I have found, as of late, a great desire to discuss with a true friend, to converse and dialogue. So rather than bog down his site with unfocused, rambling comments, I’ll instead learn to post here as my side of the discussion. I hope he is fine with it.

I too have always gotten irked by the notion of being labeled “a hard worker,” or a “good worker.” It does seem both common and even underacheiving to be tagged as such. As if, “Hey, good job Steve, way to keep walking in a straight line.” I feel as if every human has this capacity, and how absolutely trite it is to turn this concept into a compliment. I do sometimes shudder with repulsion.

But Andrew makes me wonder. I’ve given this much thought over the years, and I’ve come to realize that hard workers, true laborers are not that prevalant in society. Or not at least to the extent of the times of Marx and his socialist theories.

In undergraduate, one of the more difficult courses that I idiotically signed up for (under my own accord) was a political revolution and change course. Besides assinine amounts of reading (of which, one page would take an hour to digest), the concepts were rather elevated. However, one granual of theory that I was able to pull down from the academic stratosphere was that the world has indeed been Westernized. We’ve developed the majority of civilizations (and dominated those that haven’t) to where we’ve moved from the laborer/landowner struggle to one of postmodernism. Now, back then, I didn’t get this. However by the time I wrote my senior thesis I think I had begun to understand it.

We now live in a world that we’ve moved beyond ourselves. Instead of focusing on the hearth and the factory, the daily grind, we focus on our humanity. As my professor put it, we live in a world that now values sitting under a tree and contemplating ourselves, as illustrated by all of the self-help books, interest in new age materials, relaxation techniques, etc. Hard work is nice, but where are we in the “journey of ourselves?” We’ve truly begun the shift from industrialization to postmodernism.

So I think I can now comfortably say that it isn’t commonplace to be a good worker. Being in an office for two years now, I really find a bunch of mediocre workers who are out for themselves, not the good of the company. They’re out to fatten their pockets, but more importantly to just “not work too hard.” They’re not bad people in the slightest…in fact, they’re as normal as normal can be. The truly odd and out of place individuals are those that work long hours soley for the good of the company. Because they believe in it, and value hard work (not sloth).

So I have begun to celebrate those compliments of being a hard worker. I enjoy knowing that I work 2-4 hours longer than anyone else…and not because I’m angling for a raise or promotion, but rather because that’s what it takes to do a good job.

So to you, Andrew, I say revel in this label. Think of it not as a common tag or misplaced compliment, but rather an increasingly rare acclaimation in this postmodern world.