In my last
post I threw out a line- “I am aware that the
Anglican notion of working six days a week is ridiculous. The extra half day
outside of work is just about a doable thing, but I think we need to shove
things into five days for the good of everyone.”
In facebook and
other comments that is the thing that seems to have stood out to people- and so
I feel that I need to explain a bit more fully why I’ve come to that place in
my thinking.
Firstly, this is a personal
choice that I’ve made, which has come through a journey of acknowledging that I
am a driven sort and finding ways to ensure that I am still alive and functioning
in twenty years time.
Secondly, this is a
work in progress.
Thirdly, and more
expansively- when I say that we should work five days not six this is what I
think I mean. (I think it was clear in the first post that I do actually work
more than five days)
I realised quite
early on in ordained life that I needed to have two days a week where I don’t
have to set an alarm. Now I realise that I may have just alienated anyone with
children, dogs or a farm. I have none of these so can only speak for me. My
need for two non alarm days is in part because I don’t sleep well. If I don’t
allow enough processing time through the course of the week, then my subconscious
books the next available bit of time to unpack all the thoughts and feelings of
the previous however many days. And that means that quite often I wake early on
my Sabbath (or day off, or Friday). This happens more if I have evening
meetings. So, in order to get enough sleep, it’s helpful to not have to be up
early on a Saturday. Now I am still up and functioning by eight most weeks, but
there is something about removing the pressure that I’ve found helpful.
And then it’s a conversation
about “have to” and “want to”. I don’t
respond well to “have to”- it’s been called a Jezebel spirit, but let’s just
brush past that misogyny and own that some of us are like that. Let’s also
accept the reality that paid vicar work includes a significant amount of “have
to”. Our “have to” will all be different,
as we are.
But in day six
(usually a Saturday) I avoid “have to”. I don’t
write policy in them, I don’t often do notice sheets, or PCC agendas. I do
things that I like. That might include sermon writing, or seeing people (rare
but sometimes) or facilitating some training. But its stuff that I enjoy.
And I
measure that day by task not by time- I rarely say that I will work until lunch
or tea, I say that I will get the sermon ready, or I will create that Bible
study stuff, or I will see this person.
In doing that
I have a day that is work, but feels more like the freedom of volunteering. I
know that a lot of our volunteers exhibit “have to” sentiment, but at its best
volunteering is “want to”.
So, when I
talk about shoving things into five days, I am primarily talking about “have to”
stuff.
THE BROADER
PICTURE
There is a
broader point though. My sending incumbent reckoned that ordained folk would do
well to work an average working week that was a normal week plus what a
committed volunteer might offer. I do that when a working week is forty hours.
I may do it when a working week is forty five hours.
However, if
we have people who are working fifty or sixty hours and then are volunteering
on top, we have a problem. We have a problem
because, as dutiful clergy we might be regularly doing sixty hours. I’m not
sure that’s sustainable. But I am also pretty sure that it’s not good that our
people are working like that either.
The dying
edge of capitalism as we live it means that in a world where we have more
automation than ever, a small group of dedicated people are working themselves
to breakdown. We see extraordinary
statistics about work related stress, the UK has terrible productivity figures
and we work really long hours. If ordained people simply try and keep up and
look busy then I don’t know what we have to say to the world.
I suspect I
will write more around this- watch this space.
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