The Dignity of Work

Recent events in Wisconsin have raised issues about the nature of work and its role in defining an individual and a community. Lost in the debate about labor costs and the burden of public labor on taxpayers is a more important issue facing our nation; the cost of not enough work or work that is meaningless and redundant.  Work is harder and harder to find, and more and more often the work that is available is low-paying and unsatisfying. Yet, work not only provides us a living, an ability to take care of our needs and the needs of our families, it also defines us, sculpts our values and brings us dignity and self-respect. As a nation, we are obligated to make sure our citizens have the opportunity to work and to work at something that is enriching, valuable and meaningful. To suggest a community is healthy when it can outsource labor to the cheapest bidder, or reduce human ingenuity and creativity to mechanized systems that are mind numbing and inhumane just because it increases profit or the GDP is short sighted and dangerous. 

Despite all the rhetoric to the contrary – Americans are not lazy, entitlement crazed people – we are industrious, creative, hard working, honest and decent people – but as the income disparities between the rich and the poor widens, as middle class families must work longer hours far from families for less and less money, as wealth is centered in the hands of a few elites, we lose the ability to realize the American dream; hard work and a productive, moral and enriching life to pass on to our children. We are not looking for a free ride, but we are looking for a chance, an opportunity, a respectable life. 

Vocational schools must train and assist students in obtaining gainful employment and teach respect for the intrinsic dignity of work. People who have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet are not engaged in the dignity of work - they are slaves to economic policies that too often reward the rich at the expense of the poor or middle class. Economic policies that make obtaining work difficult or impossible is dangerous to a free society and is irresponsible and immoral. 

Terri Holland is co-owner of Cole Holland Training Center, a vocational school offering health care classes and placement assistance to assist students in finding rewarding and dignified work. Call us at 801.759.5164 or find us on the web. Click Here Health Care Classes with Heart