Why We Need Meaningful Work, Not Jobs

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For many, the necessities of life, and even following a calling, may still mean working in the corporate job system. Good work in these circumstances requires us to do all we can to revive unions as active forces for workplace democracy. Unions, for their part, should become key players in establishing patterns of worker participation and job flexibility. At the same time, we need to promote socially responsible business behavior as the standard, rather than the exception.

We must be patient with ourselves and others as we begin the difficult personal and collective search for good work. Yet we must remain firmly dedicated to the principle, expressed well by economist E.F. Schumacher, that our "real task is to adapt the work to the needs of the worker rather than demand that the worker adapt himself to the needs of the work."

Andrew Kimbrell is president of the International Center for Technology Assessment in Washington, D.C., and author of The Human Body Shop and The Masculine Mystique.

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