Work

In my humble opinion "work" is highly overrated - you should only do it if you have to or if you enjoy doing it. Attitudes vary around the world.

Often, in the olden days, when we worked with different peoples and cultures in different lands on the oil rigs one would notice that there were striking differences in work ethic. People with trades or skills no matter who they were or where they were from would take some pride in their work and tended to enjoy what they were doing. Those with back breaking hard work jobs needed camaraderie to take their minds off the drudgery. In some places you could see that work was definitely below their station in life and only inferiors would engage in it.

In Nigeria we often complained that it would take 2 Nigerians to do the work that any normal European or American could do physically. This didn't make sense when you looked at physical characteristics (the Nigerians appeared to be fit and in excellent health), but there were other factors at work. First only poor people work, but don't know what they need to do. Men traditionally set up a business or farm and set their wives up to work it. If you've ever been to Africa you'll notice that most drudgery work is performed by women. Only women are carrying loads of wood or 50 lb. pots of water on their head along the side of the road. Our (western eyes) view was that this is not correct, but upon further reflection (since we were away from home and working hard) the Nigerian men probably thought we were crazy.

In many Oriental countries the physical stature of the average person is usually quite small compared to Americans and Europeans. When I was in shipyard I noticed that these folks worked hard and fast and steady. If a problem was encountered a team would form and the solution was rapid. Work was or appeared to be honorable, no matter what it was and company loyalty was ubiquitous.

Here are a few other reflections on "work" worldwide: Brazil - work only to earn enough money to party/celebrate Carnival. Saudi Arabia - work interferes with coffee time and prayer. England - work interferes with pub time. France - work interferes with meal time. Germany - hi, ho, hi ho it's off to work we go. Italy - Northern Italians work so Southern Italians can eat and play. Gabon - Work so you can buy your wife a business so you won?t have to work anymore. Philippines - Go West young man (and East and North and South) anywhere to find work.

I think we have a pretty good work ethic here in the US and people who don't have a job are looked down upon. Our productivity is high per capita, but a lot of that is because of efficient infrastructure and cheap energy. We work more hours/days per year compared to most of our counterparts in the rest of the world, but don't seem to care if our fellow citizens have inferior pay, health care or standard of life. The market is supposed to sort this out and maybe it will when all our jobs have gone somewhere else.

My advice is to work hard and play hard, but take care of yourself and your family and community.

(by Marc Adami, Guest Columnist)