For most of us, the work is the central,dominating factor of life.We spend more than half ourconscious hours at work,traveling to and from work.
What we do there largely determines our standard of living and to a considerable extent thestatus we are accorded by our fellow citizens as well.
It is sometimes said that because leisure has become more important, the indignities andinjustices of work can be pushed into a corner, that because more work is pretty intolerable,thepeople who do it should compensate for its boredom, frustrations and humiliations byconcentrating their hopes on the other parts of their lives.
I reject that as a counsel of despair. For the foreseeable future the material andpsychological rewards which work can provide, and the conditions in which work is done, willcontinue to play a vital part in determining the satisfaction that life can offer. Yet only a smallminority can control the pace at which they work or the conditions in which their work isdone; 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 inequalityin our society. We cannot hope to solve the more obvious problems of industrial life, many ofwhich arise directly or indirectly from the frustrations created by inequality at work, unlesswe tackle it head-on.Still less can we hope to create a decent and humane society.
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