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All Articles | more by Mark Greene | Work

- by Mark Greene

First the bad news. Then some more bad news. And then some good news.

The way we work today is corroding our culture and killing our relationships. This is 'bad' but if you're in work it's probably not news. The indicators have been going downhill for years.

Take, for example, the recently published research from the Institute of Management , carried out amongst managers. Across five key lifestyle measures the results were far worse than they were just two years ago:

	%'97	%'99
No time for other interests	77	87
Damaging health	59	71
Affects relationship
- with children	73	86
- with partner	72	79
Reduces productivity over time	55	68

Work is not even working for the people at the top. They are making money but, for many, at an awesome cost to themselves and their families. As one person put it, "I'm working this hard so I can spend lots of time with my grandchildren." Which may be some consolation to him but may not be much comfort to his children. And this is self-evidently not just a middle-class, white collar phenomenon. Ceridian Research among under 30s suggested that 6 out of 10 feel stressed because of their workloads. And there is evidence that people entering the workforce are less willing to put in the hours their parents did. Why should they?

This suspicion of companies creates another dynamic, as Richard Sennett points out in his brilliant book The Corrosion of Character. There is now, he argues, a tension between the values that seem to be required by the workplace - short-term, superficial bonhomie and cooperativeness - and the values that many individuals hold dear and want to pass on to their children or live out before their friends and peers - service, loyalty, long-term commitment. How difficult it is to live those values when it seems that they are neither appreciated nor appropriate to those who want to survive in work into their later forties and beyond.

Not, of course, that quite so many people want to work into their late 50s anymore. As Libby Purves pointed out in The Times, people used to look at you askance if you were 52, out of work, and not looking for a job. Now, as long as you have the nice pension package, good for you.

Overall, British people work longer hours than any other country in the EU,even five and half hours longer than those hard-working Germans. Combine that with the amount of time many people take to get to work and it is obvious how the dynamics of work are affecting every aspect of life. But it was ever thus. How we work has a profound impact on every area of life and this goes some way to explaining the increasingly high percentage of people on anti-depressants, the record levels of people who are anxious and 'negatively stressed,' and the declining levels of honesty.

Today - in the West at least - it is not the physical conditions of work that we need to battle, it is the psychological conditions of work.

We in Britain are in crisis. And the crisis which faces us is not primarily an economic crisis, though the challenges of globalisation and new technologies on workstyles and lifestyles are immense, the crisis is this: how can we flourish economically and still have lives worth living?

Why has it got this bad?

Kreitzman, the non Christian author of the brilliant 24 Hour Society, points the finger at that old green dragon - greed. Some of us have chosen money over time: sacrificed time with family, time with friends, time walking the dog... for making a bit more money. That may well have been true five years ago but many people today feel forced to sacrifice their time so that they can make enough money to live with a modicum of social dignity in a consumerist culture. Or more disturbingly, many people feel forced to work late not so that they can acquire a five bedroom house in Mayfair in the time it takes a Maserati to go from 0 - 60mph, no, they feel forced to work late just to stay employed. The bottom line is that the technological elite will work harder and get richer. The rest of us will just work harder.

No social commentator seriously questions this. But few are prepared to offer an alternative. Kreitzman included. This is not a problem that can be solved by The Little Book of Calm's stress management techniques: eating lentils, meditating on desk photos of azure Caribbean skies and taking a bit more exercise is not going to compensate for a 60hour week and nine hours in traffic. Nor for most people is the problem going to be solved by downsizing to less demanding work. It's an option for some but not for the majority. 'Derek' for example, who works in a large London property firm, did feel able to refuse the offer of a partnership on the grounds that it would require him to stay regularly after 5.30. And he did it for 11 years in a row. But not many people are that good at their work. Still, it's a thought, isn't it? Saying 'boo' to the system. Saying: 'I make enough money' and 'my family is more important than an extra £20K a year or even the satisfactions of a higher level job.' It's a possibility for some.

But only for some. Suzanne Franks' recent book Having None of it - Women, Men and the Future of Work is similarly disturbing, particularly in what it clarifies about women in the workplace. Women may been told that they can have it all but they are discovering that in reality they may have none of it. The relationship between work and life is in crisis. Brazell's old quote: "Monday is a terrible way to spend a seventh of your life," is becoming alarmingly true of the rest of the week.

Now, of course, there have been some tentative responses to this problem - The Industrial Society produced a volume on the work-life balance and there are some consultancies beginning to pop their sleekly styled haircuts over the parapet but to date no one really has a clue. As Steve Beck, LICC's Chairman and the former Managing Director of a major European Management Consultancy, says, "It's all just cosmetic. None of it gets to the heart of the matter."

A developed Christian response to this has not emerged. Clearly, we need one. We cannot simply throw up our hands in the air and say, "Let them make bricks without straw, because at least they're eating cake." Nor will traditional thunderings against workaholism really help our people - it may not be their fault. And yet...we cannot allow so many in our society to suffer without a radical critique and some radical alternative. Still we have, as the overall community of Christ, a long, long way to go. My research indicates that the average person in the pew gets virtually no teaching on work in general, never mind on how to challenge the oppressive dynamics of contemporary capitalism.

In fact, 50% of the evangelicals I have polled have never ever heard a sermon on work. Never. Not one. 75% have never been taught a theology of work - though almost all have been taught Genesis 1-3 - not a bad place to start. 75% have never been taught a theology of vocation. And only 25% have been encouraged to minister in their workplace. These are startling statistics. Contemporary Christians are simply not being equipped for life where they spend 65% of their time. If we really believe that the word of God equips the person of God for every good work, then why is it so many Christians believe that their job is not as holy as their minister's, that the quality of their work is of secondary interest to God and that working in the home is a third rate choice?

The same applies to evangelism. The one place people are not actively encouraged and equipped to make a difference is the place many people spend fifty, sixty, seventy percent of their waking hours. The one place where Christian and non-Christian have to meet. The one place where the playing field is even, where Christian and non-Christian are subject to the same corporate culture, the same pressures, may have the same boss... the one place where the non-Christian can actually see the difference that Christ can make to a life - not for a couple of hours over dinner but for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty hours a week over a couple of years. The workplace. Often the people who know us well don't live next door, they work at the next desk.

Nevertheless we are sent out onto the highways and byways, to neighbours who are often only marginally interested, to knock on doors, to talk to people who on the whole we don't know very well. This is a tragedy. We fish in pools and puddles when in our workplace we are sitting by an ocean.

Back in 1945, a document was published called Towards the Conversion of England. In it, there was only one sentence in bold type. Here it is. "We are convinced that England will never be converted until the laity use the opportunities daily afforded by their various professions, crafts and occupations."

We at LICC are convinced by this. And we are committed to building a team that can:

• Help people glorify Christ in their work, and in their ministry and witness at work
• Help Church communities support workplace people

In the last year we have developed a practical guide to help pastors support their workers; produced, in partnership with LBC, a six part home group video resource on work, (available September 2000), and spoken in Bible colleges, ministers' associations, universities, conferences, and in churches from Plymouth to Manchester. In addition, Tim Vickers has joined us helping students and graduates prepare for working life. Tim, a pioneer in this area, has also produced a quarterly resource for workers called Work-Wise.

We'd like to expand our work to include research into a Christian response to contemporary Capitalism - a project for which we have already have pledged 60% of the funding - to dealing with the issues of overwork, and also helping women with the particular challenges they face. In addition we want to make resource materials, Bible Studies, chatrooms and so on available free on the Web. But to help people in the workplace we need the help of workplace people - to identify the issues, help develop responses and to fund the research, development and production of resources.

Work is not a minor part of life - "six days thou shalt work," says the Bible. Helping people work for Christ, and bring the fragrance of the kingdom into his world, is what the LICC work team is here to do. Help us if you can. MG