Why laziness is an unrated virtue

The protestant work ethic runs deep in this country.

Those who strive long and hard in its name are not exclusively protestant, either.

Christians of various denominations, the pious of rival faiths, agnostics, atheists, captains of industry, grossly overpaid CEOs and most MPs would subscribe in word and deed to the ideals of hard labour.

My own father and his father before him, neither overtly religious men, were in its grip, working however many jobs it took to support their families then toiling in their off hours on the house, in the garden or in the workshop.

Even celebrity journalists are wedded to the protestant work ethic.

Last week, in the pages of The Taranaki Daily News and stuff.co.nz, Duncan Garner declared us all ‘‘lazy sods’’.

In an exercise in national shaming, Garner lamented that New Zealanders were not prepared to work all hours that God sends for minimum wage and applauded the resolve of the feisty immigrant who will do whatever is necessary to get ahead.

He threw in some benefit bashing, claimed many were bone idle on account of their drug and booze dependency and generally mixed up the statistics with the damn lies, apocryphal stories and anecdotes.

It would be safe to assume that the last time Garner read Karl Marx was in first year political science.

His article didn’t exactly extend to a structural analysis of the wage market or pause to ponder gains won by trade unions who once legitimately fought for both fair income and limited working hours.

No, Garner’s piece was solidly based on the inherent virtues of work itself, no matter how exploited the worker might be or how miserable the boss.

No matter that a minimum wage worker could toil for 50 years and still not have enough for a deposit on an Auckland house, or even a house outside of Auckland.

No matter that local body chief executives enjoy percentage increases on already bloated and disproportionate salaries whilst keeping those at the bottom on a fixed income a ways short of a living wage.

Such things don’t tend to matter when you are an affluent celebrity who made his name on the telly.

Duncan worked hard to get where he is today and so can the rest of us lazy buggers.

As coincidence would have it I read the Garner piece on the very day I was relieved of a job for not working hard enough. That decision - entirely justified - has caused me no little shame.

What would my father say if he were alive today? You threw away a golden opportunity for career advancement and $200 a week (before tax) because you could not be bothered?

I know what Duncan would say. Such is the protestant work ethic that I will never be free of this guilt.

However, to attempt some objectivity about my own situation, here is the context.

I put in at least 52 hours a week in my own business, paying myself nothing because there is no income to be had. The balance of the staff are volunteers so some weeks I have to work a little more.

As I write this I’m currently about to start my third 12 hour day in a row. Most days I try and be up by 6.30am as I write better in the mornings.

Time spent on journalistic activity overlaps with the day job but on the whole I probably devote at least another 8 hours to it.

On top of that I review two films a week. Whilst the reviews themselves last only around 10 minutes on the radio that is just the tip of the iceberg. Time has to be found to watch the movies.

It’s not what anyone would call ‘‘hard work’’ but it isn’t pure leisure, either. For all this I know I don’t toil like my father or grandfather did. They would have gotten up even earlier, pushed themselves harder and even excluded themselves from some of the voluntary activities I’m involved with.

There would be no excuses, they would just get the job done.

As much as I respect their sacrifices, I am not them. If you buy too much into the protestant work ethic you are not only playing someone else’s game you are missing out on life itself.

Garner is partially correct: the 21st century New Zealander has a finer appreciation of play and recreation than his forebears. This is an excellent thing. Laziness is an unrated virtue.

- Richard Swainson is a Waikato based academic who teaches film studies.