Thoughts on the dignity of work

We have now settled into the rhythm of the year. Some of us will have kept resolutions, whilst others will have abandoned every good intention by about week three in January. This is when we realise that they are impossible to keep when our real lives, rather than our wishful summer selves, begin to shape the year.

Our real lives consist of many different obligations and duties, joys and challenges, long-term plans and short-term solutions. Many of us will return to the routine of work, some keen for the structure and socialisation that work offers, others less so, when it seems to prevent some element of self being realised or extracts more time than we want to give. However, we are also contracted to work for our own benefit and that of others. With this comes expectations and responsibilities and the dignity inherent in working to the best of our ability.

Of course, there are times when work can be boring, repetitive, stressful or demanding. This behoves us to find ways to manage this so that we do not become resentful or mentally absent ourselves from the job and the possible satisfactions that can come from purposeful effort.

Whatever we do and how we do it, the attitude we bring to work, has a ripple effect. It creates climate. We can bring sunshine into the office or we can bring in misanthropy. We can be the encourager or the nay-sayer. We can be Good News and good news people in the way we interact with our colleagues or we can be gossipy and undermining. We shape our day and we shape how we respond to the circumstances we find ourselves in.

There will be times when we must refrain from comment and times when we must speak up. There may be times to volunteer and times to say we have too much on to do more. There will be times we feel overlooked and underappreciated. There will be times when we do not get that promotion. And there will be those times when a colleague, client or customer’s gratitude, acknowledgement or respect will remind us that we are good at what we do daily.

We know that our work lives can impact our family lives and that finding that elusive work/ life balance is important if we are to remain grounded and happy. Only recently, have I begun to say NO occasionally in this attempt to retrieve some time for my own interests. I can only give so much because I am a human being, not an automaton. I am ever mindful of the wise words a lovely FCJ sister said to me a couple of years ago. Underpromise and overdeliver rather than overpromise and underdeliver.

This makes such good sense. We all want to do well, to accomplish things, to be seen as someone who contributes. That being said, often the contributions we make may be invisible, goodness and gestures that will not be measurable as a KPI. Only God will see our small kindnesses and tender mercies, those grace notes that bring holiness into the workplace and grow good will.

So, as we work this year, let us be mindful of our own approaches to the content of what we do and to those we work with. We will have great days and good days and many ordinary days and weeks of turning up and putting in reliably, doing our bit as part of a team, contributing where and when we can. We need to choreograph those times for greater and lesser effort as we match the ebb and flow of our other lives and are reminded that although work is important, it is not the only thing.

Genesis reminds us of God working to create the world out of the void. He saw the goodness of that enterprise and was satisfied. He also rested on the seventh day. We, too need our own Sabbath, that day of rest from work and a recognition of God active in our lives. Often it is on the weekend, and on Sunday, as we pause and pray and let our minds and bodies off the rollercoaster ride of the working week. Sometimes, simply coming into church 15 minutes early to sit and think in gentle silence is itself a small restful blessing.

Marin Luther King Jnr wrote If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’

There is something satisfying in a job well done. I often think that although we may not be up on the podium getting gold, we still deserve the honourable mention for trying, being in the running, having a good go, enduring. Work dignifies who we are whether it is full-time, part-time, casual or volunteer.

At every moment God awaits us in the activity to be done, which every moment brings. God is, in a sense, at the point of my pen, my pick, my paintbrush, my needles - and my heart and my thought, so wrote Teilhard de Chardin. So, God is with me right now as I work away on this laptop trying for words and ideas, deleting, refining, having second thoughts, editing, making sure things are clear for the reader. He is with me all through the day, in its laughing minutes and serious hours, from the gauzy glimmer of dawn to the darkening tendrils of dusk.

May God be with you in your work this year as you do your best. There is a holiness in this continued effort.

Let all our good work, wherever we do it and whatever it is, multiply into the small daily miracles that nestle in and nurture all God’s children in our vast human family.

Originally published in the parish newsletter of Camberwell/Surrey Hills/ Deepdene/Balwyn. March 2023.