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Dissatisfactions at Work
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For most of us, the work is the central,
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dominating factor of life.
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We spend more than half our conscious hours at work,
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traveling to and from work.
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What we do there largely determines our standard of living
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and to a considerable extent the status
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we are accorded by our fellow citizens as well.
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It is sometimes said that because leisure has become more important,
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the indignities and injustices of work can be pushed into a corner,
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that because more work is pretty intolerable,
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the people who do it should compensate for its boredom,
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frustrations and humiliations by concentrating their hopes
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on the other parts of their lives.
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I reject that as a counsel of despair.
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For the foreseeable future the material
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and psychological rewards which work can provide,
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and the conditions in which work is done,
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will continue to play a vital part in determining the satisfaction
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that life can offer.
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Yet only a small minority can control the pace
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at which they work or the conditions in which their work is done;
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only for a small minority does work offer scope for creativity,
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imagination or initiative.
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Inequality at work and in work is still one of the cruelest
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and most glaring forms of inequality in our society.
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We cannot hope to solve the more obvious problems of industrial life,
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many of which arise directly or indirectly
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from the frustrations created by inequality at work,
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unless we tackle it head-on.
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Still less can we hope to create a decent and humane society.