The Teachers negotiations with government are back in the news with another impasse in negotiations and more threatened strike action.
This is not peculiar to them right now and it seems to be a period of discontent among workers at the moment with teachers, doctors and nurses among others either having been on strike or threatening to strike. The claim is always the same we are either underpaid or our working conditions are unacceptable. (Which is the same thing dressed up differently)
A big part of this discontent seems to revolve around the current pay levels not delivering the level of lifestyle that these groups believe themselves entitled to.
So firstly some facts, the groups I mentioned are paid around $50k per annum (as a wide sweeping generalisation with some paid quite a bit more and a few being paid a small amount less) So how does place you in the NZ scheme of things? Quite well as it turns out, referring to the IRD for the most recent stats I could find http://www.ird.govt.nz/aboutir/external-stats/income-distribution-income-bands this puts them in the top 20% of income earners in NZ. So it is impossible to argue that they are poorly paid relative to others.
So assuming for a moment that you pay packet dictates your lifestyle then the alternative explanation is that they think they should be higher up than the to 20% and real life is failing to meet their expectations and this is leading to unhappiness as manifested by their demands.
So what we have is an external item (your pay packet) and the agency that pays you (in this case mostly the government) controlling your happiness levels.
I think this happens to a lot of us and it is a major source of dissatisfaction in our lives. It is a comparative happiness at work, we judge ourselves by those around us and if we come up short we tend to be unhappy. The important part of that phrase is “those around us” so for example if we lived in Cuba where cars are hard to get and we had one when none of our neighbours did then I suspect we would be happy about that. However in NZ we almost have a car each (2.7M in 2007) so having any old car doesn’t make a lot of us happy, having a “good” car does and again it depends who you are what that means, for some it is a tricked out Subaru WRX for others it is the latest Mercedes.
But in all cases we are judging our worth and associated happiness by the people around us. Now if you happen to be at the top of your local tree then this will work fine for you but most of us never are and in fact as soon as we are we tend to move trees and start comparing ourselves to a “higher” group.
Now based on my limited knowledge of the world’s religions and philosophical musings I have never encountered a system that suggests fulfilment comes from external sources, all of them to the best of my knowledge tend to suggest we look to ourselves and our inner person for fulfilment and happiness. This is often expressed in spiritual terms within religion and in “moral codes” in more secular writings but the message is the same, happiness comes from within.
This makes sense to me as the world, the people in it, the weather, even my dog are only within limited control by me but presumably I do control me. So I can look to my employer to deliver happiness to me (via a bigger pay packet or whatever) or I can look to my motivations and be content that being in the top 20% isn’t that bad.
So I have heard it said that “Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you a better class of misery” and I think that is true in the way it was intended to be read and also the way I would suggest you read it. No external source can make you happy for long.
Random thoughts on Random topics sparked by my travels through life and the things I see or hear on the way
I agree in principal but also in reality with your comments big dog. A question of you... What is the value of the teacher within our society? Presumably they rank themselves rather highly, but what is their value? Who determines this? Does it really matter what this value is? I sense that actually their value is a perception that teachers have about themselves. Sure, they "teach" our kids but would this be any better than home schooling? To this note, should my sister be paid for the home schooling she has done on her kids? They are awesome kids which have proved that schooling (through the state) us not necessarily required. So how then do you justify a pay increase in these hard economic times. Is it because these are hard economic times? Good question.
ReplyDeleteHaving said all that, the standard of living in NZ is very high. Everyone wants more money, not necessarily to be ahead of their neighbor but to live a comfortable life. What is comfort? Each person will determine this but it's pretty clear that the teaching fraternity is not comfortable. Comfort to me is not having to worry about money. Is this it?????
So... How fo we determine the value of teachers? Thank god we dont have a secretary union..... Or do we? Bollocks!
You pose a number of interesting questions, the value of any given group of workers and how this is established (in money terms) is relatively simple as it is mostly supply and demand in action but there are a number of interventions in that pure market description that distort the outcome. However I think you are more interested in the relative "rank" of occupations. eg Used car dealers come in for a lot of stick where as Ministers of religion tend to be viewed positively.
ReplyDeleteI think we often confuse doing important work with being important. Education is important so by extension the people involved must be important right? Well potentially not, I don't imediately see the causal link.
Your biggest question of course is what is comfort or potentially put another way what is happiness. A question that has perplexed minds basically forever. My answer is you get to choose, for example you don't want to worry about money so don't. Of course I know it is more complex than that in the real world or is that just in your head again?