isolated and alone as we toil ever harder, and suffering from constant fatigue. As noted ealier, sociologist Reginald Bibby asked Canadians what concerned them most in life, and 48% identified not having enough time as their number one problem [Bibby 2002,205]. Worse still, there seems to be no way out. We feel trapped. The very jobs that promised to provide for us and give our lives meaning have us in a stranglehold, because if I am what I do, then ceasing to do threatens the core of my existence. Far from providing our livelihood, work sometimes threatens to squeeze the life right out of us and leave us limp and exhausted rags.
Many employers expect their employees to do what it takes to get the job done. If this means working one hundred-hour weeks, then fine. If it means missing your daughter s piano recital, never mind — there will be other recitals. These expectations are usually not written down anywhere, but new employees quickly learn what it takes to keep their job and advance in the organization. They comply, but often harbour deep resentment. Yet when their turn comes to set expectations and standards, they will often demand the same of others, arguing that if they themselves have had to do this, there's no reason why others can't. And so our work patterns are perpetuated, and the singe of burnout hovers almost visibly in the air.
It may be that reining in the insatiable demands of work and keeping it from absorbing all our energy is one of the quintessential challenges of our time. A spirituality for the workplace must engage with this challenge and help us find the wisdom and courage to do things differently, swimming against the tide of a work-addicted culture. With a perspective that values each one as a person, regardless of income or career standing, we can detach our self-worth from our work just a little, and become freer to step back from the proverbial rat race.
Questions
How many hours a week are you working?
Why?
Downsizing and under-utilization
In the last two decades, in Canada and elsewhere, significant changes in the workplace have occurred, placing new stressors on workers. Some organizations have downsized, no longer employing as many people. Some of the changes have been structural; for example, many large organizations have reduced the number of “levels” between the top position (chief executive officer or president) and the bottom position. In large bureaucratic organizations such as a government agency the structures traditionally resembled a steep pyramid, with many levels of managers, department heads, and vice-presidents between the top and the bottom. By reducing the number of levels from, say, ten or more to three or four, the organization is reducing the number of workers and changes the structure of the organization and the way work is done there. (It is important to note that often the “middle level” positions that are dropped by many organizations are advanced level, managerial positions.)
Let's pause for a moment and consider a question. If an organization drops several levels or layers of managers, what happens to the people who keep their jobs?
Many of them are going to have to do more work — their pre-change work plus the work of other staff who lost their jobs. And many workers will not only have to do more work; they will have to be able to work with less supervision. They will have to make more decisions on their own, take on more responsibility. This isn't all bad. Some workers will relish the added responsibility. Some will thrive in the new workplace. But without a doubt, most employees in today's organizations are finding themselves doing more work and suffering from increased stress and fatigue as a result.
At the same time, under-utilization is a serious problem. It includes unemployment, part-time employment (where full-time is desired), and under-employment. Human knowledge, skills, and imagination — gifts from God — are squandered by under-utilization all too often. Where over-work causes burnout, under-work causes rust-out.
There was a series of advertisements on TV some years ago to encourage giving money to African-American colleges in the US. Each ad was a vignette about an African-American student who might not be able to go to college. The ads ended with the slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” This quotation captures the under-utilization of workers.
The rate of unemployment changes somewhat from year to year, and it varies across regions in Canada, but whatever the rate is, it represents real people who often feel neglected and without value. Since we define each other in terms of what we “do,” people who are unemployed may feel that they do not have an identity. As we experience an ever increasing rate of technological change that continuously alters the workplace, more and more people are likely to experience periods of unemployment. There is dignity in work, and being without work can rob us of our dignity and sense of purpose. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” We need to be equipped to cope with unemployment (expected or unexpected) and not let a period of unemployment define us.
Part-time employment is another form of under-utilization. There are many situations where people desire part-time work and request it from employers, for example, a parent who needs to be home half-days with a child in kindergarten. Another example would be a person who is self-employed but needs to supplement that income with part-time work. The under-utilization aspect occurs when individuals are forced to settle for part-time employment. Many settle for several part-time jobs. Often university students find themselves in this situation. Part-time positions create flexibility for employers, and since part-time or occasional workers typically do not have contracts, they can be fired (and hired back) easily. Part-time workers also do not typically qualify for employee benefits. In essence they become expendable and cheapened. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Under employment is in some ways the worst form of under-utilization of workers. Under employment is hiring people to fill positions that do not require their knowledge and skills. The taxi driver with a PhD is the example that journalists love to describe. The reality is that under-employment is widespread and a true waste of our precious human resource. Sociologists who have studied this inconsistency between job requirements and employees' credentials argue that employers need to increase the complexity of work that, say, college graduates occupy An economist might argue that the problem is really “over-education” and society should produce fewer college graduates if there are not enough jobs that require college degrees. Regardless of one's perspective on the origin of the problem, it is evident that people need to find jobs that are consistent with their education, knowledge, and skills. Being over-qualified for the work individuals are doing can be very discouraging, especially when the long-term prospects are not positive. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Under-utilization has to be addressed from two viewpoints. At the macro level, how can we — through our governments — encourage and support employers and entrepreneurs to create more jobs and jobs that use the knowledge, skills, and imaginations of all our people? At the micro level, how can individuals get themselves out of situations where their knowledge, skills, and imaginations are not adequately employed? We may need to quit a secure job where we are under-employed and find one that uses our talents, despite the strong messages we will undoubtedly receive (both from others and from our own fearfulness) that this is folly. Retaining a job, even a less than ideal one, is generally regarded as more prudent than letting it go in order to look for something more fitting.
A spirituality for the workplace must have something to say about how we can find our rightful place in the world. We are searching for a place where we can engage our skills and experience, our knowledge, imagination, and passion. And we are searching for a place that neither consumes us with over-work nor leaves us bored and discouraged with underwork. We may need to renegotiate our work situation many times, both the externals of what we do and the internals of how we do it. We will need many inner conversations with ourselves (and such conversations are the heart of spirituality) about whether we
