Jobs and spirituality rarely occur in the same phrase, yet few states are as soul-destroying as unemployment and for many of us, our work vocation is central to life's purpose and direction. Thus the notion of "decent work," a central mantra of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), has both practical and strongly ethical dimensions. ILO's definition is, after all, an international standard that is supposed to reflect our common ideal.
Here's what "decent work" conveys: it "sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives - their aspirations for opportunity and income; rights, voice and recognition; family stability and personal development; and fairness and gender equality. Ultimately these various dimensions of decent work underpin peace in communities and society."
That's a long way from Dilbert-like images of jobs as demeaning, mind-numbing, game-playing confinement in cubicles. And it stands in jarring contrast to horror stories of abused domestic workers, some far away and some uncomfortably close to home. It sheds a new light on why we need to care about and act to change the realities facing migrant workers and bonded and child labor.
Not all jobs are intrinsically fulfilling, yet with the growth of technology we can reasonably aspire to a far greater role for creativity in work. And there is no excuse, with the knowledge we have of labor conditions and with fervent leadership commitments to "decent work," to ignore what is wrong and to neglect the challenge of a "decent" society.
There are countless spiritual dimensions of this challenge. Pope Benedict XVI in the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate highlights decent work. For him, "it means work that expresses the essential dignity of every man and woman in the context of their particular society: work that is freely chosen, effectively associating workers, both men and women, with the development of their community; work that enables the worker to be respected and free from any form of discrimination; work that makes it possible for families to meet their needs and provide schooling for their children, without the children themselves being forced into labour; work that permits the workers to organize themselves freely, and to make their voices heard; work that leaves enough room for rediscovering one's roots at a personal, familial and spiritual level; work that guarantees those who have retired a decent standard of living."
Ela Bhatt, the remarkable woman who founded SEWA, the India based Self-Employed Women's Association, recognizes how deeply work is part of self esteem. She ties her mission and the values that underlie it to Gandhian principles, above all to the notion of trusteeship, which is about a shared responsibility of employers, capitalists, governments, and those who labor.
In the process of organizing the most scorned of India's "informal" workers, she sees that women's self esteem grows as she "knows 'I can manage,' she knows that she is important, she knows her identity, that 'I am a worker.' She has a name, an address, a bank account number, an insurance policy, a pension plan. She has learned who the exploiting forces are. She is more aware that poverty is not destiny: that she does not have to accept that as her destiny. You see that transformation all the time. The macro forces change, but what the women have gained is self esteem, a sense of mutuality that is strength giving."
Happiness, argues Ela Bhatt, is when you do something on your own, when you do things and you understand why and how. When people can be self-reliant, they are fiercely independent.
Far too many of our colleagues and compatriots face the stubborn reality of sticky joblessness that plagues America's economy and society. In much of the world, the situation is far far worse. Unemployment rates hover around 50 percent in too many societies and young people face bleak prospects of landing any job at all. Both in the United States and globally, working for decent jobs belongs at the very top of the agenda. As we work to tackle unemployment, in the United States and as part of international development strategies, we can and must work to create jobs but, at the same time, press forward in the mission of decent work for all.
That means economic growth and investment, of course. But it also means rethinking our notions of labor and work, raising standards, enhancing creativity, and above all restoring the core principles of dignity and respect.
