It would appear to be a time of year once again that I mark, year after year after year after year. In general, my sympathies and inclinations regarding the topic of work have not changed, even if my professional situation has varied across that time and to this. After all, I am once again management, even as I do maintain a small income stream from freelancing (and you could help with that; I write for hire, with no AI plagiarism or hallucinations involved), having changed jobs since last time I waxed verbose on the subject of labor and the US holiday that acknowledges it (in that most distinctly US of ways: sales and reliance on low-paid work that is decidedly not low-skilled when done well). I do not have a large crew working under me, and I do what I can for that crew, although I am somewhat limited by circumstance and structure in what that “can” extends to, but that does not mean I am unaware of the surrounding situations and circumstances, nor yet that I am unsympathetic to them.

I continue to acknowledge the need for work and the nobility of the same, and I continue to believe that it ought to be compensated in such a way as to ensure that those who are diligent about it need not worry that they will lack the resources needed to continue to do that work. I know that not all are in the situations I occupy, that they do not have the same levels of investment or interest in the endeavors I do, and I do not expect them to act as if they have them when they do not. I have refused to, certainly, and I think correctly; I can hardly hold others in scorn for doing what I believe is right for me to do.

I do not buy into the narrative that “nobody wants to work anymore,” at least not in those terms. I do not think it is the case that a higher percentage of people do not want to work now than did previously; having the training that I do, it seems to me that people remain the people they have been in a great many parts of their lived, and it defies reason that they would be different in regards to regard for work when they clearly are not in so many other ways. I do think that it is the case that many believe there is little point to working when they do not see the benefits to themselves of doing the work, and I do think that many are applying to themselves and the saleable commodity of their labor the same logic I’ve seen applied to many things, that it’s better to receive no income from a given asset or resource than to sell it for less than they want to get for it.

If working won’t pay the bills, why go to the trouble of it any more than renting a storefront for less than the tax due on it? And how many of those who complain of “excessive salary demands” are content to let spaces sit empty on main streets in towns like the one where I live or the one where I grew up? Why is the reasoning any worse for the one than for the other?

If it is the case that the response to “You don’t like the job?” is either “Start your own business” or “Train up for a better one,” why would there be so much griping about taking the time to do either or both of those things–which will necessarily mean there’s less available labor to answer any given help wanted ad?

(This leaves aside the issue of the number of help wanted ads that are lies in one form or another. They’re out there, and in greater numbers than should be–which isn’t hard, since the number as “should be” is zero. But that’s going to require more discussion than I’m willing to engage in at the moment and in this little bit of webspace.)

It’s a fine thing and a good thing to set aside a day to honor what deserves to be honored, and honest labor, individually or in association, deserves to be honored. It is a finer thing and a better one, though, to act throughout the rest of the year as if the thing deserving honor is actually honored. In many things, such an ideal is not achieved, but that it is not in many things does not mean it is right for any of them.

As ever, many need to do better than they do. I do not exempt myself from this, certainly; there is likely more I could do, even within the constraints under which I operate. I do not necessarily recognize them, and I would likely balk at some of them; like many people, I am somewhat greedy, somewhat grasping, and somewhat inclined to see to my own comforts over the needs of others. I am human, after all, despite the protestations of some folks I have known. (If nothing else, some bloodwork I had done has proven it.) But I am able, at least, to recognize that I am and have been in the wrong, and I am able to take at least some steps to work towards being in the right–not for the acclaim of doing so, but because that work needs to be done.

This is the day to note the value of work, isn’t it?

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