Work

The old professor asked:

• Think about it, all of you. What is the most precious gift people can give one another in this world?
  One student stood up and answered:
• Professor, I think that if we give someone what they need, it will be precious, whereas if we give them what they do not need, then to them it is not precious at all.
  The professor nodded:
• Very good. Indeed, what people need is what is precious to them, while what we find precious is not necessarily something they need. So what do you think people need?
  Another student stood up and answered:
• Professor, everyone has their own needs, no two people alike, and those needs change over time. What we need now we may no longer need at another time. What one person needs another may not.
  The old professor nodded:
• That's right. Needs vary from person to person, circumstance to circumstance and time to time. Can you name a few needs that most people share?
  Another student stood up and answered:
• Professor, I think food and clothing are things everyone needs. But since you have raised the question, I think you do not mean something ordinary and obvious; you mean something very subtle. I think there is one need that everyone has, and that is to have work to support oneself and one's family.
  The old professor nodded happily:
• I did not think you would reach the heart of today's lesson so quickly. Thank you very much. Yes, having a livelihood is something everyone needs. Without work, without the ability to share the burden of work with the community, without the ability to earn food, clothing, rice and money, and having to live off one's relatives, over time one suffers terribly. Work is not only a basic need but also each person's dignity and honour. Once we understand that, we see the suffering that the unemployed endure. Yet in reality unemployment is still widespread throughout the world. And robots will replace people in many fields and push more people out of work. Only those who own robots will be bosses; everyone else will be mere employees or unemployed.
  So whoever can create work for society is a hero of this life. Let me ask you: who creates work, who brings work, who bestows work?

One student stood up and answered:

• Professor, I think the entrepreneurs who found businesses and recruit staff are the ones who create work, so in some respect they are the heroes of our age.
  Another student said:
• Professor, I think that when the State sets up employment agencies to search out jobs for workers and connect jobs with workers - Jobs for Workers - it is the one bestowing work, so in some respect the State too is a hero.

Another student said:

• Professor, I think that when citizens pay their taxes in full into the budget so that the State can pay the salaries of a body of civil servants who run the vast national machinery, they have helped a great many people have work. From some point of view, the tax payer is also a silent hero.
  Another student said:
• Professor, I myself and a few others often look for jobs and recommend jobs to friends; we even set up a website to connect jobs with job seekers. In some respect, we too are heroes of this life.

Another student said:

• Professor, I have long worried about the unemployed, especially older people, for whom age counts against them when applying for new jobs. They fall further and further behind as their skills no longer keep pace with the demands of new work, and the longer they wait and the longer they stay without a job, the more their abilities decline. I hope there will be centres that retrain workers, update them, improve them, so that they can find work more easily even when they are a little older. Whoever does the work of upgrading the vocational skills of "people waiting for a new job" will be a hero of the age.

Another student said:

• Professor, I dimly see that work is a secret of heaven and earth, not something we get just because we want it. There is some law governing people's destinies that makes it very easy for some to find work and keeps others struggling. Some people are capable but fail every interview. Then the company hires someone who arrives later and is clearly less capable. It is very hard to say. I have a feeling that heaven and earth bestow work on those who have loved work since childhood, who help their parents with the housework, sweep their school and classroom clean, help their neighbours... But those who are lazy, who refuse to do what their parents ask, who avoid anything difficult, will find it very hard to get a job when they grow up.

Another student said:

• Professor, returning to your first question, what is the most precious gift, it seems to me now that we all see that the precious thing is not jade or jewels but helping one another have work. That is the highest goodwill. I think that from now on everyone, every family, every religion, every charitable organisation, every public body... should engrave in their hearts one precious good deed: to help one another have work, so that everyone may live in this life with dignity, usefulness and honour.

The old professor nodded:

• You final-year students argue so eloquently, it's frightening. I concede. 👩‍🔧

We have many traditional kinds of gift: a meal, a sum of money, jewellery, a good book, even a house or a car... But what society needs is a lasting gift: work.
But for work to be stable we need professional ability and basic ethics. Without ability, no one will want to hire us; without ethics, everyone will wearily keep their guard up around us. We need both ability and ethics so that life has need of us and we can contribute to it.

Now we should understand one more kind of gift, which very many people need and which can never be given too often: work. How do we help everyone gain ability and ethics, and then how do we connect jobs with people? To have this merit, to give this gift, to do this good deed, we must think about it a great deal, remind ourselves of it a great deal, search a great deal and recommend a great deal. Helping people find work must be a charitable act more important than many other charitable acts.