Ants of our Lord
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By Hannele Tarkka-Tierala
People do not always get out of life what they expect. This is good.
I was recently married, and had nearly completed my master’s degree when I applied for my first steady job.
During my job interview, the middle-aged managing director asked me in a very stern manner about my possible intentions of having children. I had no such intentions at that time, but sometimes life can astound the boss as well: soon he had an enthusiastic employee who was carrying new life with her and writing her thesis during the evening.
The results were good, a new taxpayer was created, and a master’s degree was completed. And the boss gave me a congratulatory hug: a wonderful man.
I used to think that employees sell their labour input - not themselves - to their boss in exchange for wages. I thought that people should take care of themselves with joy: exercise, and eat healthy food to be able to live a full life.
Work is a big part of a good life, but it does not give employers the right to encroach upon an employee’s free time, or to supervise it.
However, it seems to be the fashion for employers to put in an order for a Perfect Worker who is tightly under the control of the boss.
Such an employee is young, but nevertheless experienced. He or she has studied, but not too much, has settled down, but has no home obligations. The dream is that the employee can be summoned to work at short notice when necessary, and to stay away, without pay, when there is no work. Ideally, such an employee should pay the employers’ contributions out of his or her own pocket.
The ideal worker is as happy and flexible as a rubber man - ready for change, ready to forget any dreams about early retirement, ready for lifelong learning.
And above all, an employee should have a healthy lifestyle, allowing for a 100% commitment to the employer.
Such an employee does not smoke, does not eat saturated fats, does not drink alcohol. He or she runs marathons during weekends, and engages in Nordic walking on weekday evenings, and sleeps well.
The goal is that the employees never get sick during working hours, and once retired, have the good sense to die quickly and cleanly so that those left behind would not have to miss any work because of the employee’s illness or death.
The municipality of Ylöjärvi is offering its workers fitness tests, and has hinted at the possibility that physical fitness and lifestyle factors could have an impact on pay as well.
Does this mean that a nurse who runs 2500 metres in the Cooper Test would be paid worse than a colleague who runs faster?
And what about an office worker who does not do well in the UKK Walk, even though his fingers glide over the computer keys?
What about when an employee who has been trimmed to the utmost collapses on the jogging path, clutching at his heart, or if someone who has always eaten healthy food comes down with breast cancer, or if someone who always cycles to work hurts his knee, and has to spend months getting physical therapy?
What if a volleyball hits the most important part of an office worker’s body - the mouse finger - spraining it, and rendering it useless for several weeks?
What if a slender employee starts to gain weight, a clean-living worker starts to smoke, a runner to lie down more? And after all, even a thin person can suffer from a migraine, or become depressed, or the person can have a child, and the child can fall ill.
Perhaps there could be a new reason for terminating an employee: didn’t get what we paid for.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.11.2004
HANNELE TARKKA-TIERALA / Helsingin Sanomat
hannele.tarkka-tierala@hs.fi
