å Monday, October 31st, 2016

Studs Terkel’s interviews numerous people to try to get to the meaning of work. Throughout theses countless interviews he tries to demonstrate that there is more to work than just a means to making a buck. To some individuals, they seem to just go through the motions of working from 9 to 5 from Monday through Friday. As to others they have manage to find some kind of meaning to their jobs. He gives us numerous examples but the ones that I found most profound were the fire fighter and the banker, who he used at the end of the introduction. The Fireman puts his life in danger every time he steps into a burning building, but manages to find a great deal of meaning and satisfaction in what he does. Versus the banker, who sees his job as not having any real worth, he just sees it as working with paper that is not real to him.

Studs Terkel found that some people were looked down and were judged simply because of the jobs that they held. As some individuals need to find some self worth in their jobs and the need to belong to “human community.” They find that they need to give their jobs deeper meaningful names. As janitors, are usually also known as building engineers (1972: XX). Just because they changed the names of their jobs, doesn’t mean that they didn’t like their jobs, they just needed to feel like they belong and worthy of their peers.

As working adults, I’m sure some of us are still striving to find “our dream job”. But what is the perfect “dream job”? It all depends on the individual. I’m sure what I think a “dream job” is, might be totally different to what you feel is the “dream job.” Just like Studs Terkel found in interviewing all the people that he did, as they were all from various walks of life, they all had different perspectives and views on what made work meaningful. I’m sure that most of us have heard time and time again, how teachers are the most unappreciated professionals. But when you speak to a teacher (some anyway), they will tell you how much they love teaching and they find it extremely meaningful. We know that they don’t get paid enough but they tell us, that they are not doing it for the paycheck; they are doing it because they truly love teaching our children.