Why Work?
Document source : faith-at-work.net
And that the trouble results far more from a failure of intelligence than from
economic necessity is seen clearly under war conditions, when, although
competitive economics are no longer a governing factor, the right men and
women are still persistently thrust into the wrong jobs, through sheer inability on
everybody's part to imaging a purely vocational approach to the business of
fitting together the worker and his work.
(c)
A third consequence is that, if we really believed this proposition and arranged
our work and our standard of values accordingly, we should no longer think of
work as something that we hastened to get through in order to enjoy our leisure;
we should look on our leisure as the period of changed rhythm that refreshed us
for the delightful purpose of getting on with our work. And this being so, we
should tolerate no regulations of any sort that prevented us from working as long
and as well as our enjoyment of work demanded. We should resent any such
restrictions as a monstrous interference with the liberty of the subject. How great
an upheaval of our ideas that would mean I leave you to imagine. It would turn
topsy-turvy all our notions about hours of work, rates of work, unfair competition,
and all the rest of it. We should all find ourselves fighting, as now only artists
and the members of certain professions fight, for precious time in which to get on
with the job instead of fighting for precious hours saved from the job.
(d)
A fourth consequence is that we should fight tooth and nail, not for mere
employment, but for the quality of the work that we had to do. We should clamor
to be engaged in work that was worth doing, and in which we could take pride.
The worker would demand that the stuff he helped to turn out should be good
stuff he would no longer be content to take the cash and let the credit go. Like
the shareholders in the brewery, he would feel a sense of personal responsibility,
and clamor to know, and to control, what went into the beer he brewed. There
would be protests and strikes not only about pay and conditions, but about the
quality of the work demanded and the honesty, beauty, and usefulness of the
goods produced. The greatest insult which a commercial age has offered to the
worker has been to rob him of all interest in the end product of the work and to
force him to dedicate his life to making badly things which were not worth
making.
This first proposition chiefly concerns the worker as such. My second proposition
directly concerns Christian as such, and it is this. It is the business of the Church to
recognize that the secular vocation, as such, is sacred. Christian people, and
particularly perhaps the Christian clergy, must get it firmly into their heads that when
a man or woman is called to a particular job of secular work, that is as true a vocation
as though he or she were called to specifically religious work. The Church must
concern Herself not only with such questions as the just price and proper working
conditions: She must concern Herself with seeing that work itself is such as a human
being can perform without degradation that no one is required by economic or any
other considerations to devote himself to work that is contemptible, soul destroying,
or harmful. It is not right for Her to acquiesce in the notion that a man's life is divided
into the time he spends on his work and the time he spends in serving God. He must
Summary :
And that the trouble results far more from a failure of intelligence than from economic necessity is seen clearly under war conditions, when, although competitive economics are no longer a governing factor, the right men and women are still persistently thrust into the wrong jobs, through sheer inability on everybody's part to imaging a purely vocational approach to the business of fitting together the worker and his work. The Church must concern Herself not only with such questions as the just price and proper working conditions: She must concern Herself with seeing that work itself is such as a human being can perform without degradation that no one is required by economic or any other considerations to devote himself to work that is contemptible, soul destroying, or harmful.
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