Journal of Sacred Work

Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.  – Anonymous

  Every year, teenagers approaching the end of high school and college students entering their senior year ask the same question of themselves: "What am I going to do for a living?"  We may ask this question ourselves, wherever we are in our career. The assumption in the minds of too many is that work is bad, that a job is a sentence to do something you don’t like five days a week so you can do what you want to on the weekends. Yet one of the great gifts of freedom in contemporary America is the opportunity we have to select work which we truly love – and to be present to it.

   On May 17, 2003, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Les Payne told University of Connecticut graduates (including the women in the above photo) "There are too many professionals holding down good paying jobs that they hate. Find a vocation that you can throw your life into." I wonder if they listened and today live his words. Most probably haven’t and won’t, wasting their talents in jobs they grow to hate.

  For caregivers, work should be a calling, not just a job.

  One of the reason’s many don’t live this wisdom is because we take our freedom to choose a job for granted and don’t treat it as a gift to be respected. This is a gift many across the world wish they had…

   The luxury of options is not available in many countries including
India, China and sub-Saharan Africa where many children are put to work
at an early age and never know the choice of doing something they would
like as adults. For them, life is a battle for daily survival just as
it once was for American children (click on Lewis Hine photo, above, to
enlarge.)

   Memorial Day and the 4th of July celebrate freedom and those who
gave their lives so we would have choices in our democracy. Labor Day
is an opportunity for caregivers to celebrate the choice we have to be
present to our calling and to celebrate this great career we have.

   It’s good for us to remember those who lack such freedom. The theft of childhood by poverty and by oppressive employers is one of the things that led to the labor movement in America. In the 19th and early 20th century, children were put to work in grinding factory jobs and sent into dark coal mines where they were paid lower wages than adults simply because they were children. Women as well, have been discriminated against in both hiring and wages. In general, many first line employees have too often been subjected to oppressive work environments. Although the problem is less acute than previously, many employers manage to create unnecessarily difficult conditions for staff.

   The central problem has traditionally been tyrants refusing to be present to the needs of their employees. Obsessed with profits, many managers degrade the humanity of their employees by viewing them as "units of expense." These bosses try to force workers to mimic robots.

   More enlightened leaders appreciate first line staff as the heart of caregiving. It is the quality of encounters with regular staff that determine much of the success of the health care experiecence. Those staff who view their work as a calling will give great care whether they are well-led or not. But most need the support of leadership in learning how to be fully present to their work.

   Today, most Americans can – with courage, persistence and an open heart – choose to pursue their calling, especially if they are willing to make mild compromises with the amount of money they make. Two questions present themselves: How do we find and pursue our calling, and how do we stay present to our work after we’re accustomed to the routine of the job?

   When young people come wondering what job they should do I always ask the same question: What is your calling? Often, they look back at me like I’m from outer space. It’s clear they’ve never considered the question. Instead, they’ve been asking the wrong thing: In what job can I make the most money? The answer to this question will likely lead them to a job they dislike and a life in which they will soon feel trapped. Soon, they may feel unable to break free of new responsibilities to pursue the thing they love.

   Part of the answer for these individuals is to find the courage to pursue their calling. Sometimes, people tell me: "I always wanted to be a nurse, but there’s not enough money in it." Not enough money to do what? I wonder. Which would they prefer, making more money and wasting their lives being unhappy in their work, or making less money and living each day doing something they love.

  Here’s a quick example of what it means to live your passion. It happens to be my daughter. Two years into her practice of law, she realized she hated her work. In her late twenties, she recognized her true calling – to be a news photographer. Consider her obstacles to quitting law: 1) She would have to turn her back on seven years of advanced education, including four years at Harvard and a law degree from Tulane University, 2) She would have to put aside her two years of experience with a distinguished Boston law firm, 3) She would have to take a 75% pay cut!

  To her great credit, she found the courage to choose her passion. Now, more than five years into her new career, she’s making less money and having much more fun. She faces each day with excitement and hope. A full time photographer for the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant, she was recently selected as Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association for the entire New England area!(see one of her photos at left – click to enlarge.) And all of this is because she chose passion over paycheck.

   Loving your work, I might add, doesn’t mean you love every single moment of it. There are repetitive aspects in most jobs – including most caregiving. The real question is whether you feel called to do what you are doing. If you do, you’ll be able to put up with the unpleasant elements. A person who wishes to become a nurse, social worker, technologist or physician will put up with taking some courses she or he may not prefer in the same way that a mountain climber will put up with some exhausting and dangerous moments to reach the summit.

   The same becomes true when school is done and the work begins. The great reward of caregiving is that committed servants always have the fulfillment of knowing they are helping others. Other professions may do this as well. Artists, for example, create work that may illuminate and enlighten. Business people can conduct their work in ways which energize and improve society.

  Caregivers never need to wonder about the impact of their work. Often they can see the outcome immediately. Even when they can’t, they know they are working to meet the deep needs of others.

   Presence to our work means presence to the place we spend at least two-thirds of our waking lives. We all know it’s possible to appear for work each day, but not really be present. Caregivers know why they need to show up – their fellow workers, as well as their patients, are counting on them. Each caregiver holds a baton they take into their hands at the beginning of their shift. That baton was passed to them by the previous shift. Success depends on each caregiver doing his or her best while they hold that baton.

   For America’s caregivers, today is a day to reflect with gratitude on the work we do. It’s also time for caregivers to applaud each other for the wonderful commitment each one makes.

   If we’ve been in a similar job for a long time, it may also be time for us to refresh and renew our vow to truly be present to the challenge before us. For caregivers, that challenge is in our hearts and it is in the eyes of the people around us – not only patients, but team members.

   What’s in it for you? Show up for work and you are showing up for your life.