Pearson: Work evolves but its value the same

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Another Labour Day, and the world of work seems to be constantly evolving including from the use of artificial intelligence, robots, and the ever-evolving work-from-home model.

The recent McKinsey Global Institute report studied eight economically strong nations and the productive labour capacity that makes up 60 per cent of the global GDP. It predicts that one among 16 workers will switch jobs in the next five years. That’s more than 100 million workers across all eight economies. In Canada, 77 per cent of professionals say fear about job security is preventing them from changing jobs. Many have taken to calling it “the big stay.”

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This country’s labour market remains diverse but fluctuating. Hospitals remain the top industrial employers, followed by full-service restaurants, IT consulting, colleges and universities, commercial banking, and pharmacies and drug stores.

A significant number of Canadians have chosen to opt out of the traditional employment models, attempting to earn a living from home, largely online. They no longer support traditional work structures and are seeking to fashion work in a manner more suitable to their values and personal circumstances.

This was all evolving before the pandemic but has now accelerated, creating greater uncertainty about the future of work itself.

Regardless of the trends and statistics, we often fail to consider the idea of work being fundamental to the human condition, to our livelihoods, cultures, sense of meaning, and personal identity. We devalue ourselves the moment we don’t take it seriously.

While Canada’s employment rate is holding steady, workers everywhere are dedicated to making work meaningful. They invest their ingenuity and talents in jobs that reflect their values.

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Employment is more than just putting food on the table or a roof overhead, as important as those goals are. Employment is a means for carving out a place in the world. A job makes workers feel valuable, provides meaning, and motivates them. It gives them an important role in the story of their respective communities, connecting them to the past and the future.

As vital as this is proving to be, there are still millions of Canadian workers who find value on the assembly line, in daycare centres, at building sites, and in numerous community businesses. It provides them the means for comfort and security. It makes them part of the chain of human endeavour that survives the centuries. For such people, employment is the great equalizer, not caring about your background or creed, but asking only for your efforts in building something bigger that is needed by all of society.

Labour Day is ultimately about the necessity of a productive people to build a better world. It gives us all value. And in those places where employers show little respect for the average worker, Labour Day pulls a community together to remind such employers that it is expecting something better from them than the mere bottom line. At the same time, it will not accept workers who shirk the responsibility to play their vital role in the building of that community.

The moral of the story is always the same: meaningful work is one of the most essential aspects of collective and individual life. It requires its own special day of acknowledgement. That’s what we celebrate this weekend.

Glen Pearson is co-director of the London Food Bank and a former Liberal MP for London North Centre. glen@glenpearson.ca

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