Dissatisfactions at Work

For most of us, the work is the central,
dominating factor of life.
We spend more than half our conscious hours at work,
traveling to and from work.
What we do there largely determines our standard of living
and to a considerable extent the status
we are accorded by our fellow citizens as well.
It is sometimes said that because leisure has become more important,
the indignities and injustices of work can be pushed into a corner,
that because more work is pretty intolerable,
the people who do it should compensate for its boredom,
frustrations and humiliations by concentrating their hopes
on the other parts of their lives.
I reject that as a counsel of despair.
For the foreseeable future the material
and psychological rewards which work can provide,
and the conditions in which work is done,
will continue to play a vital part in determining the satisfaction
that life can offer.
Yet only a small minority can control the pace
at which they work or the conditions in which their work is done;
only for a small minority does work offer scope for creativity,
imagination or initiative.
Inequality at work and in work is still one of the cruelest
and most glaring forms of inequality in our society.
We cannot hope to solve the more obvious problems of industrial life,
many of which arise directly or indirectly
from the frustrations created by inequality at work,
unless we tackle it head-on.
Still less can we hope to create a decent and humane society.