My daughter, a senior in college, is pondering her next steps. She is clear that she wants her work "to make a difference," but she also wants to have time for friends, relationships and fun. The Radcliffe Public Policy Center reported men in their 20's and early 30's are increasingly seeking work that allows family time.

My generation, which witnessed record numbers of women entering paid workplaces - and opening new doors of gender equity within work and family - has done little to reshape the everyday conditions of work.

The so-called productionist model increasingly threatens the sense that each of us is valuable, that we work not just to earn a living but also to connect to and contribute to society. Our personal definition of success has become tied to this model, too. If we are not working our way up the escalator of fortune - carrying our skills on our backs as we move from company to company, or increasingly from company to self-employment - we are failures.

Doing business with such a sharp focus on the bottom line is costly in private and social terms.

The challenge for our age is to direct the promise of emerging technologies, the knowledge of scientific discoveries and new ways of thinking toward a more favorable integration of the pursuits of work and life . . . Work needs to be organized to let all of us use our skills and abilities.. We need lifelong training and educational opportunities that are affordable.

And as Randall L. Tobias, the former chairman of Eli Lilly, has noted, the workplace needs to be organized to honor the idea that people "bring their hearts as well as their minds to work." . . . Work is also important for building community. . . The fabric of our society depends upon the collective self-esteem of having work and lives that sustain each other.

My daughter and her generation are calling our lives into question. They need us - and we need us - to fulfill our roles as workers and care providers with dignity and with equity between men and women. We need work to be reorganized so that families and communities matter.

 

Source: New York Times (Sunday Business Section) 4/28/01.

*Paula M. Rayman is the author of "Beyond the Bottom Line: The Search for Dignity at Work" (Palgrave/St. Martin's press, 2001) and director of the Radcliffe Public Policy Center at Harvard University.