Is the "dignity of work" nothing but a shuck to be fed to suckers?
After all, isn’t it always money that matters?
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Work in itself is edifying. It’s important to have an energy exchange and receive something for the energy expended. That exchange can take the fork of wages. It can also be recognition.
In the mental health world, we have an organization called Clubhouse. The first one and most famous is Fountain House in Manhattan. Still going strong.
We have them here in Hawaii. They are run by the members. There is a staff of employees who do some functions who are generally not people with mental illness, but the members make all the decisions about policy. They follow a set of guidelines put out by Clubhouse International.
The members are all part of work units. The kitchen unit actually cooks the food all the members eat. There is a facilities unit responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the facility. The clerical unit learns computer use and mans the phone and even calls members who have been absent for a while. Some clubhouses have a gardening unit. The point is that everyone has a job. A real job with duties. The therapeutic value is immeasurable. Very sick people recover and thrive.
Work can be therapy.
That is an “A“plus answer and more dignified than my question is insulting.
I think work for money is extremely important for young adults. For myself, it pulled me out of a teenage depression. It gave me purpose and rewarded me not only with money, but also with a feeling of accomplishment, a tremendous amount of positive feedback from coworkers and customers, and new friendships. It builds self esteem and self worth.
Additionally, adolescence is about becoming your own person. It’s a time when we work through who we are independent of our parents. I’d argue adolescence lasts well into our early 20’s in the US. Financial independence is a piece of becoming independent.
After about 35 years of busting your butt (most people work very hard and also most people don’t work in a job they love to go to) you hopefully have self worth aside from working. If you are really lucky you have financial independence without working. Most people I know prefer not to have to work once they hit their 60’s and when they have to to pay bills that sucks in my opinion, but that is the situation for most people. In our later years it’s nice to be able to “work” doing something you love or that is rewarding whether you make money at it or not. I guess I would say feeling productive is important.
When you tell people they should work themselves into an early grave for dignity or to pay for basics then it’s just abusive in my opinion.
Being of service is intrinsic to our self worth. Helping others is not just altruistic, but it is, essentially, a selfish act. I hope you work this out before you die.
^^^ get to know this site and it’s members before you start offering up criticisms or sage advice.
@dutchess..what is the point of this place, then?
Maybe you should do a search for social networking sites where rudeness is welcome.
How the heckin heck was my comment rude?
Rather, I think just the opposite is true.
Arbeit macht frei…as someone once said!
@sorry – Does this blog post have some of what you mean about service being selfish? It makes sense to me.
And I didn’t see how your comment was rude…
Response moderated (Flame-Bait)
“The dignity of labour is the philosophy that all types of jobs are respected equally, and no occupation is considered superior and none of the jobs should be discriminated on any basis. Regardless of whether one’s occupation involves physical work or mental labour, it is held that the job deserves respect.”
Dignity of labour – Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Dignity_of_labour
Also to add:
Work isn’t work if you like what you are working at, and if you don;t like it then cahnage for something in a filed that you do like.
If one is having a hard time in the job then its the wrong type of job for you.
Life has a way of showing us whether we are going in the right direction for us.
If things are all wrong, then its a sign that its wrong for you.
“Know thyself first” then all will fall into place.
Good work can bring self respect to people who do it well.
But most of us who work do it to make a living. Unfortunately dignity doesn’t pay the bills.
Nope. Work/productivity is a piece of the happiness puzzle.
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