Good Work

We are a people in search of good work.

Originally, long ago, a person's work had to be good because (generally) the user was going to people that they knew: friends, family, local people with whom they traded. The concept of seeing your neighbor something that was less than a good work was most likely balanced out by the fact that your neighbor would at best catch you at it (and at worst, pound your face). A vested interest existed in providing good work on a communal level.

But as societies developed and distances shrank, the concept of good work seems to have begun to diminish. Why? Two reasons perhaps: One is the simple fact that good work often requires time and skill, and time and skill mean more money, and money does not comport with the dictum that the lowest price much always be provided (and this is a public good, so we are told).

The second reason is that the beneficiary of the good work is no longer someone near to the person who made it: more likely than not, it's someone far away, someone who doesn't even think of the individual who manufactured it (and doesn't really care, truth be told), and someone who (if the work is less than good) cannot directly affect or impact the one who made it. To the company offering it at the lowest price, it is often less expensive to simply replace the item than try to repair it. The purchase doesn't really care if it's good or mediocre, as long as it functions; the company doesn't care, as long as it is inexpensive and works (most of the time).

A third reason (perhaps the most important) is that we as individuals have lost the concept of good work. To do good work is to take pride in what you do; it is also to recognize that what you do has an impact not only on yourself, but on others. To do good work, you have to want to do good work. In a society that so often tells us that we have God-given right to find the perfect job that fits us, many people treat anything other than that "perfect fit" as a time filler, something to be done while waiting for the perfect opportunity. The fact that even those unsatisfactory positions should be done with the same level of attention often never occurs to them - it's only "work", not their life's calling.

Which is a shame - because for most of us, we never end up in that life's calling position. However, the need for good work still remains - from our transport to our energy to our foods to our medicines, we count on individuals doing their job to the best of their ability, giving their all to insure that the product we have is safe and functional and effective - a product of "good work".

If we all had to use the products or services which we or our employers work on, do we have the confidence that the work is good?