Professional activity – the tasks with which each person earns a living and also obtains resources for his or her family – is an activity that usually covers many hours of the daily workday. In the work context, we talk about 8 hours of dedication per day, which sometimes increases depending on the dedication that each person wishes to give or the demands of the context.
This daily and time-consuming activity is often framed within a contractual scheme: financial compensation is received for a dedication of time or for specific tasks that must be completed. This fact means that work activity is reduced to a contractual relationship, and is therefore managed from this perspective. Right now, for example, some politicians are discussing the convenience of raising the minimum wage.
However excessive attention to this contractual dimension of work leads to a reductionism of an activity that has much more implications than being an object of compensation. For example, we stop seeing that work is a fundamental reality for the survival of the human species. Among natural beings, man is not equipped with physical capabilities that allow him to ensure survival; therefore, if he only had them, he would be at the mercy of other beings and nature itself. But, on the other hand, he is endowed with superior capabilities and hands with which he can build tools that allow him to make up for these physical deficiencies, and even escape from what is merely natural: all natural beings must adapt to the environment to survive. ; man, on the other hand, adapts the environment to his nature, and survives.
This adaptation of nature is done through work. Work, therefore, takes on an essential role in the survival of humanity; to the point that if men stopped working at this moment, the human species would be in danger of extinction. Think, for example, of the people who are working in the power plants of the northern hemisphere right now. If they abandoned their posts, much of the population of that hemisphere would not survive the natural cold conditions.
In relation to this, an important question also arises, which I will not address now, but which I will leave exposed. There is a close correspondence between the conditions of nature and this capacity of man to work. If nature were chaotic, the ability to reason, to understand reality and to generate man’s tools would have no meaning. There is something there that deserves close attention.
We can close this reflection by considering that human work – whatever it may be – is an activity that creates value. Part of that value is corresponded to the economic compensation that one receives for his work; but as an architect friend made me see: one never delivers all the value that is generated when one works well.
When you work well, the value generated is very high. Part of that value is delivered to the consumer, but a large part – the majority – remains with oneself. Therefore, those who work well are increasingly valuable. On the one hand, one has the methodology, the organization of activities, clear concepts, new knowledge, contacts with other experts, greater mastery of the environment, the ability to explain complex issues; and on the other – and I hope it will always be like this – the spirit of service, not fearing that complex situations may arise, the interest in solving clients’ problems, ethics.
Without doubt, the need to work well, to consolidate knowledge, is essential for independent professionals. In our country, there are doctors who have patient lists that last up to half a year. If this happens, it is because many doctors have not studied or worked with this mentality, so much of the value generated by good work remains with oneself. Likewise, it is not positive for one to receive economic compensation that is disproportionate to the activity carried out. If this happens, work is not a source of value for one, but rather a gift that another gives; and instead of growing, one devolves: the capacities that are not developed deteriorate.
Therefore, a simple and simple conclusion: work well; better every time. It does not matter if the current economic compensation is the one that corresponds to the effort and value generated; the greatest value of a job well done always remains within you; and sooner or later, it will also be recognized economically…
