If, a few days before May 1st, I dare to propose some reflections on work today, it is because I have been lucky enough to participate in a rich shared journey. Last year – in the aftermath of the workers’ Jubilee, celebrated with a meeting on the theme “When work generates hope” – a group of entities from the pastoral area of Lecco, which operate in the field of work inspired by the social doctrine of the Church (Acli, Compagnia delle Opere, Focolarini, Ucid, passing through social cooperatives and cooperative credit banks) – has given rise to a challenging and equally fruitful path of reinterpretation of the sociological situation of the territory and of existential sharing of the experience. Remembering the tensions of the past between the various ecclesial acronyms, already felt in my years in Cattolica, I greatly appreciated the constructive climate and the common tension towards good.
But another aspect, even more interesting, emerged with extreme clarity: even the Province of Lecco, which ranks among the national leaders in terms of quality of life and employment, clashes with a problem of the “meaning” of work, especially at a time when the demographic trend announces a major generational change, with all the consequences one can imagine.
There is no doubt that today one of the key issues in the West is linked to poor work: the set of occupations paid a pittance, from waiters at 7 euros an hour to collaborators of once prestigious national and local newspapers, whose compensation is more like a handout than a real salary. In particular I am referring to the phenomenon called “bullshit job” by David Graeber in his fundamental essay, translated into various languages. The gist of the book can be summarized with a question from the author, who passed away a few years ago: if your job didn’t exist, how many would miss it? According to what the author stated, in 2013 over 40% of those interviewed believed that their work was useless. Senseless, indeed.
«In parallel», Leonardo Becchetti, one of the most lucid scholars expert in civil economy, recently observed in Avvenire, «we are becoming increasingly aware of the existence of a shadow pathology of depression or poverty of meaning of life, almost complementary and of similar dimensions to that of material poverty. As Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton recalls in an effective monograph, which recounts the dramatic epidemic of deaths of despair in the United States.”
If this is true, we shouldn’t be surprised if young generations often ask burning questions during job interviews relating to the relationship between working time and life time.. Finding out punctually about working hours does not necessarily equate to the whim of someone who wants to have an aperitif every evening; wanting Saturdays off can mean defending a quality space for authentic emotional relationships, considered pre-eminent over work employment. In short, in some contexts at least, we are witnessing a silent escape from the “cult of work” (complete with person-company identification, a classic of past decades) towards a “work culture”. This is good news, not confirmation of the stereotype that considers young people as big babies.
