WillSpirit!

Work and productivity. Who needs them?

This is a question much on my mind now that I’ve dropped back into retirement. The last post detailed my angst around this topic. Today I offer one line of thinking that helps me maintain sanity in the face of abundant free time.

Freud considered work one of the pillars of successful living. The vaunted Protestant work ethic remains a standard in this country, and it isn’t limited to Protestants or the United States. National economies are judged on the basis of Gross Domestic Product. Corporations celebrate increased productivity in their communications to stockholders.

Each of the sentences in the previous paragraph offers a different perspective on the value of working and production, but they all reach the same conclusion. Psychologists who disagree with Freud about almost everything else would still concur that work (along with love) leads to satisfaction. Religions of all stripes value community involvement, and many embrace concepts similar to the Buddhist one of Right Livelihood. Countries are deemed in ascension or decline depending on whether their economic output is growing or stagnating. And companies push their workforces ever harder in attempts to squeeze out more product per employee.

You can see these perspectives vary in their humanism. Psychologists value individual wellbeing. Spiritual leaders promote communal advancement and personal involvement. Nations insist on expansion. And corporations demand maximal profits. Most readers attracted to a blog like this will recognize the value of individual and collective health but question nationalism and blind profiteering. At least in principle, they would agree with the pursuit of Right Livelihood.

In principle, so do I. But what happens when repeated attempts at productive work fail? How does a person feel worthy when physical and mental difficulties limit employment?

Let me begin by saying that I continue to help out when possible. I try to support my friends. I do a little volunteering. I offer love and attention to my wife and dogs. Judging by the comments and emails, this blog seems to assist others in their growth. These are all contributions that should not be discounted. But my number of hours spent performing anything resembling work is embarrassingly small. I do a little, but not enough to count for much in this culture.

Does that matter? Can we be sure our conditioning to work, work, work makes sense?

Let’s investigate the above realms in reverse order, starting with the corporate. What percentage of manufacturing actually benefits the collective good? My guess is no more than half. The rapacious exploitation of resources and promiscuous marketing of gadgetry only hastens the collapse of our ecosystem. The heavy burdens placed on workers, who toil for subsistence while those higher on the socioeconomic scale reap vast profits, can hardly be viewed as beneficial.

It’s difficult to consider the community of nations healthy when each member strives to dominate as large a sphere as possible. The US struggles to maintain its influence as China rapidly aggrandizes power. Smaller countries fight neighbors with weaponry and trade laws. Granted, nations are gradually losing ground to corporations that defy geographical boundaries, but this only reduces local control over the environment and workplace laws. The decline of national power does nothing to slow the trend toward ever more production and consumption.

Perhaps we can dismiss the ethic of productivity as touted by corporations and nation-states. But can we feel morally justified in the pursuit of leisure? What of the spiritual and psychological motives for work?

Spiritually, we are called to help those in need. But this doesn’t necessarily imply long or difficult labor. Certainly, those with abundant energy and resources do well using their bounty for good works. But we who are more limited can feel fine doing less. Why not pick up a little litter while walking the dogs, and call it a day? Smiling at a friend, or even an enemy, offers a bit of support without burning up reserves. Helping out can be done on a small scale. I doubt there are divine forces condemning those who spend more time relaxing, and less time striving. After all, Jesus asked us to “consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin…” (Luke 12:27).

Psychologically, work helps because it gives meaning. The trick, then, is to find meaning with less work. This can be a challenge when we’ve been conditioned to measure the value of employment in terms of hours expended, dollars earned, or projects completed. But what if part of the value of a job comes from the freedom one enjoys by not spending all day working? There’s a hint of this in the way people plan for retirement. Why not combine work and retirement rather than doing first one and then the other? A society that builds labor-saving appliances would normally be expected to encourage leisure rather than labor. Maybe we can find more meaning with less effort.

No doubt these sound like shallow justifications for my lifestyle, now that I’ve given up on striving. But although I’m riffing on this topic out of personal necessity, I do think we have been seduced by a work ethic that might once have made sense but now makes us miserable. After all, the world doesn’t need more product; our ecosystem is screaming for relief. Unemployment would end if each employee worked a third fewer hours. People might feel joyous if they could spend more time with friends and family and less time toiling.

I’m not suggesting laziness, just studied leisure. I wouldn’t advocate hours in front of a television set, but why not spend some afternoons at the local park? How about daily meditations under a tree or weekly reading groups at the library? If there are any imperatives in life, one must be to enjoy the beauty of this miraculous cosmos. We can’t do that if we spend the bulk of our time working.