All Work Has Value

All work has value. It seems like a simple statement but it's also something that a lot of people sometimes forget. What people seem to remember the most is that their work has value and usually they think it's undervalued. It doesn't matter if you're at the top or at the very bottom - the common belief is that your work is undervalued. Oh if we could only see the other persons' point of view. Perhaps many things would change.

My main point, however, is that all work does have value and sometimes, unless we stop to see it, we miss that very point. Not all of us can write or paint or dance. Those who can, perform an important task for the rest of us and yes, it's their work and we value it. The clerical worker makes sure things - paper, people and ideas - flow. It's a big job and should be appreciated. The production worker or support personnel are responsible for the product or service that the salesperson sells and that the customer wants. Their work has to be appreciated. The driver, the baker, the restaurant worker, the dishwasher all have important and critical jobs and work to perform. Managers have lots of responsibilities and work too. Making sure things keep moving, that there are enough people and material for things to get done. What about administrators and executives? Their work also is important and needs to be valued - fighting systems and meeting regulatory challenges and making sure capital and infastructure is available. Yup. All work has value.

These few examples help me realize how much people's work means in the larger scheme of things. And down deep I know that different tasks will be valued differently. Some people will make more and some people will make less. I think most folks can live with that. Most people understand that they have to fit somewhere along the way - bottom, middle, top. We all strive to keep moving in the upward direction. Some make it more quickly and easily then others. But that minimum wage has to be a living wage and I think we all know that too.

Let me be clear about something else too. It's hard work to be poor or without a job. It's hard work to keep a family fed, sheltered and clothed. None of that is easy and that work should be valued along with everything else.

So every once in awhile as we criticize the poor or the big shot at the top we ought to rethink how we value work and remember that it is important to value all of it and to also stop along the way and help each other out.

And a few more thoughts.......

What we all really do seem to hate is that fairly small segment of our society who really don't work and never have. I'm not talking here about people who are down and out, because as stated previously, living that life is work. No, I'm talking about the privileged class who had nothing to do with their good fortune or wealth - not even the hard work of choosing their parents. This is the class that has their wealth due to privilege. Now this group can, and in many cases throughout history has, done what I would consider the right thing. They have become major philanthropists, giving regularly and greatly to charitable causes. Well done - and it should always continue as a fact of their life. Secondly, there are many examples of people in this class who have committed to and become heavily involved in public service. Both of these things are examples of their work that, as with others, should be respected and valued.

But for those few who do nothing with their wealth and good fortune.....they should be judged by those actions and all of us should try to educate them on ways that their work could be valued, just like the rest of us.