CAMBRIDGE LETTER
Work and its value
BILL KIRKMAN
There has been questioning of the different values placed on jobs in modern society.
As thousands of people lose their jobs, fear about the still developing consequences of the international financial crisis grows. So does frustration, not always rational but wholly understandable, about how it is being tackled. There is frustration also about what is being done, or not done, about the people whose inefficiency and bad judgment are, in part at least, responsible for the crisis.
One manifestation of the frustration, and indeed anger, was the demonstrations in London as the G20 leaders assembled for their meeting. Thousands of people, widely varied in interests and background, marched to assert their demand that the G20 leaders should tackle poverty, climate change and the need for jobs. I wrote in February (“Cambridge Letter”, February 8) about the growing anger, reflected also in other countries, about the human consequences of the financial crisis. There is no doubt that it is continuing, and that the demand for changes in the system under which the crisis developed is real.
There has been much questioning of the widely different values placed on jobs in modern society. Some of the answers to these questions make uncomfortable reading. If, for example we compare classroom assistants, social workers, nurses and bankers and ask which of these does work which matters to us most as citizens, most people, I suggest, would not put bankers at the top of their list. This would be particularly true of replies from those with children, or those who are ill.
The corollary is obvious: why do the bankers get paid so much more than the others on the list? Even more tellingly, how do we justify the fact that Sharon Shoesmith, head of social services in the London borough of Haringey, was summarily dismissed following the widely reported death of a baby, attributed to the failure of her department, whereas the head of the Royal Bank of Scotland was allowed to retire with a vast (and now highly controversial) pension when the bank effectively collapsed as a result of disastrous decisions made by the board on his watch?
There are many “political” issues raised by questions such as these, but there is also a fundamental issue about job satisfaction. An American survey in 2006 (the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago) found that fire-fighters, the clergy and others with professional jobs involving helping or serving people are more satisfied with their work and overall are happier than those in other professions. If that is true, one has to ask why huge salaries and huge bonuses are needed to keep senior bankers in their jobs (and, cynically, whether if they were not paid bonuses, and left, that would matter very much).
Cynical times
It is easy to be cynical about such things in the present economic climate. The news, however, is not all bad, and there are many things which are encouraging.
I was reminded of this last week at a reception given at the House of Lords by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, a grant-making trust of which I am a trustee. The House of Lords, which we were able to have as our venue because two of my fellow trustees are peers, is an excellent place for such an event because it is a graphic reminder of long-term rather than transient values.
Our guests, nearly 200, represented organisations which had received funding from us in the past five years. Our remit is to support research and innovation designed to prevent human suffering. We fund work in medical, social and religious fields, in the U.K. and in Africa, trying always to choose projects and people who will make a real difference. The occasion was designed to let us meet those we have supported, and encourage them to meet each other and, where appropriate, develop new ideas from this networking.
One of our guests, a woman originally from Africa, bubbled with enthusiasm as she spoke of the work she is doing, using the arts to give a sense of purpose to young people in the London borough of Haringey, the borough in which the baby died. Before we gave our grant she had been doing as much as she could for seven years as a volunteer. Her enthusiasm, and passionate commitment, were typical of many of those at our reception. As one of those present commented: “It restores one’s faith in human nature”.
So it does, and that is certainly something that we need just now.
Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College Cambridge, U.K. Email him at: bill.kirkman@gmail.com
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