively looking for other work.
He said the survey,
conducted in partnership with a U.S. firm, Gang & Gang, found no
difference in attitudes between Canadian and U.S.
employees.
And, after a spate of
corporate scandals, the researchers were surprised to discover that the
question of whether employees trusted their senior executives had less
impact on their level of job satisfaction than other factors, Mr. Near
said.
The researchers also
found "a statistically significant relationship" between employee
satisfaction and strong financial results, said Mr. Near, who added that
employees who feel connected to, and competent in, their work perform
better.
Ms. Alvares said she is
thriving in her new job, where she helps develop marketing programs for
computer product vendors. She said she doesn't mind hard work and long
hours, if the work is challenging.
Ms. Smith, who has hung
out her shingle as Smith Communications, still puts in long days -- but she
gets to choose her own clients and set her own hours. She can now take a
break for lunch, walk the dog or watch her nephew's hockey games. She is
expecting her first child in April.
Mr. Pimenta was given
the option of moving into a branch-banking role or taking a buyout when his
position as a graphic designer was eliminated. He opted for the buyout, took
career counselling, and now operates his own business, Hibryd Productions,
which specializes in Web design, animation, graphics, and film and video
production.
It was not the bank's
fault that he felt bored and out of place, Mr. Pimenta said in an interview.
But he felt that his creativity was undervalued -- "They'd get more excited
about someone developing a new form, a new withdrawal
slip."
Now, working for
himself after 15 years in banking, Mr. Pimenta says he cannot wait to get
out of bed in the morning to develop his new business. "It's beyond fun,
it's so cool."
The Towers Perrin
report said employers have a lot to gain by harnessing this passion in their
current work forces.
"Gaining this
discretionary effort from employees may be the last remaining source of
increased productivity, now that so many companies have already captured the
efficiencies of technology and streamlined work processes," the report
said.
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