The Meaning & Dignity of Work
- by Dr Roland Chia
Two days after I received an invitation to write a short essay for this publication, I chanced upon a Straits Times editorial which led me to my topic. Titled provocatively, “Buck Up Or Else” (Straits Times, Feb 12, 2004), the editorial addresses an issue that has been receiving some media coverage in the preceding weeks : the introduction of the monthly variable component (MVC). The merits of the flexible-pay-system are clearly enunciated in the editorial. It is a system that will jolt Singaporeans out of their complacency thereby compelling them to “take some risks with their careers, pay, even lifestyles”. MVC will remove all the familiar securities even as it discards older conventions. IT will “shake up rigid seniority-based pay structures, smash glass ceilings and draw a straight, indelible line between pay and performance”. In line with its emphasis on competitiveness the Singapore government is compelled to impose the flexible-pay system, and by so doing it is making clear its message that “there are no longer any safe docking places to wait out one’s retirement”. The editorial clearly warns that there is no escaping from this stark reality: the present situation demands that wages should reflect the value of the work performed and the performance of the company.
Corporate gurus have warned about the pitfalls of the pay-for performance approach. This system will enjoy success only when the goals are accurate and realistic and when the instruments for measuring them are objective. Both, however, are difficult to achieve. Some commentators have rightly warned against the excessive individualism that inadvertently motivates such approaches. Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee professor of organization behaviour at the Stanford Business School has rightly observed that “a company’s success is not a consequence of what an individual does”. Often it is the result of the efforts of a team. Marc Hozer, a Rutgers University professor and president of the American Society for Public Administration, argues that such an approach breeds unhealthy competition between people. He said that he has watched agencies and schools put together various compensation schemes, try them out, change them and abandon them. This scheme is particularly unhelpful for schools. Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, protested against New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani’s proposal to introduce the merit pay programme in schools. “Classrooms aren’t factories, and teachers don’t do piecework,” she argues. “To do their work well, educators need to collaborate – not compete – with their colleagues.”
The “pay for performance” approach may be said to receive its inspiration from the capitalist dogma. The danger, however, is that when human work is defined purely in terms of money and performance, its deeper significance is lost. What does the Bible have to say about human work and its purpose? How are we to think about the dignity and meaning of work?
From the early chapters of Genesis we learn that God created human beings in his own image and likeness, and that this in part means that humans are to serve as God’s vice-regents to care for the creation. Genesis 1:28 presents the divine command for the first humans to “replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over all living things”. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden to “dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). The fact that the cultural mandate was issued before the Fall shows that work is not the consequence of the latter, but the original divine intention for humankind. The Fall, of course, perverts the attitude of humans towards work and transforms the delight of work into toil. But it does not change the fact that work is God’s blessing and gift to humankind. Work is important because without it the fulfilment of the divine intention for human beings would be impossible. Daily work gives meaning, purpose and adequate content to life. Without daily work, human life will be filled with the inanities and trivialities that will make it meaningless and stale.
The gift of work points to the God who has graciously invited his rational creatures to be his co-workers. Thus profound understanding of work is found in all the three traditions of the Christian Church – the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholic and the Protestant. The deepest meaning of human work lies in the co-operation between human beings and God (cooperatio Dei). As bearers of God’s image, human beings co-operate with God by working to preserve the world that God has created. Of course the God who created the heavens and the earth “out of nothing” (creatio ex nihilo) does not need the help of his creatures to preserve and maintain his creation. The divine invitation to human beings to be God’s co-workers is therefore an act of grace on the part of God. This invitation, however, has resulted in a mutual dependence between human beings and God in the task of preservation. On the one hand, human beings cannot accomplish their task without God. The psalmist brings this out when he says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain” (Ps. 127:1a). On the other hand, God has chosen to become “dependent” on the human being by making human work a means of accomplishing his work on earth. In performing their work human beings reflect the image of God, who is himself represented as a Worker (c.f. Gen 2 : 3)
The Biblical idea of service must be broadened to include work.
Service should not refer only to church worship or church work, but also to the
work that Christians perform in public life. The Christian should consider the
work he or she does as service rendered to God, and performed for the glory of
God. And this should be the attitude that Christians
must have concerning the
work that they do regardless of their status. In this way, work, understood as
service of God, is profoundly related to worship. Work as faithful service of
God in public life, is “liturgy” as truly as the “divine office” of the church.
But human work is also directed towards the fellow human being and society, not
just towards God. The work of individuals collectively contribute to what
theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls the “conservation
of the world” and the betterment of society. The importance of human work for
society cannot be measured only in economic terms. Work makes society more
humane in that it is through work that the individual serves his or her
neighbour and contributes to the common good. In his papal encyclical, On
Human Work (Laborem Exercens), Pope John Paul II maintains that human work
“serves to add the heritage of the whole human family of all people living in
the world”. Work, in the Christian understanding, is always set within the
“Thou-I-We relationships”. And it loses its meaning when it is recast in an
individualistic and competitive ethos.
This
is precisely the problem with the modern view of work, which is shaped by a
materialistic philosophy and a consumerist mentality. This outlook has led not
just to the commodification of work, but of the worker as well. When work is
seen as something to be sold and nothing more, then it is alienating. The
serious and intolerable error of what may be termed as “naked capitalism” is
that work is reduced to just another element of cost – a capitalist buys labour
just as he or she buys raw materials and machines. This way of looking at the
worker has always been the inherent danger of an economics defined only in
materialist terms. It turns the order presented in the early chapters of Genesis
on its head. While Genesis emphasizes that human beings should be treated with
dignity as the true subject of work and as its true creator, capitalism tends to
look at human beings merely as instruments of production. It is this reversal
that has resulted in the alienation and dehumanization of work in the modern
world.
Work
will regain its proper dignity only when it is arranged in such a way that would
lead to human self-realisation. And self-realisation is only possible when human
work is directed towards the common good. Furthermore, the truly good worker is
someone who loses oneself in one’s work. It is such “self-forgetfulness” and
abandonment that would inexorably lead to self-realisation. As Yale theologian
Miroslav Volf puts it in his study entitled Work in the Spirit, “Just as
‘everything else’ will be added to us when we seek the Kingdom of God (Matt.
6:33), so will self-realisation be added to us when we seek good work, when we
serve others by self-forgetful, enjoyable work that does not violate our
personhood.”
Dr Roland Chia
24 April 2004
This reflection is taken from Trumpet magazine of Trinity Theological College April 2004 issue. It is written by Dr Roland Chia who is lecturer in Historical and Systematic Theology and Director of the Centre for the Development of Christian Ministry, CDCM (English).
Reproduced with permission of Trinity Theological College