Meaning of Work

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Science, Society & Culture

4.4 • 973 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Laurie Taylor talks to Jana Costas, Chair of People, Work & Management at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany about the unseen cleaners beyond the shiny surface of Potsdamer Platz, a designer micro-city within Berlin's city centre. Behind the scenes they pick up cigarette butts from pavements, scrape chewing gum from marble floors and scrub public toilets, long before white-collar workers, consumers and tourists enter the complex. How do they feel about work which some would stigmatise as degrading? How do they salvage a sense of personal dignity? Also, Katie Bailey, Professor of Work and Employment at Kings College, London unpacks her analysis of accounts related by nurses, creative artists and lawyers as to why they find their work meaningful.

Producer: Jayne Egerton

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast I'd like to tell you why I love
0:03.7	podcasting. I'm Natasha Aronson I'm an assistant commissioner for the BBC and I work on
0:09.4	making podcasts my real passion is discovering unbelievable unheard stories and working with the biggest
0:16.9	stars who can really bring those stories to life.
0:20.1	I love the whole process of making podcasts from the spark of an idea to hearing the final edit.
0:26.4	There's nothing like it. What makes BBC Podcast special is that we're working for you.
0:31.0	So whatever we commission has to reflect the things that you care about and love wherever you are in the
0:36.0	UK. So if you like this BBC podcast, there's so much more to discover. Have a listen on BBC Sounds.
0:43.0	BBC sounds. BBC sounds. BBC sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:47.0	This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC and for more details and much much more about thinking
0:53.8	allowed go to our website at BBC.co. UK.
0:58.6	Hello in my late teens I had a job as a child librarian. It meant that I spent most of my
1:05.3	working life date stamping copies of books by Enid Blayton, five on Treasure Island,
1:11.2	five get into trouble trouble or apologizing to eager
1:14.7	11 and 12 year olds because there were no blightens left in stock. Not very
1:19.5	meaningful work. But my boss the senior l, soon suggested a way in which my job could become, well, more worthwhile.
1:27.0	You must recommend other books to those who are always asking for Blighten, suggest Arthur Ransom and Eleanor M. Brent Dyer that will bring some
1:35.6	extra meaning to your job and to the children's lives.
1:39.6	Well I remembered this injunction as I was reading a paper in the Journal of Human Resources entitled
1:44.8	Experiencing Meaningful Work through worthwhile contributions.
1:50.1	And its author who now joins me is Katie Bailey,
1:53.1	Emeritor, Professor of Work and Employment at Kings College London.
	...

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