THE JOY OF WORK

The source of India's troubles has been the people who are thoroughly idle,' said Mahatma Gandhi. This book stresses the importance of work for psychological, social and economic well-being of an individual by citing interesting case studies of stalwarts like Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Einstein, to name a few only. It also highlights the fact that work is the essence of man's success in life.

About the Author

S.A. Sapre worked as Director of Maharashtra Government Printing and Stationery Department before establishing the Institute for the Study of Work. He authored about fifty books on typography, design, cost accountancy and management. He received the Escorts Book Award (1985) for co-authoring the Art of Management with M.K. Rustomji. He was working as consultant to Rustomji and Associates when he suddenly passed away in mid 1996

Once upon a time, a rich traveler in Naples wanted to reward the laziest person he could come across. When he happened to see twelve beggars lazily lying in the sun, he offered a lira to the laziest of them. Eleven of them stood up at once, so he gave the lira to the twelfth. Bertrand Russell narrates this amusing story in his book In Praise of Idleness.

Although he overtly preached idleness, Russell was himself a most indefatigable worker. Even on his walks he would talk philosophy incessantly, instead of admiring the scenery and taking things leisurely. For ten years, he poured his prodigious intellectual labors into the monumental Principia Mathematical—considered the greatest single work on logic since Aristotle. The work was so strenuous that, he said, it had perhaps changed his personality. But he continued to work with the same vigour till the end. Even at the age of ninety, he used to work for over twelve hours a day. He said: ‘The wise man should wish to die while still at work.’

Today however, work is in disgrace and people are drifting away from work. Frustration is almost universal and it has become fashionable to justify it. Almost everyone feels that he is underpaid. A good many complain that their work is dull and uninteresting while quite a few nurse the grievance that nobody appreciates their good work. There are also many learned proponents of more leisure and less work. Innumerable books have been written on the theme of drudgery of work in the modem world. No doubt there is a genuine need to redesign jobs and to enlarge and enrich them as best as possible. It is also undeniable that genuine grievances should be redressed speedily. But man is a perpetually wanting animal and grievances will always remain. And the stark fact remains that even the most monotonous work is preferable to no work or no bread. Without strenuous work there cannot be any real leisure. Voltarie’s prophetic words in his immortal classic candide cannot be forgotten. As he says boredom is the worst evil in human life and work banishes the three great evils boredom vice and poverty.

This book then is an attempt to explain as simply as possible how work is man’s true companion teacher and ultimate savior form spiritual despair and self destruction. Disciplined performance of work in every walk of life is the basis of modern civilization. It the key to economic development. Without dedicated work abolition of poverty is inconceivable. Work alone can sustain the individual’s personality his community and culture.

Man creates his society through his work and he is in turn molded by the society. Happiness in not after all the sum total of pleasures but an in impeded activity. Work is the only source of lasting happiness.

This book makes no pretensions to philosophical psychological or sociological sophistication. It is essentially a layman’s guide explaining why one must love and respect one’s work. Its thesis may be simply summed up in one sentence work is not just part of life but life itself.