“Working” By Studs Terkel
This week’s reading, “ In working, Studs Terkel(1972: xxvii); Basically he says, Do you hate your job? Guess what. Most people do! What is our relationship to work and ourselves. He explains work confessed by working people. The concept is pretty simple, its the common activities we do as human beings. Terkel talks about the workers like the waitresses to confess what is really work to them and how they feel about and what they do to make a quick buck. He explains how it is so surprising how the universe feels about the jobs they have. What Terkel found in his interviews was there are many people from all different types of phases in their lives and each person had their own different perspectives on what makes work meaningful. For example Mike Lefevre, he made many sacrifices in his life, has an aspiration for his son to go to college, how he goes to the bar to let steam out. How and when to set boundaries for work time and personal time. It finally brings us down to what work is and what it means to us. Most people go to work to maintain their living, and others go to work because they simply love their jobs. But work in a way keep is functioning. This takes us back to the article where Terkel wrote about someone who gave up their job to continue a career that he loved to do. In the end, sometimes we realize that it work will always be work and it will always be here. Why not do something you love to do. Lastly, my dream job is to be an ART teacher. I love everything about art, at the moment I am not pursuing my career because I need to money to care for my children, but eventually I will. He also brings up the idea that work is meaningful and how work connects to “human matters”. People spend most of their lives working and sometimes the right job can give you different and even positive opportunities. Terkel is saying that its not the time at work that matter but the investment we put in it, like our spirits. It is important for people to know the meaning in their lives and their jobs.
