Case Studies & Practical Principles
 
                The number of people living alone in the US is the highest it’s ever been and it is estimated that over 25% of the US population has no close friends at all.  Depression is the leading cause of disability claims in the US and about 1/4 of the population struggles with mental illness at some point throughout each year.  The country as a whole spends approximately $500 billion dollars annually (yes billion) on treatments related to mental illness.  Men struggle with addiction and drug and alcohol abuse more than women, while women struggle with depression and anxiety more frequently.  Both American Men and Women are trying to understand their role and place in the new globalized economy.  Many are dropping out of the workforce altogether, placing a strain on government budgets for welfare.  The US deficit sits at $18,966,715,325,873 trillion dollars in 2016.  Working - class middle aged white Americans are dying faster than any other group in the country.  Surveys tell us that Americans as a whole are not optimistic about the future.  No matter which way you spin it, something is definitely amiss in America. 

                Though we live longer and have much more material wealth and consumer goods than previous generations, and though the unemployment rate is low, 5-6% as of January 2016, we aren’t necessarily improving our overall quality of life.  The U.S. Declaration of Independence proclaimed “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as a fundamental opportunity afforded to American citizens but it never guaranteed we’d all be happy.  Despite the US economy being the largest in the world, and despite having one of the highest GDP rates in the world, we seem to not be getting everything right.  We are unsure about the future, unsure about our country’s direction, and unsure about the meaning of it all, including our work.  Wages are stagnant and have been for many years, free trade deals have de-industrialized the US economy and along with morally questionable social policies they have combined to destabilize working families. 

                Many families would prefer to have one parent working while they have small children, but due to many factors feel like they cannot make it with one income, so both parents work, which puts strains on marriages and families.  1/2 to 3/4 of working class children are born to unmarried parents, and research shows us these children are more likely to struggle in life in many ways.  Public, religious, and civic life all have declining participation rates, highlighted extensively in the recent literary non-fiction classics Bowling Alone and Coming Apart by political scientist Charles Murray.  These and other economic and social changes are contributing significantly to a workplace challenge we are persistently running into in American life as a whole as well: moral and ethical confusion, and a decline in social trust and social cohesion. 

                Who are we? Who is right? What is right?  Why should we work in the first place, if we don’t have to?   Why is it not ok to outsource jobs, expatriate capital gains, have many children while living on welfare without being married, pollute the environment, engage in perpetual war, sell unscrupulously, punish small business owners with bureaucratic red tape, invade consumers’ privacy, or do anything else which might be considered immoral, distasteful, or unethical, if there is no such thing as a universal “good” anymore.  Someone said once that America was more like a business than a country.  Unfortunately, we may be seeing the fruits of that painful truth come to a head in this political season with the rise of populist anger realized in the ascendancy of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.  Most Americans, though they may not know exactly what’s happening, or even have time to investigate deeply, know something isn’t quite right.

                Both political parties seem to have neglected the reinvestment this country needs in its economic and social well-being in favor of laisse faire economic and social policies.  Maybe we need to shake things up and work at figuring out who we are, and what the constitution says.  The framers of the US constitution, inspired mainly by enlightenment thinker John Locke, among others, and by the uniquely Christian moral sense of human dignity, set us on a path which created the strongest country in the world.  But they also warned that freedom requires respect for the law, personal responsibility, and moral character.   John Adams, the 2nd President of the US, once wrote:  “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to any other.” One has to ponder how Adam’s thought would sit in the zeitgeist of today, which is wholescale rejection of any universal moral standards. 

                In his exceptional book, The Righteous Mind, liberal and democratic thinker and writer Jonathan Haidt, admirably went to extraordinary lengths to bridge the political divide in the US.   People as a whole tend to lean more liberal or more conservative, but according to Haidt, we can get into trouble when we don’t balance out values which work together to create a cohesive culture that makes sense.  These values are care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority and sanctity.  Liberals tend to rate very highly on care and fairness whereas conservatives tend to rate more moderately on all 6.  Either way, we should try to look at the big picture and incorporate all 6 of these values in our lives as citizens, and make the fairest and most balanced judgments we can about what is the best way to live and to work. 

                Healthy Work is not about politics, but Healthy Work is about putting the “good” back into work.  Unfortunately, making a statement about what is good has become political as the country has become more partisan, multi-cultural, and polarized, because what is good to one person might be bad to another.  So again, we must look inside ourselves as individuals and as a nation and declare what is good.  Healthy work is first and foremost about what is good: good for the worker, the employer, the entrepreneur, and for society.  Healthy Work is a clear step forward in the right direction.  Healthy Work is an unintentionally polarizing but purposefully balanced assessment about what is good when it comes to work, and the best way to get there.  So let’s review:

• Work is good. 
• Work creates value and fulfills human needs & desires.
• Work should create real value and do no harm.
• Work should be meaningful and life-sustaining in order to be healthy.
• Work should integrate the mind, body, & spirit. 

Case Studies

                I’ve had interesting jobs in my life.  I got my first job when I was 14, going door-to-door in the neighborhood to ask neighbors if I could help them with yard work.  Technically I had been working since I was young, helping out around the house and helping my Dad in the yard.  Later on, I worked at Taco Bell, K-Mart, Hardees, Little Caesar’s Pizza, as a lifeguard, at a local gym, doing construction, at Maples Industries in the Maintenance Department, Chuck’s BBQ, the Student Activities Center at Auburn University, and at the YMCA, before graduating from graduate school in Atlanta and starting my own business.  Along the way I did other odd jobs here and there also. 

                What did I learn from my early work life?  I learned to be empathetic with people working jobs which are not glamorous and in which they have to deal with a lot of BS for low wages!  I also learned that I was motivated to go to college so I could do more interesting and meaningful work, and frankly so I wouldn’t have to have a job I hated my whole life.  I also learned that I needed to become more motivated and disciplined because I was really not that way naturally, but regardless I always enjoyed working.  

                Of all the work I’ve done, I enjoyed working at Chuck’s BBQ in Auburn the best, other than my current business.  This job at Chuck’s, from ages 19-20, where I eventually became a short-lived assistant manager until I messed up on something I had responsibility for, allowed me independence at work and allowed me to learn about customer service and about taking initiative.  I was still immature at the time, but I enjoyed the fact that it was a small business and that I knew the owner very well and he seemed to care about me.   To me this sense of being cared for made a big difference in how I viewed the work.  I felt cared for, so I cared more about the work.  In the following paragraphs, I’ve selected 3 companies which I admire as case studies in Healthy Work based on the values I laid out in earlier essays.  There are of course many other companies which could have been chosen but one thing all of these companies have in common is that they treat their employees like family.

                I consider myself a capitalist.  Through extensive study of government and history, as well as through my many fortunate travel experiences of learning, I strongly prefer imperfect capitalism over any other system and the evidence clearly says it works the best for all parties involved.  That being said, capitalism isn’t a perfect system, particularly if the legal and political system is corrupt.  So we need the rule of law.  Just as important, less connected and talented citizens in our communities can also get left behind as the economically and intellectually successful self-segregate geographically and socially year after year, extrapolating out eventually into a very divided nation engaged in a winner-take-all Darwinian survival of the fittest. 

                My own work philosophy is one I would call “community capitalism” or “Christian capitalism”, where judgements are made, and standards, expectations, and boundaries are enforced, but at the end of the day there is a sense of transcendent loving purpose and where extensive patience and kindness is shown in the work environment, including in the immediate geographical community.   With all of the tumult and upheaval in the US economic and social world, work should be a refuge, a place which brings out the best in everyone and allows growth, belonging, and contribution.  The following are companies which I admire, and which in my estimation uphold the values of Healthy Work.

Patagonia

                When I first read the story of Patagonia, it struck a nerve with me because I love the outdoors.  Crucially, Patagonia offers employees a sense of belonging and a sense of a greater purpose connected to the natural world.  The founder, Yvon Chouinard, got his start in small business making rock climbing equipment and eventually founded the outdoor equipment and clothing company.  Chouinard committed from the beginning to make Patagonia a fantastic place to work and as an avowed environmentalist he attracted talented employees and partners who shared his worldview and wanted to work for a company which supported environmental causes.  Some perks include company “tithing” for environmental activism and paying employees to take breaks and work on local environmental projects. Patagonia also switched to using all organic cotton when they research showed that it was better for the environment.

                Many Americans don’t share the same concerns for the environment that Patagonia does, but that’s not the point.  Patagonia is offering work which is connected to bigger things, like the health of the planet, and there are plenty of talented workers who want to work for a company like that.  Being branded as a company which cares about the environment certainly helps sales as well.  Though the company is set up as a private “B Corp”, or public benefit corporation, and doesn’t issue common stock, it brought in over $600 million dollars in sales in 2013 and is growing fast.  As CEO Rose Marcario said recently in a Fast Company interview, “You can't really split your working life from the life you live every day as a person.”

Chik-Fil-A

                Chik-Fil-A is closed on Sundays.  Anyone who is from Georgia where the restaurant chain started could tell you that.  Because it’s such a rare thing in the non-stop 24/7 cutthroat market in the US, the company’s focus on Christian family values and care for employees and customers, and for simply taking a day of rest, has made it extremely popular in the conservative South and beyond.  Any visit to the chain will bring you 3 consistent things: 1) Cleanliness 2) Good Food 3) Polite and Considerate Service. 

                I know several Special Olympic athletes who have had jobs at Chik-Fil-A and I can tell you from this personal experience that the company has an unparalleled culture of doing things the right way.  In an age of hedge funds and corporations sweeping in to lay off 20,000 employees just before Christmas to save a few bucks, this company is a breath of fresh air. Chik-Fil-A demonstrates Healthy Work because they treat their employees and customers with dignity, expecting the best from their workers, but caring about their wellbeing and quality of life.   Though the company’s official slogan is “We didn’t invent the chicken, Just the chicken sandwich”, their unofficial motto seems to be - doing things the right way, inside the store and out. 

Lodge Cast Iron

                The National Cornbread Festival, which involves a cornbread eating contest, a beauty pageant, and a cornbread cooking competition, takes place in South Pittsburgh, TN annually. The festival was the brainchild of the Lodge family, owners of the Lodge Cast Iron Co. since the 19th century.  The company started as a small foundry in 1896 and has since ebbed and flowed but has maintained its presence as one of the biggest employers in South Pittsburgh (pop. 3000) and Marion County, TN.   To many, cast iron is synonymous with southern cooking and with Appalachia, so with the recent resurgence of interest in local cooking in the US, the company has taken off again with higher sales.  Still, the company has not forgotten its roots or connections to the small town of 20 churches, 2 bars, a Wal-Mart (the biggest employer) and a moderately busy main street. 

                There was a time in American life when most businesses were owned by local citizens.  Owners invested profits back into the communities they lived in.  Owners and citizens lived together, worked together, worshipped together, and played together.  Though financial derivatives and common ownership of public corporations have created great wealth for a small minority of Americans, it has a come at a cost.  The type of community fostered by companies like Lodge has been lost to a large degree.  Lodge is a unique case of Healthy Work because of its emphasis on being part of the local community.   Many people in America are anonymous- at home, in their neighborhood, and at work.  People come and go to work without any connection to the city or community they work in.  Atlanta author and businessman Sam Williams addressed the possible negative outcomes of this anonymity in his book, CEO as Urban Statemen, when he discussed the powerful change agents business leaders can be when they get involved in local issues.  Oftentimes though, business leaders choose to ignore local community concerns to significant detriment. 

                Lodge is only a small company, and I’m biased in my affection for Lodge because I grew up 30 minutes from South Pittsburgh in Scottsboro, AL and also because I love cornbread and cast iron cooking, but it’s an organization I admire.  They are pivotal part of their local community, enriching the working lives of many people.  Healthy Work requires caring about the products and services being sold, and about the investment in the surrounding community. 

The preceding case studies are idealistic but most certainly realistic examples of what the working world can be like.  The following Principles sum up the series on the topic of Healthy Work, and I hope you have found it to be inspiring and useful. 

Practical Principles of Healthy Work

1. Work should be celebrated as good in its own right. 
2. Work should be done to create value and fulfill human needs and desires. 
3. Work should create value while doing no harm.
4. Work should be meaningful and sustaining of human life in order to be healthy.
5. Work should uphold the right values.
6. Work should integrate the mind, body, and the spirit.

 
 Please email me with any comments, questions, or to schedule a speaking engagement.            
 Read Next: Lactic Acid: The Natural Painkiller

* This is the 5th of 6 essays on Healthy Work.  Links to the other essays can be found here.

Lawrence:  “What would you do if you had a million dollars?   
Peter: “Nothing, absolutely nothing.”   

And with that the protagonist Peter Gibbons of one of the most famous modern American comedies, Office Space, sums up the way many people feel about work these days.  Office Space is iconic because it struck a nerve.  We often work for corporations owned by stockholders we’ll never meet, and which are run by executives and managers who often aren’t loyal to the companies they work for and could care less about their employees, while we do mind-numbing and menial work.   We are treated at times like cogs in a machine, because often we are.  Technology has routinized many jobs to the point where people aren’t needed anymore or if they are needed, they are needed much less.  These modern ailments in work can be demoralizing and demotivating. 

Our entire economy is based largely on consumption- what people want, not what they need.  To survive, all a person needs is a place to sleep, some food, and health care.  Anything on top of that is up to the person.  People want different things and it’s hard to say how many things is enough.  In my book, Movement & Meaning, I went to great lengths to describe in detail how stressed out and miserable people can become living a life of insatiable desire for material goods and experiences.   Again, this brings to mind Max Weber’s analogy of the Iron Cage, or the “Ring” of The Lord of the Rings.  The precious, precious ring and its never-ending circle of desperation, dissatisfaction, and despair!  Wants aren’t bad, we all have wants, but how we handle our wants will determine whether our labor builds us up or tears us down. 

So then what are we to do?  How do we bring humanity, courage, and connection back to work?   If we really have plenty for the most part what are we to do next?  The industrial revolution is winding down, particularly in America.  It’s time to move on.  Even though we are living through exponentially non-linear changes in work, society, and culture, changes which we often aren’t aware of and have difficulty conceptualizing, these dramatic changes offer us a chance if we aren’t frozen by fear and if we have the courage to take it. 

We have more freedom to work in the best way we see fit.  Hierarchies and systems of control are breaking down.  This will not be without consequences: the government, the ultra- wealthy, and the corporations will certainly grasp for more and more control.   When these efforts infringe upon our constitutional rights, we should organize and fight politically, so that we as Americans don’t lose our hard fought dignity to live free.  We don’t have to buy into consumerism, industrial control, and mindless conformity anymore.  We can instead reach for our highest spiritual potential as we live and labor.  Extraordinary change brings extraordinary opportunity.  Through discipline, through courage, through creativity, through charity, and through patience we can employ the components of healthy work in our organizations and in ourselves and create a better future.  

Aristotle taught us thousands of years ago that every person was like a city in miniature.  He wisely urged us to rule our “inner city” with Justice and Virtue just as a wise ruler would rule his own city well. If we could master ourselves, Aristotle believed, we could create a better future.  That’s what Healthy Work is about- mastering ourselves to create a better tomorrow.   Work is not about doing what is “natural” or about doing things the “way we were born.” Healthy work is about finding and using our highest potential, which is not the way we were born at all. 

When I was born, I was lazy.  When I was born, I had a temper.  When I was born, I was selfish.  When I was born, I was afraid.  When I was born, I was undisciplined.  When I was born, I was a child.  I can still be all of those things and I fight them every day, because I don’t want to be the way I was born.  I want to be better than that.  Healthy work is about being better.  As we’ve discussed in the previous essays, Healthy work is about:

• Acknowledging that work is good and valuing it in ourselves and in other people.
• Valuing the right things about work.
• Creating productive value without doing harm.
• Doing meaningful and life-sustaining labor.
  

As we strive to do these things in our work and as we strive to work healthily, there are signposts or components we can look to along the way to know we are heading in the right direction.   These components call on us to engage our entire being in our work, our Minds, Bodies, and Spirits, so that we can work in the healthiest way possible.   The components of Healthy Work are listed below. Pull out a journal and answer these questions about your work:

1. Spiritual
   1. Purpose- Do we have a deep connection to our work?  What are we working for?  This can be as simple as developing greater inner character or working to support our family because we love them.
   2. Transcendence- Do we have sense that what we do in this life matters?  Can we get in touch with this through our work?  Do our values and ethics match up with the work we’re doing? If not, what can be changed?
   3. Community- How is our work connected to the people in our neighborhood, and city and to others who live and work around us?
   4. Family- Do we work in a way that is supportive of our families? Or are we allowing our work to act in a destructive way towards our family?
      

1. Physical
   1. Natural light- How often do we see sunlight? Do we work in an environment where we have access to light? This is a huge factor in mental health.
   2. Nature- Do we have the time to get outside during the work day, and get sunlight and fresh air? If not, how can we incorporate nature into our work day?  It is not healthy to be indoors all of the time.
   3. Activity- Do we have a chance to be active during the work day?  Excessive sitting is destructive for health. 
   4. Food and water- Are healthy food and snacks available throughout the day?
   5. Noise- Is excessive, distracting, or unnecessary noise present in the work environment?
      

1. Mental / Psychological

The hallmark of stressful work is responsibility with no control. No control equals heavy stress. In other words, if we cannot control a work situation, but we’re held responsible for how it turns out we are working in an unhealthy work environment.Our brains and minds were not made to work this way.We need to find ways specifically to cope and control our work environments as much as possible.

1. Territory Focused- How can we think smaller? How can we develop teams? How can shift our work to a project basis? For example, I’m working on this project called “Healthy Work.”  A territory is a positive feedback loop.  Planting a garden, walking 3 miles per day, or writing an essay are all territory focused projects.  We give and we get something back in return- peace of mind.
2. Cycles- Can we take breaks, celebrate small wins, and find balance in our work, living and working one day, week, month, and year at a time?
   
3. Intellectually Challenging- Is the work we’re doing challenging us to think, to learn, to adapt, and to change for the better? If not, how can we find or create more engaging work?
4. Safe- Are we free to respectfully speak our minds, practice our religions, and generally be ourselves in our work environments, as long as it is done in a professional way, free from harassment, intimidation, or groupthink?
   
5. Productive- Are we producing work projects, achieving goals, and accomplishing valuable things that matter?
6. Rewarding- How are we rewarding ourselves for a job well done, and how are we being rewarded?
   

Periodically, at least once a year, print out these questions and write out the answers.  Perform an “audit” of your work to see if you think it’s healthy.  If not, make some changes.  Again, working healthy is not about doing what’s “natural”, it’s about doing the best we can do. 

For the 6th and final essay on Healthy Work next week, we’ll look at some examples of how this plays out in the real world.

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Read Next: The Values of Healthy Work

Hey Everyone,

Quick announcement:

For all Capital City Club members, I'll be hosting a private health & fitness event on Saturday 1/23 from 9-12.   I organized a motivational and educational conference for the new year to get us all started on the right track.

Click here for more information.

I hope to schedule another event soon for everyone else, since the response has been so positive.
Hope your year is starting off great!
Scott

This is the 5th installment in a series of essays entitled "Healthy Work."  I've gotten some excellent feedback so please comment below.

Click here to read the other 4 essays:
http://www.scottgodwin.net/blog/what-is-healthy-work

                I have been fortunate enough to travel to over 25 countries on 6 Continents.  I’ve noticed, observed, and studied one particular phenomena which stands out: The Americans spend more hours working than in any other country.  Most Americans have 2 or 3 weeks of time off every year at the most.  From 14 or 18 to roughly 70 or so, Americans who do work will be working 40-60 hours per week most of their lives. The question should be asked- what are we working for?  What should we value the most in work, in order for it to be healthy, valuable and self-sustaining?  We’ve established thus far in previous essays:

• Work is good.
  
• Work is done to create value and fulfill human needs and desires.
• Work’s responsibility is to be valuable and to do no harm.
• Work done in a healthy way is meaningful and builds or sustains life.

The next question should be asked: What are the values of healthy work, in other words what should we value about work, those traits which make it meaningful and life-sustaining?  The following are by all means not the entirety of the spectrum of good values for work, but they’re a good start.  Instead of delving into an ontological or linguistic exposition with regards to each value, the nature of the particular value lived out in a work environment will be examined.  Obviously, you could write an entire book on each value.

I’ve chosen my top 8, in my own business and work.

Ethical

“These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions ... The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life.” - Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

“Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.” - Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” - André Gide

Recent cases of tobacco companies paying out billions of dollars in fines and settlements in negligence could have been avoided.  Being ethical means being honest, and following the rules and laws of a given community.  The dictionary defines ethics as: that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.  Had the tobacco companies been honest about the addictive aspect of nicotine and the carcinogenic effect of smoking, they might not have been successfully sued for billions.  Healthy work is ethical work, because it brings forth the highest potential of mankind.

Radically Honest

Radical honesty is a value I learned about a few years ago.  It’s based on the work of Dr. Brad Blanton, who wrote a book by the same name in 1996.  Radical honesty stands in contrast to plain-old-fashioned honesty in that it seeks to go a step beyond and facilitate more loving and honest relationships.   The benefit is one of openness, intimacy, and authentic connection.  Honesty takes courage, and radical honesty takes even more. 

In my own work of personal training and counseling people on nutritional and other health and wellness issues, I came to the realization that for the first part of my career I was only honest, not radically honest.  This held me back, in the sense that I would tell people at times what they wanted to hear.  I made good connections and had close relationships but they were not as authentic and as intimate as they could have been.  Since I started to highly value and employ radical honesty, I’ve lost some clients and probably some friends, but I have made even stronger bonds with customers, clients, and friends.  Radical honesty might sound harsh or extreme but it is actually the most loving way to live because it implies a strong boundary.

Caring

Work should be done with care, care for the work, the worker, the employer, the community, and the customer.  Work done any other way is not healthy, all 4 are important and without each component of caring, the work could eventually lose meaning and become destructive.  The YMCA is an organization which exemplifies this trait and actually names caring as one of its core values.  Started as a Christian spiritually based inner-city gym and lodging place for men during the Industrial Age, the Young Men’s Christian Association has always tried to live out the value of caring.  Even today, YMCAs offer scholarships to underprivileged and at-risk youth.

Competitive

This value, competition, may come as a surprise to some.  Competition has been given a bad name.  In the effort to create a more tolerant society, the cultural emphasis on competition has been looked down on in the name of equality, so that no one wins or loses, or stands out.  This is not good.  In some ways, life will always be a competition, if not with others then with ourselves.  Competition makes work meaningful and healthy because competition in its most pure and ethical form is about character development. 

When we compete, we are not literally trying to eliminate the other competitor, at least not in the post--industrial age.  And we can think win-win when we compete, instead of win-lose.  In a lodestar of a financial book, Understanding Michael Porter, the thesis is put forth based on Michael Porter’s research and work at Harvard Business School, that to create value in business is to compete on being unique and finding a competitive advantage, not on necessarily beating the other team.  Microsoft and Apple can both be successful and survive, but they must each do what they do uniquely and do it the best they can.  Even in the field of sports, titans like Vince Lombardi and Nick Saban are ferociously committed to technique and fundamentals, which is much the same idea: Compete with yourself to be the best you can be in order to win.  Who you become is as important as the scoreboard. 

Goal-Oriented

In the industrial era, workers could afford to show up and be told what to do.  Those days are over.  In a large sense, we’re going back to the pre-industrial era where initiative will be required.  Work now should be built around goals and more specifically projects.  In his inspiring and insightful book Lynchpin, Seth Godin writes eloquently of the need for modern workers to view themselves as a “lynchpin” without which, great loss would be felt.  In other words, work should be done with a specific goal or project in mind specifically in order to create value.  We are to set goals, define projects, put ourselves out there, and not be afraid to show our work to the world.  The days of hiding are over.  Seth also refers to this as “shipping”- creating something of value and putting it out for the world to see.  Another way this has been put, in the outstanding personal development book “The Freaks Shall Inherit The Earth” is: 1) Make a plan 2) Stick to it 3) If you don’t have a plan, make one.

Disciplined

I have a friend who eats the same thing for breakfast every day.  He also wears a white dress shirt every day to work with a blue blazer.  He occasionally wears a red tie, or a blue one, or a black one.  He also exercises every day, and doesn’t drink during the week.  He goes to church every Sunday and never cheats on his wife.  He is a happy and successful person who has contributed to the community greatly and done much meaningful work.  Why has he been able to achieve this?  My friend, who is a former military officer, is one of the most disciplined people I’ve ever met.  Time after time, discipline keeps coming up as one of the most important values we can have when it comes to work, particularly since work is becoming so much more self-directed.  Discipline is the heart and soul of keeping the work train running.  Steve Jobs wore the same black turtleneck most all of the time, and only had a handful of items of clothing.  This freed Jobs up to work on other more important things.  Discipline is irreplaceable and foundational for healthy work, but luckily, it’s like a “muscle” which can be built over time. 

Courageous

As stated previously, the days of showing up and getting by are over and done with for the most part.  Man in a primitive state had to think creatively, to ward off predators, to wall of the perimeters, and to hunt and survive.  It seems as though the labor required of us now will require us to be more courageous emotionally, and morally, if not physically.   We may have to go search for new work, create our own businesses, or speak up in our current work environments.  The point is, the status quo is no longer good enough.  The bad news is that those who aren’t courageous or disciplined will be left to whine and complain, or protest for an easier way, or lobby for government handouts or a sinecure.  Some will need time to become courageous, and we should care for them, be patient with them, and urge them along to a new way of looking at work.  Who exemplifies courageous work better than the civil rights leaders like MLK Jr. or a founding father like George Washington, who actually died working in the case of MLK, or could have in the case of President Washington?   Though neither worker was much affected by the industrial age, each was willing to be courageous to the point of death to do the job. 

Self-Validated

As discussed in the essay on meaningful work, self-validation is something to value highly in work.  Work which fits with our highest ideals, ethics, and morals, is work which is valuable in its own right and can and should give us great joy.  Some artists, such as the writer John Kennedy Toole, create great masterpieces such as his own “A Confederacy of Dunces” which later won the Pulitzer Prize after Toole’s death, but are not able to experience the joy of their efforts.  Some work and can’t see the beauty in their own creation, the courage and will in it, and frankly suffer as a result.  Others are able to tap into this valuable insight of self-validation and experience work in this way.  After suffering and witnessing unspeakable horrors in Nazi death camps, Viktor Frankl said “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”   Frankl came to the realization that no one could rob him of his dignity and that he could work to do what he could, to live and find meaning in the hand that had been dealt. 

                At certain times in a man’s life, it’s good to take a step back and ask, what do I value most?  When a man takes a look at his work, what does he want to see in it looking back at him?  These are the values of healthy work, the things that give our work a tangible emotional and moral presence, in turn making work meaningful and life-sustaining.  These values, and you may add a few others, are like road signs which point to the route and destination.  They point to the things which make work healthy in the long run.  That way, when the sun sets on a lifetime, we can look back at our work and be proud of what we did.   Mark Twain once said, “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”  A man who works with values in mind, is preparing himself for whatever may come, by living in the moment with the greatest of integrity and purpose. 

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