蜜芽传媒

The Department for Work and Pensions published a report yesterday claiming that unemployment was often a strong influence on families experiencing 鈥減arental conflict, poor mental health and problem debt鈥�.

The report went on to say that an important strand of public policy in this area should be to help reduce this 鈥減arental conflict鈥� because children were doing less well at school. The research behind the report stressed that conflict itself was a normal and necessary part of family life; but when it was handled in a destructive way, between parents, either together or separated, this was hard for children to bear. And a key component in this happening was when no one was working. These reflections highlight deeper themes in a society where the culture of work seems to be in a state of permanent and rapid change. The so-called gig economy has brought much greater flexibility to individuals which some value, but it鈥檚 combined with a much higher level of insecurity. Some start-ups are trying to make work more like play; with table tennis tables in their offices, fake grass on the floor and meeting rooms that look like pubs. We鈥檙e realising too that having work in itself doesn鈥檛 necessarily fix all our problems. Because for those adults whose work takes all their time and energy, there are other stresses that come with it; there鈥檚 often little what you might call 鈥渆motional bandwidth鈥� to deal with anything else. Whether you鈥檙e exhausted from three cleaning jobs, and falling asleep on the bus, or checking emails on the laptop at midnight, it doesn鈥檛 matter what kind of work it is if there is simply too much of it and we haven鈥檛 got either the economic freedom or the emotional discipline to stop. The strain of this kind of overwork is different from but often no less damaging than the feelings of futility when hundreds of job applications go unacknowledged; when you鈥檝e convinced yourself you鈥檒l never get back into a job you like.

The New Testament is full of stories of farmers and fishermen, lawyers, builders, financiers and traders. It鈥檚 a Scriptural acknowledgement that our desire to live a life of consequence, a life that matters, may well have an impact on the work we look for and the job we do. The 6th century monk Benedict who wrote a rule for his monastic communities emphasised the importance of work in a flourishing human life; but he encouraged moderation in work, in the context of strong communities. The suffering experienced in families, especially by children, when the adults are either not working or over working, leads me to reflect that maybe Benedict was right; that a balance in our work and a commitment not only to individuals but to wider community life is not just necessary but good for the soul.