The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , also called CBC, is a Canadian national public radio and television broadcaster. It is currently offering a file about work, that joins many testimonies about different aspects of the theme “The Way We Work”: Disappearing Jobs, Looking for Work, No More 9 to 5, Work Vs Life, Where We Work and Work Culture.Work culture is about what work is about what work is and what it implicates.
“Working against the system” is a very interesting testimony about volunteer work. The author, Marguerite Pigeon, tell us about her actual experience in Honduras, in the city of La Esperanza. She is conscious of being, like everyone in our economical system, a victim of the will for more money, more comfort. But as she tries to defend an indigenous group’s rights, alongside the association COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), she understood that the volunteered work, though it’s not paid, brings much more than the «normal» work. It gives the impression of fighting for something higher than the wheel.
“The rhythm of work” is about Peter Adamo’s business. He is a Toronto’s greengrocer who works for the company North American Produce. He has to accept the constraint of a greengrocer : fruits and vegetables are perishable goods, and must be sold before they are rotten, even if the seller has to offer low prices. Concurrence is severe, and no help can be expected from the other sellers. There is no solidarity. An other problem is the supplier’s punctuality: when a product arrives late, the buyer aren’t here any longer and the seller loose his day. Peter has to lead with the “Tyranny of time”.
The cost of work compares the cost of the clothes, the incomes, the cost of the transportation… for different jobs, different cities. For instance, a business woman clothes cost $490 while an astronaut space suit costs… $3,15 millions.
I think that work is a real value: what are we supposed to do with our time otherwise? Work should be a way of improving our social status, but not only or not necessary that. It must lead to a greater goal: helping the other. It can be doing volunteer work for an NGO, or trying, as expanding a company, to offer jobs for the ones that need them. Work is actually the reflex of our society: a world of elitism and rivalry, while it should be a way of fulfilling our potential, using wisely our capacities for the benefits of humanity and improving the world.
