>Chris: Well, again this raises the sort of... two main aspects of work...

That one, should we think of'work only as... as a sort of

breadwinning process, and this is very much the role it has in

current society, or should we take a much wider perspective on work

and...and think of all the possible sort of activities that human

beings could be doing during the day? I think the sort of

distinction um currently is between say, someone who works in a car

factory and who produces cars which are just adding to pollution,

to overconsumption of vital resources, who is doing something

which is... very harmful, both to our environment and to, probably

society... um, to contrast his work with someone perhaps like a

doctor, wbo I think in any society could be jostified as doing a

very valuable job and one which incidentally,is...is satisfying to

the person who is doing it.

　Matthew: What do you do? Is your job just a breadwinning process or do you

get some satisfaction out of doing it?

Chris: Well, in the job I... I do I find that most of the

satisfaction...is a mental one; it's coming to grips with the

problems of my subject and with the problems of teaching in the

University. Clearly this is the type of satisfaction that most

people doing what we call in England "white-collar" jobs... um...

tend to look for and tend to appreciate in theii jobs. This is

quite different from the sort of craftsman, who is either working

that his hands or with his skills on a machine, or from people

perhaps who are using artistic skills which are of a quite different

character.

Certainly it's becoming a phenomena that people who do



"white-collar?jobs during the day, who work with their minds to

some extent, although many "white-collar" jobs now are becomin very

mindless, people who work on computers, people who... um... are

office clerks, um... bank employees, these people have fairly

soul-destroying jobs which nevertheless don't involve much

physical effort, that they tend to come home and do"do-it-yourself

" activities at home. They make cupboards... um... paint their

houses, repair their cars... which somehow provide the sort of

physical job satisfaction... um that they're denied in their

working day.


3. The Worst Job

The worst job I ever had was as a waitress at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike the summer I was 18. Everyone who passed through the place wanted their food now, and many of them seemed to think that tipping was a nice idea in theory but not in practice. The' pace was manic, and I had to wear a hairnet and white oxfords: Most of the time I arrived at work crying, and drove hotne crying. The only good thing I can say about the experience is that it left me with the most profound respect for people who wait tables and with a pronounced tendency to overhp.

I had other jobs, before and after that one. I stuffed jelly doughnuts at a bakery in a bad neighborhood; I called people who were behind on their bills and ordered them to pay up. I was good at doughnuts and bad at threats. After that I bad jobs in the newspaper business only, so I never felt that I had a bad job again. I did not particularly care for working night rewrite on New

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