I Was Just Thinking Happy Work October 2006

by Don Huntington

I’m currently in the enviable position of being paid to do things that I love to do – things that I would be willing to do for free, if I could afford it. I’m living in that happy condition that Frost wrote about in Two Tramps in Mud Time.

My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight

And then Frost adds the wonderful conclusion:

Only where love and need are one
And the work is play for mortal stakes
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.

The words describe my work these days. I have more fun working than some people have being on vacation. (I have more fun working than I myself sometimes have on vacation.) I’m working on things that are challenging and that encourage me to strive for excellence.

An ancient proverb says that there is nothing better in life than this. “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.”

As Pearl Buck’s quote shows, joy in work is created by an attitude of excellence. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Whatever you are, be a good one.” I’m trying to be as good a ‘one’ as I can be.

Working hard is one way I serve God. Martin Luther made the wonderful observation:

The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays – not because she may sing a hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The shoemaker does his religious duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.

I can strive to be excellent in everything I do. I should expect my work to bring me joy and fulfillment.

The avowed purpose of some labor unions is to demand the most amount of pay for the least amount of work. Management, in those cases, demands as much work as possible for the least possible pay. Management and labor tend to regard each other as enemies to be defeated. Therefore, a person walking in grace will always be a good worker, a good employee, and a wonderful boss, but perhaps a lousy union member or senior manager.

In some companies such negative approaches to working and to managing people are being replaced by more humane principles. This is no new idea because seventeen hundred years ago the great Confucian philosopher, Mencius, accurately observed:

To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.

Enlightened executives now realize that if an employer treats me with the respect that Mencius insisted upon, my reaction is generally to be more loyal and to work harder than if he or she were to threaten me – or to treat me as a pet, for that matter.

It works the other way around, of course. If I work at my job as diligently and as intelligently as possible, I make it easy for my boss to treat me honorably. So the principle is good for business! Good for both sides!

Behaving in this way is to follow the Golden Rule. When I serve my boss with loyalty and devotion, I’m behaving towards him or her as I would want any employees I might have to treat me. When I serve my employees with loyalty and generosity, I’m behaving towards them as I would want any boss to behave towards me.

Work becomes pleasant and fulfilling whenever I undertake it with this attitude. And I need to conduct myself like this above circumstances. I don’t care if my boss or my employee should turn out to be a jerk. Doing what’s right is the way to maintain my relationship in alignment with the universe. Laboring always with the focus on serving others is how I keep making my way towards happy work.°

Dr. Don Huntington
Editorial Director
don@110mag.com