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ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON WORK - BETWEEN INSTRUMENTALIZATION AND RESPECT FOR THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
Abstract
The work can be seen as a consecration, but also as a form of dehumanization, that alienates our human condition. Since the emergence of the industry in so-called "developed" countries, many people have dreamed of a humanizing job. However, the evolution of tasks and the speed of change imposed by technologies engulf many workers with anxiety. It becomes difficult for them to reconcile work and family life or civic engagement. Pope Leo XIII already denounced these constraining, competitive and monopolizing factors of work. Attentive to the working-class condition, he pointed out the effects of industrial development and revival on the relations between employers and workers, the accumulation of wealth by a small number, the corruption of morals and other evils that are attached to them. We can argue that these working conditions reduce the human being to resource status. This highlights their instrumental character. As a resource, the human is movable, exchangeable and evaluable according to the market. The cost of this workforce is subject to minimization and its use must be both effective and efficient. At the same time, the work receives its dignity from God, who first worked in creating the world and humanity. The work done by the human being is part of the continuity of God's work. The respect that must be paid to him is, in a way, a respect for God who is the initiator and the worker by excellence. Such a perception of work should enable everyone to show their talents, to make their work a gift to others and to live their vocation. Faced with the questions of the modern world about the meaning of work, we have the responsibility to constantly put the dignity of the human person at the centre of the concerns about the motivations and the aims of the work.
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