During the course of the project three big myths about work were shattered. While they may linger in popular wisdom, they are not the day to day reality in workplaces. These were that everyday work is awful and that only leisure is bliss, all “bosses are bastards” and that all “workers are slackers”.
The first myth is that work is a “Monday through Friday sort of dying”. Instead of work as a burden that people bear out of necessity, participants overwhelmingly indicated that work is a critical source of well-being and identity expressed by the whakatauki: “Mauri Mahi, Mauri Ora, Mauri Noho, Mauri Mate” (A working soul is a healthy soul).
The second myth is that all “bosses are bastards”. It was our observation that employers we met, especially in smaller businesses were more likely to treat their staff as extended family than as labour units.
Many of the employers we spoke to were responsive to their employees’ needs, such as family responsibilities, emergencies and other life events, and were devastated by the emotional trauma of redundancies when they had to lay off staff. The nature of New Zealand firms is that 99 per cent of New Zealand businesses employing 60 per cent of our workers are small to medium enterprises (SMEs). In SMEs “everyone knows your name”.
The third myth is that “workers are slackers”. There was almost universal enthusiasm by employees not just for the socialisation of work but of the tasks, functions and professionalism required of them by the changing labour market.
Most of the people we spoke to enjoyed their work, cared about the people they work with, were proud of the services or product they delivered and loved the daily challenges of working life. Income is not the only thing lost when a person loses a job. They lose social networks, purpose, and pride as well.
Employees in the economic recession were acutely aware of the pressures employers were under.
